Lishu Clerical Script
The lishu style, which probably originated in the Warring States period, took its definitive form under the Qin dynasty. Tradition holds that this character style was invented by a courtier of Emperor Qin Shi Huang who had been demoted and imprisoned. In prison, the disgraced official saw crudely written inscriptions bearing prisoners’ names. Cheng Miao (程邈, Cheng Miao) disliked seal-script handwriting for its grotesque, cumbersome forms, which prompted him to create a new script called the style of subordinates, lower-ranking people, or even slaves. In his new style, Cheng Miao gave characters rounder forms and more proportionate, regular outlines. Lishu strokes are characterized by a curved beginning resembling a silkworm’s head and an ending shaped like a swallow’s tail. Compared with seal script, lishu has sharper forms and tends toward right angles where strokes join. Horizontal strokes have a characteristic wave-like curve, but the rounded turns typical of seal script are absent. Characters written in lishu have structural rigidity and perpendicular strokes, giving an impression of stability; their lines are broad and rich. Overall, lishu arose in response to the need for a faster, more convenient way of writing as the volume of official documents steadily increased. Arranging a character strictly within a square saved space on bamboo slips called jian (简, jian), which served as a writing medium at that time. The invention brought its creator not only a pardon and release from prison but also reinstatement in office. Lishu became known as clerical script because it was widely adopted in administrative work during the Western Han dynasty, when it coexisted with zhuanshu, a more aristocratic and refined form of writing.
Lishu reached its peak during the Eastern Han dynasty, as by then the hair writing brush, canghao (苍毫, canghao, a writing brush made from deer and sheep hair), whose invention is attributed to the Qin general Meng Tian (蒙恬, Meng Tian), and ink, mo (墨, mo), whose invention modern Chinese people credit to the working people of ancient China, had firmly entered everyday use. Finally, the previously mentioned bones, shells, and bronze, as well as bamboo slips, wooden tablets called du (牍, du), stone slabs, and silk, were replaced by the invention of the second-century CE scholar Cai Lun (蔡伦, Cai Lun): paper, zhi (纸, zhi).
Cai Lun studied the material wasps produced when building their nests and set out to reproduce it. His experiments with raw materials, including various fibrous substances such as hemp stalks, tree bark, rags, and fishing nets, culminated in the revolutionary invention of an information medium still used today, even after the invention of the computer and the World Wide Web.
Lishu, together with kaishu, is among the first calligraphic styles belonging to the so-called new scripts, xinwen (新文, xinwen), as opposed to the earlier ancient scripts, guwen (古文, guwen). The introduction of this style contributed to the development of science and culture during the Tang dynasty. Among the most important written monuments of that era is the «Classic of Filial Piety», written by Emperor Xuanzong (玄宗, Xuanzong, 685–762) in lishu and engraved on stone in 745, which can still be seen in Xi’an’s Stele Museum.