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Li Style, the Clerical Script (The "Bold Print Style" of Chinese Calligraphy Styles)
The Lishu (official script) came in the wake of the xiaozhuan in the same short-lived Qin Dynasty (221 - 207 B. C.). This was because the xiaozhuan, though a simplified form of script, was still too complicated for the scribes in the various government offices who had to copy an increasing amount of documents. Cheng Miao, a prison warden, made a further simplification of the xiaozhuan, changing the curly strokes into straight and angular ones and thus making writing much easier. A further step away from the pictographs, it was named lishu because li in classical Chinese meant "clerk" or "scribe". Another version says that Cheng Miao, because of certain offence, became a prisoner and slave himself; as the ancients also called bound slaves "li", so the script was named lishu or the "script of a slave".
The Clerical Script (often simply termed lshu; and sometimes called Official, Draft or Scribal Script) is older than the above three scripts. It is said that this style was invented by Miao Cheng, from the Qin Dynasty of China. In general, characters are often "flat" in appearance, being wider than they are tall. The strokes may appear curvy, and often start thin and end thick. Most noticeable is the dramatically flared tail of one dominant horizontal or downward-diagonal stroke, especially that to the lower right. This characteristic stroke has famously been called 'silkworm head and wild goose tail' in Chinese due to its distinctive shape.
The archaic Clerical Script of the Warring States period to Qn and early Hn Dynasties can often be difficult to read for a modern East Asian person, but the mature Clerical Script of the middle to late Hn dynasty is generally legible. Modern works in the Clerical Script tend to use the mature, late Hn style, and may also use modernized character structures, resulting in a form as transparent and legible as Regular (or standard) Script. The Clerical Script remains common as a typeface used for decorative purposes (for example, in displays), but it is not commonly written.
Features of Li Shu
The structural design of Li Shu is somewhat similar to Zuan Shu. Their principles focus on the spacing between strokes. The spacing and position of strokes are well designed to render a sense of elegance and beauty.
Basic Characteristics and Rules of Li Shu
1. Bird Tail, the wavelike horizontal stroke
2. Bird Tail at bottom to support structure
3. Longer horizontal stroke at top is the Bird Tail
4. Exception only for stable structure
5. Upward Alignment
6. Diagonal stroke as the Bird Tail
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