Cursive script (East Asia)
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Cursive script | |||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Mi Fu's On Calligraphy, a written discourse about the cursive style | |||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | |||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | |||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | draft script | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Vietnamese alphabet | thảo thư chữ thảo | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hán-Nôm | 𡨸 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Hangul | 초서 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hanja | |||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Kanji |
Cursive script | |
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Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Oracle bone script
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Cursive script (Chinese:
The cursive script functions primarily as a kind of shorthand script or calligraphic style and is faster to write than other styles, but it can be difficult to read for those unfamiliar with it because of its abstraction and alteration of character structures. People who can read only standard or printed forms of Chinese or related scripts may have difficulty reading the cursive script.
Names[edit]
The character
History[edit]
Cursive script originated in China through two phases during the period from the Han to Jin dynasties. Firstly, an early form of cursive developed as a cursory way to write the popular but hitherto immature clerical script. Faster ways to write characters developed through four mechanisms: omitting part of a graph, merging strokes together, replacing portions with abbreviated forms (such as one stroke to replace four dots), or modifying stroke styles. This evolution can best be seen on extant bamboo and wooden slats from the period, on which the use of early cursive and immature clerical forms is intermingled. This early form of cursive script, based on clerical script, is now called zhāngcǎo (
Styles[edit]
Besides zhāngcǎo and "modern cursive", there is also "wild cursive" (Chinese and Japanese:
Cursive scripts can be divided into the unconnected style (Chinese:
Derived characters[edit]
Many simplified Chinese characters are derived from the standard script rendition of their corresponding cursive form (Chinese:
Cursive script forms of Chinese characters are also the origin of the Japanese hiragana script. Specifically, hiragana developed from cursive forms of the man'yōgana script, called sōgana (
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Cursive script in Sun Guoting's Treatise on Calligraphy
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Chinese characters of "Cursive Script" in regular script (left) and cursive script (right). Notice that for the cursive form, there is only a total of 3 strokes, 17 strokes less than its regular counterpart.
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Eight different cursive representations of the character
龍 (dragon), from Compilation of Cursive Characters (《草 字彙 》), authored by Shi Liang (石 梁 ) of the Qing dynasty. The artists are: 1 Sun Guoting; 2, 3 Huaisu; 4 Yan Zhenqing; 5 Zhao Mengfu; 6, 7 Zhu Zhishan; 8 anonymous.
Notable calligraphers[edit]
- Huaisu
- Wang Xizhi
- Wang Xianzhi
- Wen Zhengming
- Yu Youren
- Zhang Zhi, sage of Cursive Script
- Zhang Xu
References[edit]
- The Art of Japanese Calligraphy, 1973, author Yujiro Nakata, publisher Weatherhill/Heibonsha, ISBN 0-8348-1013-1.
- Qiu Xigui (2000). Chinese Writing. Translation of
文字 學 概要 by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman. Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4. Berkeley, Cal.: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. ISBN 1-55729-071-7.
- ^ a b "caoshu | Chinese calligraphy | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
- ^ a b Song, Ge (2 January 2019). "Toward standardization: the English translation of Chinese terms related to calligraphic scripts". Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies. 6 (1): 17–30. doi:10.1080/23306343.2019.1605763. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ Kroll, Paul W. (2017). A student's dictionary of classical and medieval Chinese (Rev. ed.). Koninklijke Brill NV. ISBN 978-90-04-32478-7. OCLC 973401527.
External links[edit]
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