As we all know, there are 5 kinds of calligraphy now: zhuàn, li, kai, xing, and grass, and although the 5 kinds are not many, few people can practice them well.
However, you may not know that there are far more than 5 kinds of ancient calligraphy, and there was a calligrapher named Wei Xu in the Tang Dynasty who wrote a book called "Fifty-six Kinds of Books and Prefaces", he said that there are 56 kinds of calligraphy, which are divided into very detailed.
Chinese calligraphy has a long history, and from ancient times to the present, it has changed a lot. In the thousands of years of history of our country, what are the main calligraphies? In which historical period was these calligraphies mainly popular? Why did such calligraphy come about?
In the history of Chinese civilization for thousands of years, there are 9 main types of calligraphy: oracle bone, jin script, zi (zhòu) book, small seal (zhuàn), Lishu, Weibei, Kaishu, cursive, and Xingshu.
1. Oracle
Oracle bone is an ancient Chinese script, the earliest mature Chinese character we can see, mainly refers to the late Shang Dynasty royal family used to divination records and carved on the tortoise shell or animal bone, is a carrier of the earliest known system of Shang Dynasty script in China and East Asia.
Judging from the oracle bones excavated from the Xiaotun Yin Ruins in Anyang and the oracle bones excavated in Lintong Zhouyuan, these words were first written on the oracle bones in ink or vermilion, and then engraved. The oracle bone script has a large variation, the same word has a variety of shapes and writings, and the glyph structure is sparse, intricate, simple and elegant.
Oracle
According to the statistics of scholar Hu Houxuan, a total of more than 154,600 pieces of oracle bones have been unearthed, of which more than 97,600 pieces are collected by the mainland, more than 30,200 pieces are collected by Taiwan Province, 89 pieces are collected in Hong Kong, and a total of more than 127,900 pieces are collected in China, in addition, Japan, Canada, Britain, the United States and other countries have collected more than 26,700 pieces. There are about 4,500 words engraved on these oracle bones, and about 2,000 words have been interpreted so far.
2. Jin Wen
By the late Shang Dynasty, bronzes already had cast inscriptions, which we called "Jinwen".
The "Jinwen" here refers to a kind of calligraphic name of Chinese characters, referring to the inscription cast on the bronzes of the Yin Shang and Zhou Dynasties, also known as zhongding.
The age of jin wen application, from the end of the Shang Dynasty to the qin extinction of the Six Kingdoms, about 800 years. The number of words in jinwen, according to Rong Geng's "Jinwen Compilation", totals 3722, of which 2420 can be recognized.
Clementi
The Shu Si Zi Ding excavated from the Hougang Sacrifice Pit in Anyang has an inscription of 30 characters, which is the longest inscription of the Shang Dynasty. This kind of gold script is a pictorial script with a different structure from the oracle bone, which is used to record history and is engraved on bronze ceremonial instruments and musical instruments such as bells and dings.
3. Book of zhòu
It is also called "zhuàn", because it is written in the "Shi Zhen (zhòu) Chapter" and got its name, and the fonts overlap. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it was common in the Qin State, and the shigu script that exists today is a representative work of this kind of Zi (zhòu) book.
Stone Drum Text
The stone drum script is named after the stone drum carved on it, which is the earliest carved stone script and is the ancestor of stone carving.
4. Small seal (zhuàn)
After Qin Shi Huang unified the script, he changed the big seal (zhuàn) to the small seal (zhuàn). On the basis of the zhòu script originally used in the Qin state, it was simplified and a unified Chinese character writing form was created. The small seal (zhuàn) was popular from the Qin Dynasty until the end of the Western Han Dynasty (about 8 AD), before it was gradually replaced by Lishu.
"Yishan Stele" small seal (zhuàn) carved stone
Compared with the large seal (zhuàn), this small seal (zhuàn) has the characteristics of rounded lines, unified structure, fixed glyphs, vertical, horizontal and square when writing. The simplicity of the strokes and ease of writing is another feature. The small seal (zhuàn) is the official common script, and the small seal (zhuàn) calligraphy works are also more common.
5. Letter of Affiliation
Lishu is also known as "octaveric", and small seal (zhuàn) appears in parallel, is a kind of Chinese character font, there are Qin Li, Han Li, etc., generally believed to be developed from the seal book, the glyphs are mostly wide and flat, horizontal painting long and vertical painting short, pay attention to "silkworm head swallowtail", "three folds in a wave".
