The characters of seal script are the oldest, which is the general name of Chinese characters used before Qin Dynasty. Among them, Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty is the representative. Xiao Zhuan, also known as Tie Xian Zhuan, is a standardized Chinese character issued on the basis of Qin Zhuan after Qin unified China. Its style is characterized by uniform strokes and round fonts. Before Xiao Zhuan, the script that prevailed in Qin State was called Qin Dazhuan, which was similar in characteristics to Xiao Zhuan, but more primitive. The existing typical copybook is Qin's. There are two kinds of characters in seal script, one is ancient Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and the other is "Bronze Inscription" carved on Zhong Ding bronzes since Xia and Shang Dynasties, which is called "Shu Shu". In calligraphy, these handwriting are generally called "seal script". The font style of seal script is very different from today's Chinese characters, so apart from archaeology, philology and other professional fields, I only see calligraphy and seal cutting works.
Official script began to form in Qin dynasty, and became a common standard Chinese character in Han dynasty. Since the official script, the shape of Chinese characters has changed from a long circle to a flat square. The most striking feature of official script lies in its strokes. Known as "the swallow-tailed silkworm head".
With the appearance of official script, Cao Zhang appeared, which was a shorthand font at that time. Later, Cao Jin and Crazy Grass developed on this basis. These calligraphy styles are collectively called cursive script. Cursive script can be said to meet the needs of recording and sketching, so the strokes of the script are linked together, saving more pens and simple pens.
In the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, regular script appeared again, and the original official script was changed from writing to writing, and the font was more square. This kind of writing basically laid the face of Chinese characters today. Regular script means model, which used to be called real book. There is also a typical calligraphy style of real books, which can be found in the inscriptions of the Northern Wei Dynasty. It is different from the inscription written by calligraphers later, and it is carved on the stone. At this time, the inscriptions are written directly on the stone and then engraved, and although the font is regular script, it still retains a strong taste of official script, so it is called "Weibei" style in later generations.
Running script came into being with the appearance of regular script, which was first seen in Wang Xizhi's Preface to Lanting. It is also a sketch method based on regular script, but it is more neat than cursive script. By adopting Lian Bi's method, there is basically no need to save pens and the strokes are simple. Running script is also divided into running script and running script, which is closer to regular script and less in Lian Bi; However, there are many cursive scripts in Lian Bi, some of which use simple strokes and save pens.
These are the main categories of calligraphy styles. In terms of subdivision, all styles are comprehensive, such as the clock in regular script, Wang, Ou, Yan, Liu, Zhao, Zhang, Huai and so on in cursive script.