After a long historical development, the calligraphy art of Chinese characters has different styles and changes, but as far as calligraphy style is concerned, it can be divided into five types: seal script, official script, regular script, running script and cursive script.
Seal script: including the big seal script and the small seal script, evolved from Oracle Bone Inscriptions and prevailed in the Qin Dynasty, with a unified and neat form.
Official script: simplified from seal script, commonly used in Han and Wei Dynasties. The early official script retained many characteristics of seal script. Later, after processing and development, the round strokes of seal script were changed to square folds, and the pictographs were changed to strokes in structure, which became two completely different fonts from Xiao seal script.
Regular script: also known as official script and original script, developed from official script. It started at the end of Han Dynasty and prevailed in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and has been popular ever since. The graphics are square and the strokes are forceful.
Running script: between regular script and cursive script, it is not as straight as regular script, nor as scribbled as cursive script. Relatively free, there is no set of prescribed writing methods. Those close to regular script are called running script, and those close to cursive script are called running script. Writing is simple, easy to identify and practical. According to legend, the running script began in the late Han Dynasty and has been in use ever since.
Cursive script: a font based on running script for the convenience of writing. It is said that it began in the early Han Dynasty and developed from Cao Zhang to today's grass and weeds after several generations.