The regular script is the newest of the major Chinese script styles , emerging during the Three Kingdoms period c. 230 CE , and stylistically mature by the 7th century. It is the most common style used in modern text. In its traditional form it is the third-most common in publishing after the Ming and Gothic types used exclusively in print.
43-517: The Xuanhe Calligraphy Manual ( 宣和書譜 ) credits Wang Cizhong [ zh ] with creating the regular script, based on the clerical script of the early Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE). It became popular during the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms periods, with Zhong Yao ( c. 151 – 230 CE), a calligrapher in the state of Cao Wei (220–266), being credited as its first master, known as
86-588: A retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
129-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
172-451: A few literati; most continued writing in the neo-clerical script, or a hybrid form of semi-cursive and neo-clerical. The regular script did not become dominant until the 5th century during the early Northern and Southern period (420–589); there was a variety of the regular script which emerged from neo-clerical as well as regular scripts known as ' Wei regular' ( 魏楷 ; Wèikǎi ) or 'Wei stele' ( 魏碑 ; Wèibēi ). Thus,
215-511: A number of computer fonts that display CJK characters in the clerical style. The etymology of the Chinese name for the clerical script ( 隸書 ) is uncertain. 隸 has been explained as 徒隸 ('prisoner-in-servitude") or Chinese : 隸人 'convict', 'official of a low rank'. Some infer that the script was used in recording the affairs related to such prisoners, while others infer that it was used by prisoners conscripted as scribes. Clerical script
258-451: A trait shared with the later regular script . Although it was succeeded by the later scripts, including the regular script, the clerical script is preserved as a calligraphic practice. In Chinese calligraphy , the term clerical often refers to a specific calligraphic style that is typical of a subtype of the clerical script, the Han clerical ( 汉隶 ; 漢隸 ) or bafen ( 八分 ) script. This style
301-869: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
344-562: Is a style of Chinese writing that evolved from the late Warring States period to the Qin dynasty . It matured and became dominant in the Han dynasty , and remained in active use through the Six Dynasties period. In its development, it departed significantly from the earlier scripts in terms of graphic structures (a process known as libian ), and was characterized by its rectilinearity,
387-627: Is also known as 'clerical characters' ( 隸字 ), 'assistant writing' ( 佐書 ), 'historical writing' ( 史書 ), and "official script". From the Northern and Southern dynasties to the Tang dynasty, the regular script was still sometimes referred to as 隸書 instead of 楷書 . To distinguish from the Han-dynasty clerical script proper, it was also referred to as the 'recent clerical script' ( 今隶 ; 今隸 ). The Han-dynasty clerical script might accordingly be called
430-463: Is characterized by the squat character shapes, and its "wavy" appearance due to the thick, pronounced and slightly downward tails that are up-tilted at the ends. Historical accounts, including the Book of Han (111 CE) and the postface of Shuowen Jiezi ( c. 100 CE ), mistakenly attribute the clerical script to Qin dynasty clerks, claiming that the clerks had devised the script to cope with
473-638: Is said to have become the way the common people wrote by the Six Dynasties period. By the Northern and Southern dynasties , the regular script had succeeded the clerical script and become the principal script in use. After the Northern and Southern dynasties, the clerical script was no longer actively in use, but its style survived in calligraphy. In the Tang dynasty , calligraphers including Han Zemu ( 韓擇木 ), Shi Weize ( 史惟則 ), Li Chao ( 李潮 ) and Cai Youlin ( 蔡有鄰 ) were renowned for their clerical calligraphy. From
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#1732775378161516-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
559-674: The Qing dynasty (1644–1912); the calligrapher Huang Ziyuan [ zh ] wrote a guidebook illustrating these rules, with four characters provided as an example for each. The Eight Principles of Yong encapsulate varieties of most strokes that appear in the regular script. Regular script characters with dimensions larger than 5 cm (2 in) are usually classified as 'large' ( 大楷 ; dàkǎi ); those smaller than 2 cm (0.8 in) are usually classified as 'small' ( 小楷 ; xiǎokǎi ), and those in between are 'medium' ( 中楷 ; zhōngkǎi ). Notable works written in regular script include
602-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
645-483: The bafen script can be found in the late Eastern Han dynasty, with "carefully and neatly executed" inscriptions on stelae . These stelae are regarded as calligraphic works of great significance, and are often used as models of clerical-style calligraphy. Some important inscriptions include: A new type of clerical script, for which Chinese palaeographer Qiu Xigui termed the name "neo-clerical" ( simplified Chinese : 新隶体 ; traditional Chinese : 新隸體 ), arose in
688-612: The 'old clerical script' ( 古隸 ), which is now also the name for the early clerical scripts before the bafen development. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until
731-467: The Eastern Han dynasty. The script, for convenience, abandoned the heavy tails present in the bafen script, while taking influence from the contemporaneous cursive script . Influenced by this new script style, the semi-cursive script would then arise, which would in turn give rise to the regular script . The neo-clerical form, or an intermediate form of the neo-clerical and the semi-cursive forms,
774-686: The Northern and Southern-era Records of Yao Boduo Sculpturing ( 姚伯多造像記 ) and Tablet of General Guangwu ( 廣武將軍碑 ), the Sui-era Tablet of Longzang Temple ( 龍藏寺碑 ), Tombstone Record of Sui Xiaoci ( 蘇孝慈墓誌 ), and Tombstone Record of Beauty Tong ( 董美人墓誌 ), and the Tang-era Sweet Spring at Jiucheng Palace ( 九成宮醴泉銘 ). 其數然而天地苞 乎陰陽而易識者 以其有象也陰陽 處乎天地而難窮 Clerical script The clerical script ( traditional Chinese : 隸書 ; simplified Chinese : 隶书 ; pinyin : lìshū ), sometimes also chancery script ,
