Zhenshu refers to the transitional regular script from the Han and Wei dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, also known as "zhengshu". Its characteristic is that there are scribes in regular script. The real book is divided into "North Stele" and "South Stele". Northern stele refers to the stele inscriptions of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Northern Qi Dynasty, and Northern Zhou Dynasty. It is a product of the prevalence of Buddhism. Because most of the stele inscriptions are from the Northern Wei Dynasty, it is also called "Wei stele". Nanbei generally refers to the stele of the Eastern Jin, Song, Qi, Liang and Chen dynasties.
Regular script is also called Zhenshu or Zhengshu. Chinese calligraphy is divided into "Zhuan, Li, Kai, Xing and Cao" styles. Regular script evolved from Li. In a broad sense, regular script includes Wei stele, but in traditional calligraphy, that is, in a narrow sense, regular script specifically refers to Tang Kai. It was the Tang Dynasty that established the strict standard of regular script of "straight strokes and square shapes", and its fundamental rules have been followed to this day.
Since the early Tang Dynasty, the official script was first renamed Bafen, and then Bafen and Zhengshu were mixed together and called Li. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, the official script returned to its original name, but the official script disappeared.
In fact, the name "official" can include Bafen and Zhengshu. For example, Yang Xin's "Cai" calls some good scripts under Wang Tian and Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty "Li, Cao" or "Cao, Li", which refers to cursive script and official script. Moreover, Sun Guoting of the Tang Dynasty said in the "Preface to the Book of Records": "Yuan Chang specializes in official script", which again refers to the eight-point regular script.
Bafen was also called official script. Until its demise, this concurrent name was not canceled (it was also a correct name). The official book later completely got rid of the official name. Since about the Northern Song Dynasty, it has been renamed regular script.
Bafen and Zhengshu can be collectively called official script, as mentioned above, but Qin and Han official script cannot be called Bafen or Zhengshu. This issue initially caused some confusion in Liang Geng Jianwu's "Shu Pin Lun". For example, he said: "What Cheng Miao wrote... is called the official script, and today it is the official script." What he actually meant was that that Shi Zhengshu can also be called Official Script, but the tone is vague, which can easily lead people to mistakenly think that Official Script can also be called Zhengshu. This confusion was further exacerbated by Zhang Huaiguan's "Shujuan" and "Official Script Preface" in the Tang Dynasty. On the premise of acknowledging that Cheng Miao created the ancient (Qin and Han Dynasty) official script, he also included some workers from the Jin to the Tang Dynasty who wrote the official script (today's official script) - such as Wang Xizhi, Xianzhi, Ouyang Xun, Yu Shinan, Chu Suiliang and others, all of them were Cheng Miao became a descendant of ancient (Qin and Han) Li. He did not distinguish between ancient (Qin and Han) Li and modern Li. This was why the Tang Dynasty renamed all ancient (Qin and Han) Li to Bafen, and then completely gave up the name of Li. The reason for giving the official letter.
As early as the Western Han Dynasty, official script was also called a genuine script. For example, in "Historical Records" "Three Kings' Family", Chu Shaosun said: "On the second Zhencao edict." Also in "Book of the Later Han" Volume 14 " The biography of Dong Si's Wife (Cai Yan) also contains the words "Zhen, Cao Wei Ming". Although there were eight-point regular scripts at that time, I guess this "Zhen" still refers to the "Fei Bai Shu Shi" of Liu Shao in the later Jin Dynasty. "It also says "Suocao, Zhongzhen", and Sun Guoting of the Tang Dynasty also said in the "Preface to the Calligraphy Book" when discussing Zhong and Zhang calligraphy: "Drawing out the grass will leave the truth, and comparing it with the truth will make the grass grow." The "zhen" there ", may have been divided into regular scripts for the charter book, because there are differences in time. Sima Yu, Emperor Wen of the Jin Dynasty, said in his "Answer to the King of Eastern Hunan on Wang Xi's Book": "All true grass can be obtained. "Li Sizhen of the Tang Dynasty also quoted Cai Yan's words "Zhen Cao Wei Ming" when discussing Yu Shinan's calligraphy in "Shu Hou Pin", and they all called it Zhengshu. From this we can see that what they call Zhenshu means "zhengti characters" ”, it can include all the official, bafen, and official scripts, unlike later generations who only replaced the official script with real scripts.
Regular script means model, as Zhang Huaiguan already mentioned in "Shu Duan" As mentioned before, it was also another name for "zhengzi" in the Han Dynasty, and people in the Six Dynasties still used it habitually. For example, Yang Xin's "Cai" article, Wang Sengqian's "Lun Shu" and Wei Dan's biography all said: "Dan Zi Zhong" General, a native of Jingzhao, is good at regular script. "That is the abbreviation of "Eight Points Kaifa". It was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that it replaced the name of the official script. Its content is obviously different from the ancient name. Examples of different names but the same name but the same name but different reality, probably include the above. If these concepts are not clear, it will inevitably confuse other issues in various aspects and will be useless.