The types of calligraphy can be roughly divided into regular, cursive, official, seal, and running styles.
Zhengshu: also called "regular script" and "real script". Its characteristics are: square shape and straight strokes, which can be used as a model, hence the name. It began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are many famous masters of regular script, such as "Ou Ti" (Ouyang Xun), "Yu Ti" (Yu Shinan), "Yan Ti" (Yan Zhenqing), "Liu Ti" (Liu Gongquan), "Zhao Ti" (Zhao Yufu), etc.
Cursive script: a font created for the convenience of writing. It began in the early Han Dynasty. What was commonly used at that time was "Cao Li", that is, scrawled official script. Later, it gradually developed into a kind of "Zhang Cao" with artistic value. In the late Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhi changed "Zhangcao" to "Jincao", forming the style of the characters in one stroke. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xu and Huai Su developed "Kang Cao" with continuous and convoluted strokes and numerous changes in glyphs.
Official script: also called "official script" and "ancient script". It is a font based on seal script and produced to meet the needs of convenient writing. Simplified the small seal script, and transformed the evenly rounded lines of the small seal script into straight and square strokes, making it easier to write. It is divided into "Qin Li" (also called "Ancient Li") and "Han Li" (also called "Modern Li"). The emergence of official script is a major change in ancient writing and calligraphy.
Seal script: It is the collective name for large seal script and small seal script. Large seal script, nail bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, Zhou inscriptions, and Six Kingdoms inscriptions all preserve the obvious characteristics of ancient hieroglyphics. Dazhuan, also known as "Qin Zhuan", is the common script of the Qin Dynasty. It is a simplified font of Dazhuan. It is characterized by an even and neat shape and a font that is easier to write than Zhenwen. In the history of the development of Chinese characters, it is the transition between the large seal script and regular script.
Ringshu: A font between regular script and cursive script. It was created to make up for the slow writing speed of regular script and the difficulty of legibility of cursive script. The writing style is not as sloppy as cursive script, nor does it require regular script to be as straight. Those with more regular script than cursive script are called "Xingkai". Those with more cursive than regular script are called "Xingcao". Running script began in the late Han Dynasty.
Big seal script, small seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script, and running script are several important stages in the development of Chinese characters. However, as an art of calligraphy, it has been preserved, and each has formed numerous schools. Many unique masters have appeared, and they have rich and colorful art treasures.