About the Ranking
In China, Chinese calligraphy occupies a distinguished position in the field of traditional art. It is not only a means of communication, but also a means of expressing a person's inner world in an aesthetic sense. After thousands of years' development, it has developed five styles.
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The earliest known examples of Chinese writing are inscriptions on animal bones and tortoise shells dating from the 13th century B.C. during the Shang Dynasty. These inscriptions were the records of divinations made by heating the bones or shells over a fire until cracks appeared on them. Predictions were read form the pattern of the cracks and recorded directly on the bone or shell.
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This term covers a broad range of styles which came into use during the Chou Dynasty (1122- 221 B.C.). Compared to the Oracle Style, these characters are more rounded at the corners and show a mixture of thick and thin strokes. Many of the surviving examples of this style come from inscriptions that were cast on bronze vessels.
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In 221 B.C. the first unifier and emperor of China ordered that the writing system be standardized and established the writing style of his native state, Ch'in, as the model script of the empire. The round contours of this script, later known as the Small Seal Style, make it similar to the Great Seal Style. However, the lines are all of an even thickness and the characters are very elongated so that they might be imagined to fit neatly into a vertical rectangle.
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During the Han Dynasty (207 B.C. - 220 A.D), the Small Seal Style was surpassed in popularity by another script which could be written more quickly and easily with a brush. This style became known as the Clerical Style because more of the samples of this script were found on official documents such as government records of taxes, census records, deeds, etc.
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The Regular Style preserves the Clerical script's precision and modulation of line width but is less formal and heavy in appearance. The horizontal lines generally slope upwards but do not have the final tilt at the end of the stroke which the Clerical Style has.