The prototype is an imitation of the basic strokes of regular script in Song Dynasty (such as point, left, and pressed). However, due to the use of wood as letterpress printing, in order to conform to the natural texture of wood, regular script changed from oblique horizontal to vertical horizontal. At the same time, because of reducing the loss, the vertical pen is thicker. In the Ming Dynasty, this font gradually broke away from the face of regular script and became a mature printing font.
origin
Movable type printing appeared in the Song Dynasty in China. At that time, movable type fonts were all regular script. In Song Dynasty, there were three major producing areas in the printing industry: Zhejiang, Sichuan and Fujian, and the regular script fonts in these three areas had their own characteristics. Most fonts published in Zhejiang imitate Ou Yangxun's regular script, Sichuan's Yan Zhenqing's regular script and Fujian's Liu Gongquan's regular script.
After the Song Dynasty was defeated by the Jin Dynasty, in order to reprint the books left by the Northern Song Dynasty, many publishing houses (called "bookstores") were established on Pengbei Street in Lin 'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, including Chenzhai Bookstore in Chen Qi. The books published by Chenzhai Bookstore have distinctive regular script fonts. This kind of font, copied by later generations, is the so-called "imitation of Song Dynasty" in modern times, and it is also the basis of Song Dynasty.
Some books printed in Lin 'an were reprinted in the Ming Dynasty, but the fonts were changed: the horizontal paintings were linear, and the thickness changes were relatively fixed. In Mozi, published by 1553 (the thirty-second year of Jiajing), the foundation of song style has been formed. During the Wanli period, this font became popular because of the rapid increase in the number of periodicals, and became the song style now known.
Although Song Ti gradually became popular, it was criticized as "artisan style" by the literati in Ming Dynasty because of its lack of artistic changes. Song Dong spread to Japan and was called Ming Ti by Japan. In Qing Dynasty, Song Dynasty was the main printing style, and Kangxi dictionary also used Song Dynasty. However, Kangxi also stipulated that the current version of the font should be renamed Song Style, which led to the dispute between "Ming Style" and "Song Style" in Chinese.
There is a popular saying that Songti characters were invented by Qin Gui, formerly known as Qinti characters. This statement has been mentioned in a series of media, such as the novel The Second Portrait published by 1988 and the children's encyclopedia The Integration of Everything published by199, but it is not true.
develop
Japanese Ming Dynasty Style (Japanese: Ming Dynasty Style/みんちょぅたぃ? Not tai), because American William gamble introduced six fonts published by American Presbyterian Church to Japan in 1859, and instructed the Japanese to make electroplated fonts, it was called "Ming style" because it copied the fonts from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and Japan still uses it today.
Modern fonts are printed in Song style. Later, bold fonts were also created in Chinese character printing according to the way of bold western characters and Italian characters. At present, Song Ti, bold, imitation Song Ti and regular script have become the four main fonts in Chinese character printing. "Song Style" is the general name of a font, and many fonts belong to this category.