Cursive script (traditional Chinese: 草書; pinyin: cǎoshū), erroneously translated as Grass script, is a style of Chinese calligraphy. A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( Neolithic signs At a range of Neolithic sites in China, small numbers of symbols of either pictorial or simple geometric nature have been unearthed which were Variant Chinese characters ( are Chinese characters that can be used interchangeably The second round of Chinese character simplification was an aborted orthography reform officially promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's The debate on Traditional Chinese characters and Simplified Chinese characters (繁簡之爭 more recently 正簡之爭 a are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana is an ancient Writing system which employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated Idu is an archaic Writing system which represents the Korean language using Hanja. Hán tự ( {{IPA|/han˦˥ tɯ˨/}}; 漢[[wikt 字|字]] meaning " Chinese character " or chữ Nho ( {{IPA|/tɕɯ˧˨˧ ɲɔ/}} Chữ Nôm ( IPA: /cɨ3ˀ5 nom33/ chữ Nôm in Unicode: 字[[wikt 喃|喃]]/ 𡨸 喃/ 𡦂 喃 chữ Nôm in Unicode The art of Calligraphy is widely practiced and revered in the East Asian Civilizations that use or used Chinese characters. Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular Semi-cursive script is a partially cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. Since the Chinese language uses a logographic script — that is a script where one or more " characters " corresponds roughly to one "word" or Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use The art of Calligraphy is widely practiced and revered in the East Asian Civilizations that use or used Chinese characters. The name Cǎoshū is actually an abbreviation for 草率书 (cǎoshuài shū), meaning "sloppy script". Cursive script is faster to write than other styles, but also harder to read. It is quite often the case that persons who are capable of reading printed Chinese find themselves completely illiterate when confronted with this particular style of writing.

Cursive script in Sun Guoting's Treatise on Calligraphy. Sun Guoting ( 646–691 or Sun Qianli (孫虔禮was a Chinese calligrapher of the early Tang Dynasty, remembered for his cursive calligraphy

Cursive script originated in China during the Han dynasty through Jin Dynasty period, in two phases. The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Jìn Dynasty ( 265 – 420) one of the Six Dynasties, followed the Three Kingdoms period and preceded the Southern and Northern Dynasties First, an early form of cursive developed as a cursory way to write the popular and not yet mature clerical script. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which 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. Bamboo is a group of Woody perennial Evergreen Plants in the True grass family Poaceae, subfamily This early form of cursive script, based on clerical script, is now called zhāngcǎo (章草), and variously also termed ancient cursive, draft cursive or clerical cursive in English, to differentiate it from modern cursive (今草 jīncǎo). Modern cursive evolved from this older cursive in the Wei Kingdom to Jin dynasty with influence from the semi-cursive and standard styles. Cao Wei ( was one of the empires that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period

Chinese characters of "Cursive Script" in regular script (left) and cursive script (right). The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular

8 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. Not to be confused with Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China The artists are: 1 Sun Guoting; 2, 3 Huai Su; 4 Yan Zhenqing; 5 Zhao Mengfu; 6, 7 Zhu Zhisan; 8 anonymous. Huai Su ( 737–799 Courtesy name Cangzhen (藏真 was a Buddhist monk and calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, famous for his Biography Early life Yan Zhenqing was born in Linyi of Shandong Province to a reputed academic family which served the court for many generations Zhao Mengfu ( 1254–1322 Courtesy name Ziang (子昂 Pseudonyms Songxue (松雪 "Pine Snow" Oubo (鸥波 "Gull

Beside zhāngcǎo and the "modern cursive", there is the "wild cursive" (狂草, pinyin kuángcǎo, Japanese kyōsō) which is even more cursive and illegible. It was developed by Zhang Xu and Huai Su in Tang dynasty, they were being called Dian Zhang Zui Su (the crazy Zhang and the drunk Su, 颠张醉素). Zhang Xu ( fl 8th century Courtesy name: Bogao (伯高 was a Chinese calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty. Huai Su ( 737–799 Courtesy name Cangzhen (藏真 was a Buddhist monk and calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, famous for his The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by

Cursive scripts can be divided into the unconnected style (Chinese (S) and Japanese 独草, Chinese (T) 獨草, pinyin dúcǎo, romaji dokusō) where each character is separate, and the connected style (Chinese (S) 连绵, Chinese (T) 連綿, Japanese 連綿体, pinyin liánmián, romaji renmentai) where each character is connected to the succeeding one.

Many of the simplified Chinese characters are modeled on the cursive forms of the corresponding characters. Cursive script forms of Chinese characters are also the origin of the Japanese script hiragana, which developed from cursive script via a form of writing called man'yōgana. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet is an ancient Writing system which employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. In Japan, cursive script was considered to be suitable for women, whereas the clerical style was considered to be suitable for men.

Notable persons

• Wang Xizhi
• Wang Xianzhi
• Zhang Zhi
• Zhang Xu, Cao Sheng. Wang Xianzhi ( 344 – 386) Courtesy name Zijing (子敬 was a famous Chinese calligrapher of the Eastern Jin Zhang Zhi ( fl 2nd century Courtesy name Boying (伯英 was a Chinese calligrapher during the Han Dynasty. Zhang Xu ( fl 8th century Courtesy name: Bogao (伯高 was a Chinese calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty.
• Huai Su
• Wen Zhengming
• Yu Youren
• Lin Sanzhi

References

• The Art of Japanese Calligraphy, 1973, author Yujiro Nakata, publisher Weatherhill/Heibonsha, ISBN 0-8348-1013-1. Huai Su ( 737–799 Courtesy name Cangzhen (藏真 was a Buddhist monk and calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, famous for his Wen Zhengming ( 1470&ndash1559 was a leading Ming Dynasty painter, Calligrapher, and scholar Yu Youren ( April 11, 1879 － November 10, 1964) was an educator and politician of the Republic of China.
• Qiú Xīguī (裘錫圭) Chinese Writing (2000). Translation of 文字學概要 by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman. Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. ISBN 1-55729-071-7.