817-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
860-459: The Qin dynasty, the official script was the small seal script. The clerical script was associated with low social status, and, although allowed as a sort of auxiliary writing style for clerks, was generally not used in formal occasions. However, it gradually assumed dominance over the small seal script over time, and had become the main script in use in the Han dynasty. Over the course of the Han dynasty,
903-466: The Qin-state script system ( 秦系文字 ; 'Qin-branch scripts'), and were the basis on which the Qin small seal script was standardized. The folk varieties of the Qin-state scripts can be seen to already have employed shapes that are more rectilinear than in the more orthodox scripts, with less long, sinuous lines and more readily segmented strokes, and are closer to the later clerical script than to
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#1732775378161946-589: The Tang to the Ming dynasties, calligraphers occasionally wrote in clerical style as well. The Qing dynasty saw a revival in clerical-style calligraphy, with notable calligraphers such as Jin Nong , Deng Shiru , Yi Bingshou ( 伊秉綬 ) and Zheng Fu ( 鄭簠 ). Due to its high legibility to modern readers, the clerical-style calligraphy is still used for artistic flavor in a variety of functional applications such as headlines, logos, signboards, and advertisements. There are
989-532: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
1032-460: The clerical scripts continued to mature and stabilize, finally arriving at a visually unique style. This style is characterized by the following points: The last two features above are sometimes called the 'wavy propensity' ( simplified Chinese : 波势 ; traditional Chinese : 波勢 ) or 'wavy downward strokes' ( 波磔 ). Additionally, the leftward-falling strokes and anticlockwise curves also tend to have upward tilted ends. Clerical scripts before
1075-544: The father of regular script. His famous works include the Xuanshi biao ( 宣示表 ), Jianjizhi biao ( 薦季直表 ), and Liming biao ( 力命表 ). Palaeographer Qiu Xigui describes the script in Xuanshi biao as: ...clearly emerging from the womb of early period semi-cursive script. If one were to write the tidily written variety of early period semi-cursive script in a more dignified fashion and were to use consistently
1118-431: The formation of these features are often called Qin clerical script ( 秦隶 ; 秦隸 ) or 'old script' ( 古隶 ; 古隸 ), which include the early clerical scripts from the late Warring States period to the early Han dynasty. Clerical scripts with these features are called 'Han script' ( 汉隶 ; 漢隸 ) or bafen ( 八分 ) script. The style of bafen script is the basis of most of the later clerical-style calligraphy. The most mature form of
1161-461: The heavy workload. There are also historical traditions dating back to the Han dynasty which attributed the creation of clerical script specifically to a Qin-dynasty prison officer, Cheng Miao ( 程邈 ), who was said to have invented it at the behest of Qin Shi Huang . However, archaeological findings have shown that the clerical script was not the invention by a certain person or certain people, but
1204-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
1247-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
1290-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
1333-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
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1376-452: The middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of the predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is
1419-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
1462-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
1505-404: The pause technique [( 頓 ; dùn )], used to reinforce the beginning or ending of a stroke when ending horizontal strokes, a practice which already appears in early period semi-cursive script, and further were to make use of right-falling strokes with thick feet, the result would be a style of calligraphy like that in the "Xuān shì biǎo". However, very few wrote in this script at the time other than
1548-406: The regular script is descended both from the early semi-cursive style as well as from the neo-clerical script. The script is considered to have become stylistically mature during the Tang dynasty (618–907), with the most famous and oft-imitated calligraphers of that period being the early Tang's Four Great Calligraphers ( 初唐四大家 ): Ouyang Xun , Yu Shinan , Chu Suiliang , and Xue Ji , as well as
1591-520: The small seal script in both style and structure. In particular, some scripts discovered on bamboo and wooden slips are stylistically distinct from the earlier and even contemporary Qin-state scripts, and thus are often seen as a form of early clerical script. Examples include the Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts ( c. 217 BCE ), and the Qingchuan wooden slips ( c. 309 BCE ). In
1634-560: The tandem of Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan . During the Northern Song (960–1127), Emperor Huizong created an iconic style known as 'slender gold' ( 瘦金體 ; shòujīntǐ ). During the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322) also became known for his own calligraphic style for the regular script, called Zhaoti ( 趙體 ). 92 rules governing the fundamental structure of regular script were established during
1677-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
1720-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
1763-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
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1806-539: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
1849-466: Was evolved naturally from the earlier scripts. It has also been argued that, rather than being established by government scribes, clerical script was already in popular use, and its use by clerks in the Qin dynasty merely reflects this trend. The clerical script was developed from the local script varieties in the state of Qin in the Warring States period . These scripts are said to belong to
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