Cursive script (East Asia)
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (June 2021) ) |
Cursive script | ||
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Hán-Nôm 草書 | 𡨸草 | |
Korean name | ||
Hangul | 초서 | |
Japanese name | ||
Kanji | 草書体 |
Cursive script | |
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Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Oracle bone script
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Cursive script (Chinese: 草書, cǎoshū; Japanese: 草書体, sōshotai; Korean: 초서, choseo; Vietnamese: thảo thư), often referred to 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 and the regular script.[1]
The cursive script functions primarily as a kind of shorthand script or calligraphic style and is faster to write than other styles, but it can be difficult to read for those unfamiliar with it because of its abstraction and alteration of character structures. People who can read only standard or printed forms of Chinese or related scripts may have difficulty reading the cursive script.
Names
The character 草 cǎo primarily means "grass", which has led to the semantically inappropriate calque of 草書, "grass script". However, 草 can be extended to mean hurried or rough, from which the name 草書 came. Thus, the name of this script is literally "draft script",[1][2] "quick script" or "rough script" (the character 書 shū means script in this context). The character 草 appears in this sense, for example, in 草稿 (Modern Mandarin cǎogǎo, "rough draft") and 草擬 (cǎonǐ, "to draft [a document or plan]").
History
Cursive script originated in China through two phases during the period from the
Styles
Besides zhāngcǎo and "modern cursive", there is also "wild cursive" (Chinese and Japanese: 狂草; pinyin: kuángcǎo; rōmaji: kyōsō) which is even more cursive and difficult to read. When it was developed by Zhang Xu and Huaisu in the Tang dynasty, they were called Diān Zhāng Zuì Sù (crazy Zhang and drunk Su, 顛張醉素). Cursive, in this style, is no longer significant in legibility but rather in artistry.[citation needed]
Cursive scripts can be divided into the unconnected style (Chinese: 獨草; pinyin: dúcǎo; Japanese: 独草; rōmaji: dokusō) where each character is separate, and the connected style (Chinese: 連綿; pinyin: liánmián; Japanese: 連綿体; rōmaji: renmentai) where each character is connected to the succeeding one.
Derived characters
Many simplified Chinese characters are derived from the standard script rendition of their corresponding cursive form (Chinese: 草書楷化; pinyin: cǎoshūkǎihuà), e.g. 书, 东.
Cursive script forms of Chinese characters are also the origin of the Japanese hiragana script. Specifically, hiragana developed from cursive forms of the man'yōgana script, called sōgana (草仮名). In Japan, the sōgana cursive script was considered to be suitable for women's writing, and thus came to be referred to as women’s script (女手, onnade). Onnade was later applied to hiragana as well. In contrast, kanji was referred to as men’s script (男手, otokode).
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Cursive script in Sun Guoting's Treatise on Calligraphy
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Chinese characters of "Cursive Script" instrokes, 17 strokes less than its regular counterpart.
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Eight different cursive representations of the character 龍 (dragon), from Compilation of Cursive Characters (《草字彙》), authored by Shi Liang (石梁) of theZhu Zhishan; 8 anonymous.
Notable calligraphers
- Huaisu
- Wang Xizhi
- Wang Xianzhi
- Wen Zhengming
- Yu Youren
- Zhang Zhi, sage of Cursive Script
- Zhang Xu
References
- The Art of Japanese Calligraphy, 1973, author Yujiro Nakata, publisher Weatherhill/Heibonsha, ISBN 0-8348-1013-1.
- ISBN 1-55729-071-7.