Chinese+writing

CHINESE CHARETERS bygrace watkins Imagine the year is about five hundred BCE. You are a member of the Qin. The type of writing you use is Lishu. Well back then lishu was the style of writing they used. Lishu is also called clerkly script. It can be attributed to Cheng Miao, who lived in the state of Qin. There were seven styles of Chinese writing. The Qin used Lishu. Lishu appeared approximately five hundred BCE. Although it appeared then the Qin use it about 221 to 207.The Han also used it at this time. Its name Lishu implies government bureaucrats used it. Bureaucrats used in when they needed a fast and efficient script to handle state matters. The difference between Lishu and Xiaozhuan is that lishu has fewer strokes. With more of a flowing style, therefor it is easily adaptable to paint brushes and pens. Lishu is identical to modern script. Lishu characters were standeized to remove regonal variations, and these standard characters are for the most part the same. Lishu is occasionally used in modern day. It can be said that Chinese writing reached its maturity at this time (until the 20th century).Evolution of Chinese writing after Lishu is a trend of increasing cursive scripts. These are the ones used in calligraphy. Lishu is almost like art. When it is done right it is beautiful. Like this:

Even though I can’t read Lishu, I think it is very pretty. You can sort of tell what some symbols mean. It would take many years to make symbols this good. You have to be very careful when making the symbols because it is extremely easy to mess up with black ink. Sometimes it was written on bamboo sticks, which makes it even harder!

Today, some people still use lishu for designs and tattoos. They have them say popular phrases like “Be Loyal to the Nation”.

As an ancient Chinese tradition, people want to keep lishu alive. I found many web sites dedicated to the subject. Some of my favorites were:

http://www.yutopian.com/arts/qin/writing.html http://www.ancientscripts.com/chinese.html http://www.chinavoc.com/arts/calligraphy/changestyle.asp

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