The cursive script began in the early Han Dynasty (202 BC). Shuo Wen Jie Zi says, "There are cursive scripts in Han Xing".
There are two versions of the origin of running scripts:
1. According to Zhang Huaiguan's Book End, "Calligraphers were created by Liu Desheng of Yingchuan in the late Han Dynasty. Liu Desheng was born in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Second, what did you create? Zhong You (15 1-230) was a famous calligrapher of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period.
As can be seen from the above, cursive script is at least 350 years earlier than regular script.
Cursive script is characterized by keeping the outline of characters, breaking the rules of officials, running away and walking fast, so it is called cursive script because of its original meaning.
The development of cursive script can be divided into three stages: early cursive script, Cao Zhang cursive script and today's cursive script.
Early cursive script is a kind of writing style juxtaposed with official script, which is generally called official script.
Cao Zhang broke the strict rules of official script, which is a sloppy writing.
Cao Zhang is an elegant cursive style, which combines early cursive and Han Li. Its waves are distinct, the strokes are connected in waves, the characters are independent, the glyphs are all over the square, and the strokes are horizontal. Cao Zhang was the most popular in the Han and Wei Dynasties.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, Cao Zhang was further "grassed" and the strokes of Lishu were removed. The upper and lower characters and strokes are connected, and the radicals are simplified and borrowed, which is called "modern grass".
Today's grass evolved from Cao Zhang, and its style has been popular since Wei and Jin Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, this kind of cursive writing was more indulgent, with continuous strokes and changeable glyphs. It is called "crazy grass", also known as "big grass". ?
Running script is a writing style after cursive script and regular script. In short, it is a small change on the basis of regular script, which is very simple to write, so it is popular with regular script. Running script is a writing style between cursive script and regular script, which is not as difficult to write and recognize as cursive script, nor as rigorous and dignified as regular script. So the ancients said it was "not true and not grass" It is characterized by adopting a certain cursive method, partially simplifying the strokes of regular script, changing the stroke shape of regular script and cursing the structure of regular script. In short, it is more fluent, straightforward and chic than regular script, and easier to recognize and write than cursive script. Running script is a new writing style accompanied by regular script at the end of Han Dynasty, but it was not widely used at that time. It was not until the appearance of Wang Xizhi in Jin Dynasty that it became popular.
The most famous masterpiece of running script is Preface to Lanting written by Wang Xizhi, a calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.