Regular Script in Chinese Calligraphy: History, Masters & Examples

Regular script is the standard form of Chinese writing.

Like the Confucian ‘Way‘ (道), it is ordered by ritual yet open to endless investigation and improvement.

Understanding it is essential for to understanding all of Chinese calligraphy’s scripts.

Contents

Regular script: An overview

Regular script (楷书 [kǎishū]) (also known as standard script) is the primary script of Chinese characters, in both calligraphy and elsewhere.

The character 楷 (kǎi) means ‘model’ in Chinese. After all, this script is used to teach Chinese writing to beginners.

Each character is written in an ordered number of strokes and dimensions. 

(This is also true of some other scripts – such as clerical and seal script – and less true of others – running and cursive.)

It is the main form of script used in Chinese today. Whether written by hand or digitally, it is used for official and formal matters.

There are different versions of regular script. 

In calligraphy, these are usually versions based on famous calligraphers’ regular script.

Other versions are font styles created over the decades with print and digital technologies.

Naming ‘regular script’ in Chinese

In Chinese, especially in discussions on calligraphy, regular script (kaishu) is also sometimes referred to as:

• Jinkai (今楷) (‘today’s regular (script)). This is because ‘regular’ (楷) is used in the names of other scripts, too. For example ‘regular seal (script)’ (篆楷), or ‘regular clerical (script)’ (隶楷).
• Zhenshu (真书) (‘true’ or ‘clear’ script)
• Zhengshu (正书) (upright/correct/straight script).

Regular script features

Regular script provides fixed dimensions. This is not the case with all the styles that came before it and emerged at the same time.

When learning to write Chinese, students are often given paper with squares divided into nine smaller squares. This helps them understand the positions of characters and strokes.

Spaces between characters are also kept uniform. And when regular script is written vertically separate columns of text are also evenly spaced.

These points do not mean that it has no artistic value. In fact, its uniform and clear appearance can create attractive works of calligraphic art.

A brief history of regular script

Qin dynasty (221 – 206 BC): The sources of regular script

The short-lived Qin dynasty was China’s first unified empire. 

Writing across the states it had unified was at an advanced stage of development. 

The earliest known script was what is today called oracle bone script, so-called because it was used on animal bones and tortoise shell. 

Seal script emerged from oracle bone script, early examples have been found on bronze cauldrons and other ornaments. This can be divided into two main categories: 

• Large seal script – a loose category name covering centuries of development. 
• Small seal script – the standardised version of large seal script, created during the Qin dynasty.

Small seal was ultimately the first known official, top-down attempt at a regular script.

Han dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD)

During the Han dynasty, clerical script (隶书) replaced small seal script as the official, regular script of the empire. It was easier to write than seal script.

During the early Han, today’s regular script appeared. Some credit Wang Cizhong (? – ?) as its creator.

Paper was first invented during this time and brush technology advanced. 

Running script and cursive script also simultaneously emerged during this period.

Regular script took strokes from many different scripts and added innovations, including varied brush pressure and pauses.

The politician and calligrapher Zhong Yao (151 – 230 BC) is thought to have standardised regular script near the end of the Han Dynasty.

Eastern Jin (266 – 420 AD)

Chinese history’s most famous calligrapher, Wang Xizhi (303 – 361 AD) advanced multiple scripts during his life time.

So too did his seventh son, Wang Xianzhi (344 – 386 AD). 

The younger Wang often wrote in a kind of regular-running hybrid script with rectangular characters.

This aesthetic would develop further in the following centuries.

Northern and Southern dynasties period (420 – 589 AD)

Writing and technology continued to progress in during the disunity that continued during this century and a half.

However, standardisation wasn’t possible across competing states. 

Writing advanced, and calligraphy remained a popular pastime for the elites. But no major breakthroughs in standard script appeared.

Sui dynasty (581 – 618 AD)

The brief Sui dynasty was the first time China had been unified since the fall of the Han dynasty four centuries earlier.

Many projects vital to the future of China began here, including the grand canal and standardisation of regular script.

Tang dynasty (618 – 907 AD)

The Tang dynasty inherited the empire the Sui had unified. 

It was during these centuries regular script reached its apex of development.

Three of the ‘Four Masters of Regular Script’ lived during the Tang.

(The fourth was Zhao Mengfu, see below – the Yuan dynasty).

Ouyang Xun (557 – 641)

Ouyang Xun  austere, slender script features finely balanced strokes and characters that made varied use of stroke entry and exits that shaped strokes’ widths and tips.

Yan Zhenqing (709 – 785)

Yan Zhenqing‘s famously ‘upright’ style has long been said to reflect his loyal and steady personality.

His square, well-spaced regular script characters feature sharp, thick strokes.

Liu Gongquan (778 – 865)

Liu Gongquan Liu wrote a in robust and rounded regular script, with thick forceful strokes.

Materials and usage

Not many original pieces of calligraphy from this period survive in ink on paper. However, inscribed stele (stone pillars) and ink rubbings of them do.

