Cheng Miao: Cheng Miao (Mi Ren), calligrapher of Qin Dynasty, Gu (now northeast of Weinan, Shaanxi Province), whose date of birth and death is unknown. Good calligraphy, according to legend, official script was created by him. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Huaiguan said in Shu Duan: "Cheng Miao is the ancestor of official script." In the Tang Dynasty, Li Sizhen listed Cheng Miao's official script as superior in Hou Pin, and commented: "Cheng Jun initiated the official script rules, and its norms were better than Danqing." Zhang Huaiguan's Book of Divorce praised Li Shu and said, "Cheng Jun was the first person to combine literary qualities. Is elegant, such as listening to orchestral strings. Long autumn, Qin's body is frosty. Push the peak to make a break and drop the star. At first glance, the hovering purple smoke. Jin Zhi Cao Qiong's Biography of the World. "
Cheng Miao created Li.
In the Qin Dynasty ruled by Qin Shihuang, there was a county magistrate named Cheng Miao, who was a servant. According to legend, he was imprisoned in Yunyang County because he offended Qin Shihuang, and his life was not so comfortable. Cheng Miao was very clever since he was a child, and he especially liked calligraphy. He also worked hard and had considerable "skills", which was recognized by people of his time. When Cheng Miao was a county magistrate, he did his duty. He saw the frequent wars in the Qin Dynasty, the increase of official documents, and the confusion of official script and seal script, which was inconvenient to write, delayed a lot of time and brought a lot of trouble to the handling of political affairs. He came up with the idea of transforming Xiao Zhuan, but he never had time and energy to think about it. After Cheng Miao offended Qin Shihuang and was put in prison, he did nothing all day, so he filtered his previous thoughts in his mind and decided to try to change them. He simplified the strokes and structure of seal script from long to short, rounded it into a square according to the imperial edict of Qin and the balanced characters he had seen before, and added the popular folk characters he had seen before, thus creating a new style, which is "official script". For this reason, Cheng Miao also wrote more than 3,000 words of "Official Script Specification" (unfortunately, the original book was not passed down from generation to generation), which was played in the court. Qin Shihuang was very happy to see the official script written by Cheng Miao. He appreciated his talent and didn't let him suffer from prison again. So, he immediately released him by imperial decree and appointed him as an extra suggestion. Cheng Miao can be described as a silver lining behind the dark clouds. Instead of being punished, he was promoted to an official position, making an indelible and outstanding contribution to the evolution of China's writing and the development of China's calligraphy.
Since then, official script has gradually replaced seal script and has been widely used in social life. The popularization and application of official script not only greatly saves writing time, but also greatly facilitates cultural exchange and development. The replaced seal script is only used in some important occasions.
There is an interesting question: How did the name Lishu come from? According to textual research, there are two more credible statements: one is because Cheng Miao was a petty official at that time and took his voice, so he called it "official script"; The other is because there were frequent wars at that time, and the official script was practical and convenient. Once produced, it was widely used in war documents, which were called "disciples", so it was called "official script". Although these two statements are different, they are both very interesting and reflect the wisdom contained in the people.
Tianqingtie (selected from Zingiber officinale) Qin Cheng seedling