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The tablets could very well describe the evolution of the Chinese writing system.
The tablet here is in seal characters of Meng Ying of the Song Dynasty. According to the book "On Characters" by Xu Shen, Meng Ying wrote the radicals or basic structural parts of 540 Chi- nese characters in seal script and marked them with phonetics symbols in regular script.
This tablet for the county magistrate Cao Quan of the Han Dynasty was inscribed in official script. The characters are written with elegant and vigorous strokes and are well-arranged. The calligraphy flies its own colours among schools of the Han official characters. It is one of the famous Han calligraphy tablets. Offcial script appeared by the end of the Qin Dynasty. Compared with seal characters, official script is simple and easy to write, and people found it rather convenient to use. The evolution from seal to official style is a revolution of Chinese characters in their forms. Official script be- came popular in the Han Dynasty.
There is a tablet inscribed in regular script, which began in the period of the Three Kingdoms (220/280 A.D.). It came to maturity and gained popularity during the Sui and Tang dynasties. Rulers of the successive dynasties all made it a rule that official documents and imperial examination papers should be written in regular script.
This is the Thousand-Character Inscription in cursive hand which contains one thousand non-repeated characters, serving as a primer for children in ancient times. It was written by the celebrated calligrapher Monk Huai Su in the Tang Dynasty. His bold and unconstrained style of writing has had a considerable influence on successive periods. |
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