The Characteristics of Zhangcao Character

【Abstrct】Ji Jiu pian is a enlightenment textbook. Shiyou has written in the Emperor Yuan of Western Han Dynasty，which is the existing earliest and best preserved enlightenment textbook. But it is not only an important enlightenment textbook，but also a representative work of zhang cao calligraphy. A great deal of researches have emerged in future generations.This article takes Songjiangs version- Ji Jiu pian- as an example to summarizes the characteristcs of Zhangcao focusing on Zhangcao font style，writing style and symbolization trend.

【Key words】Zhangcao； Ji Jiu pian； Characteristics

【作者簡介】李霞（1992-），女，汉族，山西晋城人，青岛大学，读硕士研究生，研究方向：汉语言文字学。

In the past， many scholars have conducted various researches on its annotation，edition source，calligraphy etc. But the researches on the characteristics of Zhangcao is relatively weak.Therefore，the author takes Songjiangs version- Ji Jiu pian- as an example to analyze the characters of zhangcao from three aspects： the characteristics of glyph， the way of writing and the trend of symbolization.

Section One the characteristics of glyph

Ⅰ. Stroke form

From the external structure， some characters seem that nothing has been added or reduced in Ji Jiu pian.There is a difference between the original and the written strokes，for example .They are more prominent in the writing gravity of right-falling stroke，and have a sense of elongation.The end of right-falling stroke presents more pronounced upward trend.

Ⅱ. font structure

One character original structure is left middle right structure. The original characters structure has changed，as a result of the use of abbreviations， simple， joined-up and other ways to simplify the glyph in Zhangcao.For example，. Not only have the components changed， even the original left middle right structure has changed into the current upper lower structure.

Ⅲ. the way of writing

Zhang caos strokes in the continuous pen is more circular arc， with a certain radian.Whatever is up down or left right structure ，it can be connected. So it is more convenient to write， which improve the speed of writing.When turning， it is not always turned into a square state， and the strokes are obvious，for example， .

Section Two Writing method

Ⅰ. Abbreviations

Similar to the simplification of Chinese characters， abbreviation which omit a part instead of the whole characters looks more concise than the original font.This writing style of abbreviation is embodied more in “Ji Jiu Pian”.And it mainly embodied in the bottom of the characters “心” and the writing beside the characters “口”for example .

Ⅱ. omission writing

Some characters retain only one part of the Chinese character in the jijiu pian and keep its outline. This characteristic is the omission writing.Omission writing means to leave out a part. The difference between abbreviation and omission writing is to simplify Chinese characters， while omission writing means to leave out some parts of Chinese character，for example ect.Another form of omission is “no dot is not a character，” with a dot to represent parts.There are many such characters in Ji Jiu Pian，such as ， .

Ⅲ. joined-up

joined-up is one of the characteristics of Zhangcao writing. Many characters are either written in one stroke， like a stroke or two strokes. The following characters are written in a joined-up style： .

Section Three the trend of symbolization

There are the same or similar writing， but also have special cases and variations in Zhangcao.As the saying goes： “where there are rules， there are exceptions. “

Each the side of a character in Ji Jiu Pian has the same way of writing，such as .The character “戈” is usually written in this form. “走” is usually written this way； But sometimes the same part can be written in more than one way.For example， “口” is written as “” when used as a single character， and is usually written when used as a part of a character，There are exceptions， for example；The bottom of the characters “心” usually write， sometimes write something like “一”，比如.On the contrary， the same writing can represent several parts， which is the assimilation in zhangcao.For instance，“”this part can indicate the bottom of the characters “口”（）.

Based on the example of Ji Jiu Pian， this paper analyzes the writing style of abbreviation，omission writing and joined-up from the characteristics of glyph writing method as well as the trend of its symbolization.

References：

[1]Xun Peng.A Study on the Formal and Structural evolvement of the Zhang Cao Script[D].Shandong University，2010.