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Chinese Calligraphy Scripts

The document summarizes five basic scripts used in Chinese calligraphy over 2000 years: seal script, clerical script, standard script, semi-cursive script, and cursive script. Seal script features straight lines related to early Chinese writing. Clerical script uses more angled strokes, allowing faster writing. Standard script is clear and easy to read, commonly used in printing today. Semi-cursive script strokes run together within characters but the artist lifts between characters. Cursive script is free and spontaneous, allowing abbreviation and abstraction with characters potentially running together.

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Brian Chung
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506 views1 page

Chinese Calligraphy Scripts

The document summarizes five basic scripts used in Chinese calligraphy over 2000 years: seal script, clerical script, standard script, semi-cursive script, and cursive script. Seal script features straight lines related to early Chinese writing. Clerical script uses more angled strokes, allowing faster writing. Standard script is clear and easy to read, commonly used in printing today. Semi-cursive script strokes run together within characters but the artist lifts between characters. Cursive script is free and spontaneous, allowing abbreviation and abstraction with characters potentially running together.

Uploaded by

Brian Chung
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Scripts

Five basic scripts have emerged over 2000 years: Calligraphers design each character to fit into an imaginary squarewhether it is composed of one or sixty-four strokes.
Writers must create each stroke of a character in a particular order, essentially from left
to right and from top to bottom.
The evolution of the Chinese character dragon (long) in various script types:

Oracle-bone

Seal

Clerical

Cursive

Semi-cursive

Standard

There are five basic scripts regularly used in Chinese calligraphy:


Seal script (Chinese: zhuanshu)
These careful, straight lines are related to the earliest forms of Chinese writing.
Clerical script (lishu)
More angled strokes allowed clerks to write official documents more easily and quickly.
Standard or regular script (kaishu)
This clear and easy to read script is commonly used in printed books and signs today.
Semi-cursive script (xingshu; running script)
Strokes tend to run together within each character, but the artist usually lifts the brush
between each character.
Cursive script (caoshu; grass script)
In this free and spontaneous script, artists may get away with abbreviating and abstracting the characters. Characters may run together.

Asian Art Museum Education Department

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