Lishu works: "Cao Quan Stele"
According to the excavated Jian Mu, Lishu was founded in the Qin Dynasty, and the legend is that Cheng Mi was subordinate, and Han Li reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty, inheriting the tradition of seal writing on the upper and lower Wei And Jin dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which had a non-negligible influence on the calligraphy of later generations, and the calligraphy circle was known as "Han Li Tang Kai".
6. Wei Bei
Wei stele is the general name of the Northern Dynasty script carved stone in China's Southern and Northern Dynasties period, which is the product of the process of changing the lishu to the script, with the Northern Wei as the most refined, which can be roughly divided into four types: inscription, epitaph, statue inscription and Cliff carving stone. Zhong Zhishuai said that the Wei Monument "can be seen on the old Model of Han and Qin, and the sui and Tang dynasties can be observed below." ”
Wei Bei's works: "Tomb of Yuan Jun"
Weibei calligraphy had a great influence on the later formation of Sui and Tang calligraphy. Successive generations of writers have also drawn useful essences from them in innovation and change.
Wei's works are represented by "Zhang Feinu's Epitaph", "Yuanjun's Epitaph", "Shiping Gong Statue", "Zheng Wengong Monument", "Zhang Menglong Monument" and so on.
7. Letters
楷書 is a typeface of Chinese characters, also known as italics, zhengyi, zhenshu, and zhengshu. Gradually evolved from the Lishu, it became more simplified, horizontal and vertical. The book "Ci Hai" explains that it is "square in shape, straight in strokes, and can be used as a model". It originated in the Western Han Dynasty, matured in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, flourished in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and has been used since then, until now.
Ouyang Inquiry Letter: "Jiucheng Palace Liquan Ming"
Archaeological discoveries of the Han Dynasty Wadang inscription and Juyan Han Jianzhong script, has the basic strokes of the letter, such as point, horizontal, skimming, pinching, hooking, horizontal folding, vertical lifting, etc., and its shape is round and square, with the characteristics of the letter, and through the transition of the Three Kingdoms Wei and Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the posture is changeable, and the fine works are stacked. By the Tang Dynasty, the families had their own styles, especially Yan Zhenqing and Ouyang Qing, who were the most famous. To this day, italics are still one of the main popular styles of Chinese characters.
8. Cursive writing
Cursive writing is a scrawled font based on the shelf style of "Han Li" and Calligraphy. From about the time of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in order to distinguish it from the new cursive script of that time. The cursive writing of the Han Dynasty is called Zhangcao. According to the different shapes, it can be divided into three types: chapter grass, present grass and wild grass. As Li Zhimin said: "Approaching the pool, considering reason, teaching things, gaining the heart, understanding the elephant, and then beginning to enter the wonderful realm of cursive writing." ”
Cursive works
Chapter grass is a kind of "grass" between lishu and cursive writing that makes the writing fast and sloppy or stick figure, and then evolves into the "chapter grass" style. When explaining "Zhangcao" in the "Ancient Font Treatise", the famous modern calligrapher Qi Gong believes that the writing method of Zhangcao has a structure and rules, which is more in line with the regulations and is used to play the chapter, so it is called zhangcao.
Imakusa is a cursive font created by people using the brushwork of zhangcao and the posture of the script after the popularity of the kaishu, which is very different from the zhangcao. The characteristic of Imakusa is that in a word, it can be connected by upper and lower characters, and it can also be large and small, and it can also be thick and thin, positive and oblique. Therefore, it can be said that zhangcao is the fast writing style of the Lishu, and the present grass is the fast writing style of the italic book.
Wild grass is a kind of sloppy and wild book style that is more sloppy and wild than this grass. Striving for a smooth momentum throughout the text, continuous looping of gestures, and many changes are its characteristics. This font appeared in the Tang Dynasty.
9. Writing books
Xingshu ancient called "Oshi Shu", on the basis of the book to develop the origin, is a font between the cursive, cursive, in order to make up for the slow writing speed of the cursive and cursive is difficult to identify and produced.
At present, the famous calligrapher Lu Ji's "Ping Fu Tie", Wang Xizhi's "Seventeen Posts" and "Lanting Collection" are justified as xingshu.
Orchid Pavilion Episode Sequence
It can be said that the xingshu appeared at the time of the transition from zhangcao to the shape of the grass, as for the so-called xingshu in later generations, scholars believe that it is between the cursive and cursive, which is a new font that accompanies the popularity of the cursive, "kai as standing, walking as a trend, and grass as walking", which is the most appropriate summary and interpretation of the characteristics of the xingshu.
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