Calligraphy can be roughly divided into four categories: seal script, official script, cursive script and running script.
Many people think that cursive script is earlier than regular script, but it is not.
Briefly introduce the development of Chinese characters.
First of all, seal script
Dazhuan: Dazhuan refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jinwen, Zhou and Six Kingdoms, and retains the obvious features of ancient hieroglyphics. The representative figure is Shi Guwen.
Shi Guwen has a vigorous and dignified style. The lines are more uniform than the inscriptions on bronze, and there is no obvious unevenness in thickness. The body structure is more neat than the bronze inscriptions, and it began to get rid of the shackles of hieroglyphics, laying the foundation for square Chinese characters.
Xiao Zhuan: The common script of Qin State, which is a simplified font of Da Zhuan. Its characteristics are graceful figure, even and neat strokes, and easier to write than Wen Shu, representing Li Si.
Ersa Li Shu
Official script is a common solemn font in Chinese characters, with a slightly flat writing effect, long horizontal drawing and short straight drawing, and pays attention to "swallow tail of silkworm head" and "twists and turns". It originated in the Qin Dynasty and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Calligraphy is known as "Han Li Tang Kai".
Official script is basically evolved from seal script, mainly changing the round strokes of seal script into square folds. Because it is difficult to draw round strokes on wooden slips with pigments, the official script is written faster.
The successive appearance of seal script and official script has more possibilities in brushwork.
Three kinds of cursive scripts
Cao Zhang is a calligraphy style that evolved from seal script to official script.
Early cursive script is a kind of writing style juxtaposed with official script, which is generally called official script. The early cursive script broke the strict rules of official script, and it was a scribbled official script called "Cao Zhang". The font "Cao Zhang" was originally called "cursive script", but it was renamed "Cao Zhang" to show the difference. Its name has always been different. From the original meaning analysis of the word "Zhang", its exact meaning is Zhang, Gui and Zhang, which includes the meaning of statutes.
Cao Zhang kept the brushwork of official script, and the upper and lower characters were independent and basically unconnected.
This kind of grass is divided into big grass (weeds) and small grass.
Today's grass, also known as "grass", is a kind of cursive script, with continuous strokes and couplets between words, which is simple and convenient to write. It started at the end of Han Dynasty, and it was the evolution and innovation of Cao Zhang.
According to historical records, this kind of grass was created by Zhang Zhi in the Eastern Han Dynasty on the basis of learning from Du Fu and Cui Yuan's Cao Zhang, and Zhang Zhi was called "the sage in the grass" by the world. Zhang Zhi took off the strokes of Cao Zhang's "Li Shubo Zhen Zhe", which turned the fluctuation of words into an inner echo. The upper and lower strokes are connected, and the radicals are borrowed from each other. Even with the free indulgence of the font size of qi 1, it is more convenient to write than Cao Zhang.
To Wang Xizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he learned from others, especially Seventeen Posts, which is the representative work of cursive scripts in past dynasties.
Wang Xizhi admired Zhong You and Zhang Zhi, while Huai Su, a master of wild grass, admitted that he benefited the most from them (Zhang Zhi and Zhang Xu).
This kind of grass constructs a new word formation system. This grass must dissolve the stroke structure of official script. Only by deconstructing the dignified structure of the official script and restoring the strokes to a round shape can the strokes be carried out smoothly.
Personal feelings: from Qin Lisi's calligraphy to the innovation of seal script, and then to the pioneering work of Du Cuizhang in Zhang Zhixue in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Deng in Qing Dynasty innovated the brushwork of Xiao Zhuan, and Xizhi in Jin Dynasty pushed Xiao Zhuan to maturity.
Some calligraphers know how to create, and some calligraphers can write their works to the extreme.
Zhang Xu and Huai Su pushed weeds to the extreme.