The history of Chinese calligraphy is as long as the history of the use of Chinese characters. Since the invention of oracle bone inscriptions, Chinese calligraphy has gone through stages of development from seal script to official script, cursive script, regular script, and running script.
The oracle bone inscriptions on tortoise shells from the pre-Qin period are believed to be the earliest period of the origin of Chinese characters in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze vessels were widely used. Some bronzes are also engraved with characters, which are called bronze inscriptions by later generations.
At the end of the Zhou Dynasty, characters inscribed on stone objects such as stone drums, steles, and cliffs began to appear. These characters were called stone characters by later generations.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, bamboo slips and wooden slips began to be widely used as the main writing materials.
In order to consolidate its rule, the Qin Dynasty took a series of measures to eliminate various institutional differences among the original vassal states, that is, to unify the different characters used by the original vassal states into Xiaozhuan.
By the time of the Three Kingdoms, Wei and Jin Dynasties, most of the Chinese fonts that are now popular in China appeared. During this period, the five basic fonts, seal script, official script, cursive script, regular script and running script, have been basically developed and mature. Among them, the three fonts of cursive script, regular script and running script have achieved unprecedented development.