The background of official script reform
However, what can you do in prison? This problem has been bothering Cheng Miao. At that time, Qin Shihuang implemented the policy of "using the same language but not the same name", and took Xiao Zhuan as the national unified language. At that time, there were many government affairs and complicated documents. Of course, it is much more convenient to write official documents with seal script, but sketching is inconvenient and time-consuming and laborious, which affects the work speed and efficiency. Cheng Miao used to be a prison guard, and he knew that it was difficult for Xiao Zhuan to adapt to official duties. Wouldn't it be better if he could create a new book style that is easy to identify and fast to write? With this idea, Cheng Miao racked his brains to ponder. So, he devoted himself to the study of font structure in prison and began to learn to write.
Font research Cheng Miao collected all kinds of calligraphy styles circulated by the people, studied them with great concentration, improved them one by one, changed the circle of the big seal script into a square fold, and simplified it at the same time. After ten years of processing and sorting, he finally created 3,000 official characters that are easy to write and recognize. He dedicated this achievement to Qin Shihuang. Qin Shihuang worked very hard when he was young, and he was a man who paid great attention to work efficiency. After the unification of the world, there are so many political, cultural and economic reforms to be promoted. He works day and night and forgets to eat and sleep.
It is recorded in Historical Records of Qin Shihuang: "Everything in the world, big or small, depends on the world. Up to the balance, the book is presented day and night, and there is no rest if it is not presented. " In other words, every time Qin Shihuang gave an order, it was based on stone (120 kg), and he would not rest until he had finished batch of a stone. At that time, paper had not been invented, and official documents were all engraved on bamboo slips. 120 Jin bamboo slips, about the height of a person, ask yourself. Even if they didn't finish it, they couldn't rest until late at night. It can be seen that Qin Shihuang was really working day and night.
The emergence of Qin Li.
Qin Shihuang was very happy when he read the words compiled by Cheng Miao. He not only pardoned Cheng Miao's sin, but also made him an official and promoted the empire. Because Cheng Miao's official position is very small, he belongs to "Li", so people call his words "Li". At the same time, "official" also refers to "petty official", that is, a small official in charge of documents, so in ancient times, Li Shu was also called "auxiliary book". This kind of official script is characterized by flat width, simple structure, straight strokes and waves. Compared with Xiao Zhuan, it is convenient to write and easy to identify. Later, in order to distinguish it from the official script of Han dynasty, it was called Qin official script.
The appearance of Qin Li is a major change in the history of Chinese characters and even calligraphy, and it has gradually become the dominant official calligraphy style. Since then, Chinese characters have bid farewell to ancient Chinese characters that lasted for more than 3,000 years and started modern Chinese characters. Formally, they gradually changed from graphics to strokes, from pictographs to symbols, and from complexity to simplicity. In principle, Chinese characters are ideographic and ideographic, and the font structure no longer has the pictographic meaning of ancient Chinese characters, but is completely symbolic. The official script created in the early Qin dynasty has the meaning of seal script in structure and pen use, with different lengths and inconspicuous waves. It can be said that it is just a scribble writing of seal script. Until the Eastern Han Dynasty, great changes have taken place in the official script, with flat structure, vigorous strokes, more neat and exquisite, forming a unique font of official script in the Han Dynasty. Han Li's writing style is rich and varied, which has influenced and promoted the formation of regular script and other styles. Until now, official script is still a commonly used font and exists as a calligraphy art.
Classic quotations from anecdotes of celebrities
Cheng Miao's On the Creation of Lishu is an influential classic exposition on the origin of Lishu in the history of calligraphy. This legend has been circulating in China for more than two thousand years. The preface to Shuo Wen Jie Zi says: "Qin burned the scriptures, purged the old people, made great contributions to defense, and had numerous official and prison posts. At the beginning, there was an official script to speed up the appointment ... Qin Shihuang asked his courtier Cheng Miao to do it. " Huai also said in "Shu Duan": "Cheng looks like the ancestor of Lishu. According to legend, Dangshan was originally a jailer in the county, which offended the first emperor. He spent ten years in Yunyang prison, and gained a lot. The brushwork of seal script became an official script of 3,000 words. At the beginning, the emperor was good at it as a suggestion. Its books are convenient for officials and prisoners to write books, so they are called official books. "
The reappearance of Li Qin's ink in the world
After the appearance of Qin Li, although it brought great convenience to work and life, it did not leave any original works. At the end of 1975, more than one bamboo slip 1 1 00 was unearthed from the Qin tomb at Shuihudi, west of Yunmeng County, Hubei Province. The font diameter is very small, the largest is only half, the font is neat and beautiful, and the strokes are rich. His strokes are fat and thin, both rigid and flexible, bold and unrestrained, vigorous and dignified, varied and varied, with obvious ups and downs in stippling, especially the "wave potential" has begun to take shape This is Qin Li's ink. In addition, since the beginning of the last century, many batches of bamboo slips have been unearthed in northwest China, Shandong and other places, and Li Qin's ink traces, which have been lost for more than two thousand years, have finally reappeared in the world.