From these, we can see regular script characters from this period are often just slightly squat with thick stokes. 

They are also recognisably modern. After the Tang, regular script did not have any major structural or stylistic changes in practical usage. 

However, innovation around aesthetic nuances continued in the art of calligraphy..

Song dynasty (960 – 1279)

Song dynasty calligraphy covers over three centuries of varied and innovative developments.  

Regular-running script emerged during this time as one of the favoured scripts for calligraphers. This is a variation of regular script that ultimately adds running script features to a regular script base.

In other words, it varies in the speed and angles at which some characters and strokes are formed, but overall keeps the tidy, balanced structure distinct to regular script.

An early Song innovator was Cai Xiang (1012 – 1067). He is considered the first of the four great Song Masters [of calligraphy] (the other three were Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and Mi Fu).

Cai’s regular script was the most formal of the masters. Traces of a lineage from Yan Zhenqing are clear.

The era’s most celebrated calligrapher was the statesman and polymath Su Shi (1137 – 1101).

Su also drew heavily on Yan Zhenqing’s style, but with thicker, heavier stokes with more rounded edges.

Interestingly, the famously artistic Huizong Emperor (r. 1100 – 1125) devised an original script that is arguably a form of standard script: slender gold script. 

However, the scripts’ variation and frequent use of rapid, flamboyant strokes lead many experts to categorise is as a form of running-regular script.

Yuan dynasty (1279 – 1368)

The Yuan dynasty saw China ruled by Mongols. 

On the surface, this would seem damaging to Chinese culture. After all, the Mongols have an infamous reputation for violence and tyranny. 

However, on the whole, the Mongols were relatively tolerant and open to Chinese culture and arts. Later Mongol leaders even became avid collectors of calligraphy.

The most famous calligrapher of the entire dynasty was the Chinese official Zhao Mengfu (1254 – 1322), a descendant of the Song royal family.

Zhao’s standard script largely eschewed the influence of Song models and focused on Tang and Jin models.

His smooth, balanced small-character standard script, filled with well-placed elongated strokes, is considered one of his best modes of writing.

It carries aspects of running script, but stays without the parameters of regular script. Since its creation, ‘Zhao style [regular script]’ (赵体) has been one of the most commonly imitated and templated (for printing) styles of regular script.

Another well-known calligrapher was Zhao’s acquaintance, the eccentric artist Ni Zan (1301 – 1374).

Ni’s standard script was slightly idiosyncratic. He favoured sharp strokes created by a vigorous, firm exit from the brush. This leads to a delicate, almost crystal-like effect for the characters.

Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644) 

The early Ming dynasty is characterised by the authoritarian rule of its first emperor Hongwu (r. 1368 – 1398). Many ministers were executed on his orders and legalist-inspired approach to governance.

Painters and calligraphers were similarly targeted. Many were executed for seemingly trivial or unrecorded reasons.

Owing largely to this, not much innovation happened in the early part of the dynasty. 

The second Ming emperor, Yongle (1403 – 1425) was a fan of calligraphy in general and the two Wangs (Wang Zizhi and Wang Xianzhi) in particular. 

But overall, the early dynasty’s simply continued on Yuan trends in regular script.

One notable exception was Song Ke (1327 – 1387), who developed a sophisticated, precise small-character standard script. His student Shen Du (1357 – 1434) developed this style even further.

Both master and student produced very small characters that sustain a visible tension and balance throughout. This demonstrated their sheer mastery of brush control and focus.

The most significant developments in mid- and late-Ming calligraphy came from:

• The relative liberalisation of control over culture and the arts more broadly
• The development of new schools of calligraphy around the Jiangnan region (the area just south of the Yangtze in central-eastern China).

One of these schools, the Wumen school was based in Suzhou. 

Two its most famous members were Zhu Yunming (1460 – 1526) and Wen Zhengming (1479 – 1559). The latter described the former’s regular script as ‘fine’ and ‘disciplined’.

And the latter mastered a small-character regular script known for its exquisite precision and echoes of Wang Xizhi’s influence.

Qing dynasty (1644 – 1911)

The Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty, like the Mongol Yuan, endorsed and patronised Chinese arts. 

However, like the Ming, there was a relative lack of innovation in regular script during the early Qing (though not necessarily for the same reasons). 

Jin Nong (1687 – 1764) created a clerical script-inspired regular script that stood out from the prevailing regular script forms.

His practice and emphasis on stone carving directly inspired his characters sharp, clear shapes. One of his famous techniques, lacquer script (漆书), involved using the flat edge of the brush to create distinct, thick horizontal strokes.

Later Qing calligraphy was deeply influenced by growth in scholarship of ancient scripts and styles.

Two famous schools that emerged from this trend include the Stele School (Beipai [碑派]) Model-Calligraphy-Book School (Tiepai [帖派]).

He Shaoji (1799 – 1873) blended aspects of both of these schools in his concise and even-weighted regular script.

This form clearly resembles the modern, highly legible and subtly refined regular script most Chinese are familiar with today.