The truth is that the seal script created by Prime Minister Li Si is complicated in composition and strokes, and most people say it is too difficult to write.
At the same time, the improved official script based on seal script is simpler and more flexible, and it is not so hard to write, so everyone wrote official script.
Miraculously, the development of official script itself is very dramatic. TA not only directly inspired cursive script, but also promoted the creation of regular script, which is a connecting link in the history of calligraphy.
So, who created the official script? It is said that Li Shu was created by Cheng Mi, who is as talented as Li Si …
Compared with prime minister Reese, Cheng Miao is just a nobody. He just started to be a small official in the county, and his daily work is responsible for copying relevant documents, referred to as the originator of copying. I thought he would be a small official quietly, but I didn't expect that he accidentally committed a crime and was put in the prison of Yunyang County (now northwest of Chunhua County, Shaanxi Province) by Qin Shihuang. Since then, the formal life of Cheng Miao's children's shoes has been interrupted.
For Cheng Miao's talented children's shoes, prison is simply spiritual purgatory. There is nothing serious to do all day, so you can't just be decadent in prison, can you? In a flash, he remembered that his previous job was not copying documents every day. This iron rice bowl skill can't be lost.
But he knows that he doesn't have much love for the job of "copying files" in his heart, because the seal script invented by Li Si is too complicated, too confusing and super difficult to write. Sad Cheng Miao children's shoes recalled the past in prison and couldn't help feeling sad. After being sad, he knew that he couldn't waste this time in prison, so he had the idea of changing Xiao Zhuan.
He thought in prison for several years, and countless innovative fonts kept popping up in his mind, so he began to create simplified Chinese characters. After he got out of prison, he still insisted on studying how to simplify the text …
After years of exploration, ten years have passed, and Cheng Miao's children's shoes have finally made a breakthrough, creating the most "square" official script in history! He simplified the evolution of seal script and changed the original round strokes into square strokes, thus canceling the bending design of many seal scripts. In the structure of words, he changed the pictographic structure into the form of strokes, and continued to simplify on this basis. How big is the charm of official script? The writing speed of official script VS seal script is three times faster than official script.
When Cheng Miao took 3,000 official script characters as research results, all of them were written into scripts and given to Qin Shihuang, which was strongly promoted by government officials, Cheng Miao quickly became a network celebrity in the eyes of the people. Qin Shihuang admired him very much and appointed Cheng Miao as the suggestion. Later, official script became more and more popular and became one of the calligraphy used by the whole people.
In Shuo Wen Jie Zi, it is mentioned that "Qin burned the classics, washed the old classics, made great contributions to the officials and soldiers, and promoted the military service, garrison, and official prison posts to facilitate the appointment", which shows that everyone chose the official prison books at that time to improve the writing efficiency. Guo Moruo even praised, "The greater achievement of Qin Shihuang's reform of writing was the adoption of official script."
Was the official script first created by Cheng Miao? We have no proof. Later, official script was found in the cultural relics unearthed in the late Warring States period. Cheng Miao may just optimize and improve the official script and launch vigorous publicity and promotion. In any case, whether the official script is the product of collective creation or invented by Cheng Miao, the development of China's calligraphy is inseparable from the official script, which plays a role in connecting the past with the future. What is commendable is that the official script of the Qin Dynasty was carried forward in the Han Dynasty, resulting in Han Li.
The contrast between official scripts is complicated &; Round seal is easier and simpler. Compared with Han Li and Han Li, Qin Li is more beautiful and has higher artistic value.
Lishu is a slightly wider and flatter font, with a horizontal length and a vertical length. In short, seal script and regular script design are just the opposite.
On the whole, official script is a "broken cube" based on seal script. The beauty of official script is like a wave of rigidity and softness? The flying rhythm of shear wave lines is beautiful, and the tail stroke is beautiful. The beauty of official script is also a symbolic representative of "people scattered at the end of the song", and Han Li echoes the cornice of the building roof in the Han Dynasty.
When writing a long horizontal official script, the pen begins to cut into the front like a "silkworm head", with a wave distance in the middle and a tail at the end. There are many ways to use a pen for official script, such as square, round, hidden and exposed. Only sauce purple can make official script fly gracefully.
Lishu pays attention to a silkworm head and a goose tail, and the strokes are beautiful with waves and strokes. "Wave" means that the left line of the stroke looks like a tortuous wave (PS, and the later script is changed to apostrophe), and "Qi" means that the stroke on the right line is open and shaped like a dovetail.
Pick the flowers and then present the official script formula, "Jin Fang is as clumsy as a turtle, like a turtle, and the goose's head and goose's tail pen will be three folds, and the goose will not fly in pairs, and the silkworm will not be double-colored." Is this clearer?
In a word, the reform of official script to seal script mainly includes two aspects: stroke and structure. Official script should not only turn round into square, but also turn seal script into straight.
Lishu originated in the Qin Dynasty, flourished in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was gradually replaced by regular script and running script. In fact, most of the high-value official calligraphy inscriptions we appreciate today are works of the Han Dynasty. Among them, Han Li's masterpieces include Zhang Qianbei, Cao Quanbei and the Book of Rites Monument, which can be said to be tied for the first place.
If you want to study the high value of official script, you can also start with these inscriptions. Take chestnuts for example. When you appreciate Han Li's masterpiece "Cao Quanbei", you will find clues to the creation of official script. This monument is 253 cm high and 123 cm wide. The calligraphy on the tablet is beautiful and elegant, with the elegance of "If she smiles back, there will be a hundred spells". The overall handwriting is clear and beautiful, the structure is uniform, and it stretches and escapes.
Regular script was popular in Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, but there was a "calligraphy renaissance" in Qing dynasty. At that time, most scholars began to copy the inscriptions of past dynasties and began to write seal script and official script. Many calligraphers even wrote unique personal faces in their official scripts.
Among the fans of the revival of calligraphy in Qing Dynasty, Kang Youwei played "Calling for Official Books" crazily with children's shoes. He especially likes the cliff stone official script "Ode to Shimen", which was written by Wang Sheng, the satrap of Hanzhong, and carved on the natural cliff. Cui Hua was shocked when he thought about it. It's rare to carve a good official script between cliffs.
Because it is carved on the stone, the stroke lines will also change and fluctuate with the unevenness of the rock wall, just like an uncanny workmanship. Kang children's shoes once commented that Ode to Shimen is a rare style, saying that "cowards should not write, cowards should not write".
Why should timid people be careful about Shimen Fu? The reason is that this special rock wall writing method is magnificent and the lines are tense. And many stone carvings here don't follow the rules. Ode to Shimen is an innovative work of official script, and some strokes are exaggerated and elongated, which is in sharp contrast with traditional official script. Therefore, to write a creative official script of Shimen Song, the writer himself needs to untie the shackles of traditional calligraphy.
At that time, artists in the Qing Dynasty got inspiration from these ancient inscriptions and wrote the personal beauty of a hundred flowers in official script. For example, Zheng Zhi, the first official of the Qing Dynasty, loved to write the elegant and fantastic Cao Li; Jinnong Lishu, the first of the Eight Eccentric in Yangzhou, likes thick and light brushwork, with angular writing, sharp and energetic pen, and full of coolness.
In a word, the development and evolution of official script not only changed the inherent font structure of seal script, but also promoted the progress of China's calligraphy design and played an important role in the formation of cursive script and regular script. I still want to thank Qin Shihuang for choosing to carry forward the official script.
Therefore, if calligraphy lovers want to seek the beauty of the most primitive structure of Chinese characters, they can also start with official script.