Chinese Calligraphy Scripts: Oracle Bone, Seal, Clerical, Regular, Running and Cursive

The major scripts in the history of Chinese writing, what each looks like, famous calligraphers, the Four Treasures of the Study and where a beginner should start.

Oracle bone and bronze script

The earliest large body of Chinese writing is oracle bone script (甲骨文), carved on turtle shells and ox bones for divination during the late Shang dynasty, around 1200 BCE. Characters were angular because they were cut with a knife. Bronze script (金文) was cast into ritual vessels in the Shang and Zhou dynasties and has rounder, fuller strokes.

Seal script (篆書)

Large seal script (大篆) varied from state to state. After the Qin unified China in 221 BCE, small seal script (小篆) was standardised across the empire. Its strokes are even in thickness and elegantly curved. Seal script is still used on name seals (印章), which is why they can be hard to read.

Clerical script (隸書)

Clerical script matured in the Han dynasty as officials needed to write quickly. Curves became straight lines and corners, characters became wide and flat, and a distinctive wave-like stroke with a flared ending (蠶頭燕尾, “silkworm head, swallow tail”) appeared. It marks the boundary between ancient and modern Chinese writing.

Regular script (楷書)

Regular script developed from clerical script and reached its classical form in the Tang dynasty. Each stroke is distinct, which makes it the basis of modern print fonts and school handwriting. Famous masters, often called the Four Great Masters of regular script, are Ouyang Xun (歐陽詢), Yan Zhenqing (顏真卿), Liu Gongquan (柳公權) and Zhao Mengfu (趙孟頫). Beginners traditionally copy one of their model books (字帖).

Running script (行書)

Running script is a semi-cursive hand where strokes flow into each other while characters stay legible. The most celebrated work in Chinese calligraphy, Wang Xizhi’s (王羲之) Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Poems (蘭亭集序) from 353 CE, is written in running script. Most everyday handwriting in practice is closer to running script than to strict regular script.

Cursive script (草書)

Cursive script abbreviates characters dramatically, joining strokes and even characters in one motion. It is highly expressive and hard to read without training. Tang calligraphers Zhang Xu (張旭) and Huai Su (懷素) are famous for “wild cursive” (狂草). Many simplified characters were derived from cursive forms; see Traditional vs Simplified.

The Four Treasures of the Study

Where to start

Start with regular script and the basic strokes, practising 永 to learn the eight movements. Use a grid, like the 九宮格 option in our practice sheet maker, to learn proportion before moving to running script.

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