The so-called "grass" is the abbreviation of words. The basis of quick writing must be the standard words used in society at that time. With the official script in Han dynasty, the manufacturing technology of writing brush, a tool to realize rapid writing, has also matured. People began to write official script quickly in their daily communication. The font of writing is different from that of neat official script, but it is still based on official script. After this kind of sketch font is established, it is called "cursive script".
After Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the standard characters of society developed into regular script. There are also fast books, also called cursive scripts, but the forms of cursive scripts are completely different because of the different "official books" they are based on. In order to distinguish it easily, people call the cursive script in regular script "modern cursive script", which means modern cursive script, while the cursive script in official script is called "Cao Zhang".
Why not call it "Gu Cao" but "Cao Zhang"? There are many different explanations: one is used for memorials in the Han Dynasty; The other is the Urgent Chapter written by You Shi. There is also a saying that Emperor Gaozu Zhang likes this writing; More people think that the rules and regulations are synonymous with the articles of association and chapters, which accords with the meaning of eight strokes in early cursive script, the words are not related to each other, the strokes exist, and there are rules to follow. In a word, it is the later generations that show the difference from today's grass.
Because Cao Zhang and Cao Jin are based on different official scripts, the characteristics of the two cursive scripts are completely different.
Cao Zhang kept the brushwork of official script, and the upper and lower characters were independent and basically unconnected. As shown in the figure:
This grass is a kind of grass that inherits Cao Zhang, adapts to the development trend of official script opening, line style and shape change, further omits Cao Zhang's strokes and waves, and becomes more free and easy. It is characterized by continuous winding of strokes, couplets between words, and simple and convenient writing. As shown in the figure:
It is worth noting that cursive script, as an art, has its own inheritance, and the difference between this kind of cursive script and Cao Zhang is not completely different. Especially in the early grasslands, you can still see the characteristics of Cao Zhang.