Cursive script (; , ''sōshotai''; , ''choseo''; ), often mistranslated as grass script, is a script style used in Chinese and East Asian calligraphy. It is an umbrella term for the cursive variants of the

clerical script The clerical script (; Japanese: 隷書体, ''reishotai''; Korean: 예서 (old spelling 례서); Vietnamese: lệ thư), sometimes also chancery script, is a style of Chinese writing which evolved from the late Warring States period to the ...

and the

regular script Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...

. The cursive script functions primarily as a kind of

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...

script or calligraphic style; it is faster to write than other styles, but can be difficult to read for those unfamiliar with it due to its abstraction and alteration of character structures. People who can only read standard or printed forms of Chinese or related scripts may have difficulty reading the cursive script.

Names

The character primarily means "grass", which has led to the semantically inappropriate

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

of , "grass script". However, can be extended to mean ''hurried'' or ''rough'', from which the name came. Thus, the name of this script is literally "draft script", "quick script" or "rough script" (the character means script in this context). The character appears in this sense, for example, in (Modern Mandarin , "rough draft") and (, "to draft document or plan).

History

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

. 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 Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

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 (), and variously also termed ancient cursive, draft cursive or clerical cursive in English, to differentiate it from modern cursive ( ). Modern cursive evolved from this older cursive in the Wei Kingdom to Jin dynasty with influence from the semi-cursive and standard styles.

Styles

Besides and "modern cursive," there is also "wild cursive" () which is even more cursive and difficult to read. When it was developed by Zhang Xu and Huaisu in the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

, they were called (crazy Zhang and drunk Su, 顛張醉素). Cursive, in this style, is no longer significant in legibility but rather in artistry. Cursive scripts can be divided into the unconnected style () where each character is separate, and the connected style () where each character is connected to the succeeding one.

Derived characters

Many

simplified Chinese characters Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the '' Table of General Standard Chinese Characters''. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one ...

are derived from the standard script rendition of their corresponding cursive form (), e.g. 书, 东. Cursive script forms of Chinese characters are also the origin of the Japanese

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" ori ...

script. Specifically, hiragana developed from cursive forms of the

man'yōgana is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of this ...

script, called . In Japan, the cursive script was considered to be suitable for women's writing, and thus came to be referred to as . was later applied to hiragana as well. In contrast, kanji was referred to as . Image:Treatise On Calligraphy.jpg, Cursive script in Sun Guoting's ''Treatise on Calligraphy''. Image:Cur eg.svg, Chinese characters of "Cursive Script" in

(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. Image:Cursive characters dragon.jpg, 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 The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. The artists are: 1 Sun Guoting; 2, 3 Huaisu; 4 Yan Zhenqing; 5 Zhao Mengfu; 6, 7

Zhu Zhishan Zhu Yunming (; 1461–1527) was a Chinese calligrapher, poet, writer, and scholar-official of the Ming dynasty, known as one of the "Four Talents of Wu" ( Suzhou). Most admired for his accomplishment in calligraphy, he is also a popular cultura ...

; 8 anonymous.

Notable calligraphers

* Huaisu *

Wang Xizhi Wang Xizhi (; ; 303 AD361 AD) was a Chinese calligrapher, politician, general and writer during the Jin dynasty. He was best known for his mastery of Chinese calligraphy. Wang is sometimes regarded as the greatest Chinese calligrapher in Chinese ...

* Wang Xianzhi *

Wen Zhengming Wen Zhengming (28 November 1470 – 1559), born Wen Bi, was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, and poet during the Ming dynasty. He was regarded as one of the Four Masters of Ming painting. Biography Wen Zhengming was born Wen Bi near present-da ...

Yu Youren Yu Youren (); (April 11, 1879 – November 10, 1964) was a Chinese educator, scholar, calligrapher, and politician. Early life He was born on April 11, 1879, in the town of Hedaogang (), Sanyuan County (north of Xi'an), Shaanxi Province, Qing Ch ...

* Zhang Zhi, sage of Cursive Script * Zhang Xu

References

*The Art of Japanese Calligraphy, 1973, author Yujiro Nakata, publisher Weatherhill/Heibonsha, . * Qiu Xigui ''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. .

External links

Cursive script/grass script calligraphy generator
{{Authority control Chinese characters Chinese script style East Asian calligraphy Logographic writing systems Writing systems