Running script
Running script, or xingshu, is a semi-cursive style of Chinese calligraphy that links strokes and simplifies forms while keeping characters legible.
Chinese calligraphy: The art of writing Chinese characters with a brush or other writing tools, emphasizing form, rhythm, and composition. Running script is one of its major script styles.
Clerical script: A historical Chinese script distinguished by broad, relatively flat strokes and standardized character forms. It helped shape the established character forms that later running script wrote more freely.
Wang Xianzhi: A fourth-century Chinese calligrapher and son of Wang Xizhi, known for a distinctive, fluid style. His work extended the family’s influence on running-script practice.
Cold Food Observance: A running-script poem by Su Shi, written after his exile to Huangzhou in the eleventh century. Its forceful, irregular writing shows how emotion can shape a running-script composition.
Chinese character strokes: The basic drawn marks used to construct Chinese characters, conventionally classified by shape and direction. Their connections and altered trajectories give running script its flowing appearance.
Seal script: An ancient family of Chinese scripts characterized by rounded, balanced forms used in inscriptions and seals. Its older character shapes form part of the historical background to later script styles.
Yan Zhenqing: An eighth-century Chinese calligrapher and official known for powerful, broad forms in regular and running scripts. His running script shows how the style can carry forceful personal character.
Draft of a Requiem to My Nephew: A running-script calligraphy by Yan Zhenqing, composed in mourning for his nephew Yan Jiming. Its changing pressure and rhythm make grief visible through the script’s movement.
Chinese brush: A traditional writing tool with a flexible, ink-holding tip used in Chinese calligraphy. Its responsive tip makes connected strokes and varied line weight possible.
Han dynasty: A Chinese imperial dynasty that ruled from 206 BCE to 220 CE and shaped institutions, culture, and writing. Running script developed amid the transformation of Chinese writing during this period.