New knowledge of official script
These unearthed cultural relics not only make us see the real face, but also give us a new and more accurate understanding of Cheng Miao's statement of creating Li Wenzi. In other words, the so-called new book style created by Cheng Miao actually became popular in various countries as early as the Warring States Period. Judging from the archaeological excavations of some pre-Qin bronze inscriptions, silk scripts, bamboo slips and other relics, the embryonic period of official script should be in the Zhou Dynasty. For example, Xiao Ding Ke Ming and other works in the era of Wang Xiao in the Western Zhou Dynasty have begun to show the clues of official script in brushwork. In the Warring States period, China's writing began to change from seal script to official script. This can be clearly seen from some unearthed silk books and wooden slips in the middle of the Warring States period. For example, in 1980, Haojiaping, a suburb of Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province, excavated a pit tomb group during the Warring States Period. Among many unearthed cultural relics, there are two wooden slips, one of which is seriously damaged, and the other is relatively complete with clear handwriting. The wooden slips of Qingchuan Warring States Period are about 80 years earlier than those of Yunmeng Qin Bamboo Slips, and their fonts are very similar to those of Li Qin on Qin Bamboo Slips. This is the earliest official script that can be seen in China. This shows that in the Qin Dynasty, there were both standard fonts for official documents such as seal script and unofficial simplified fonts such as official script. Cheng Miao only collected and systematically processed these official characters that existed at that time, and "removed impurities and refined them" to further standardize them. In other words, the official script was created by many people for a long time, and it can never be completed by one person at a time. Cheng Miao's achievements should be sorted out, not the creative power that the world says.
Although the legend of Cheng Miao's creation of Li characters is not completely credible, his compilation and collation work should be recognized. As a secretary at the grass-roots level, it is remarkable that Cheng Miao can achieve such a great cause, and it is also the pride and honor of the current secretary. At the same time, Cheng Miao's persistence, diligence, self-improvement and studious spirit are more worthy of recognition and appreciation. Whose life has no setbacks? Some people are depressed and give up on themselves because of setbacks, and some people regard suffering and setbacks as a stepping stone in adversity, which has produced a miracle beyond nature in the conquest of bad luck. Just as all luck is not without troubles, all bad luck is by no means without hope; People should not get carried away when they are in prosperity, nor should they be depressed when they are in adversity. This is the most important revelation and lesson that Cheng Miao offered atonement.
official script
Tang Zhang Huai's Broken Book says, "The one who follows the official script is Cheng Miao, a descendant of Qin." Cheng Yuan was a small official in the county and was imprisoned for a crime. He compiled a 3000-word official script and typed it. Qin Shihuang felt very good, pardoned him and made him the suggestion.
According to legend, there was a disciple named Cheng Miao in Qin Dynasty who was imprisoned for offending Qin Shihuang. Cheng Miao saw that it was very troublesome for prison officials to write Yao cards with seal script at that time, so he carried out reforms, simplified the complex, rounded the square and created new fonts. Qin Shihuang saw it and appreciated it. Not only did he absolve himself of his sins, but he also made him an empire and used this font in official prisons. Because Cheng Miao is a slave, and at first it was specially for slaves, so it was called official script. There may be many indirect factors in this story. In fact, just like the emergence of calligraphy, official script is created by many people over a long period of time, and what Cheng Miao did was probably to sort out his works.
The artistic features of calligraphy are called "Guli" in Qin Li and "Jinli" in Han Li. 1975 12000 bamboo slips with ink on them were unearthed from the Qin tomb in Yunmeng Crouching Tiger Land, Hubei Province. According to the archaeological materials, the characters on some wooden signs and bamboo slips in the Warring States and Qin Dynasties tend to simplify seal script, reduce strokes, change the font into square flat and use wave pen. This is the bud of official script. In the Western Han Dynasty, the elements of Li style in calligraphy were further increased. The silk painting "Lao Zi Jia Ben" unearthed in Mawangdui, Changsha has obvious official meaning.