Listen to this articlexiǎozhuàn 小篆
Small-seal Script
由大篆改造而成的一种字体。秦始皇统一中国后，令丞相李斯等对大篆进行简化，颁布为官定标准字体。小篆使用圆润整齐的线条，减少了异体字，便于书写和认读，汉代为隶书所取代。小篆字体修长，讲究对称，起笔不露锋毫，收笔自然下垂，笔画曲折度可以随心变化，造成多种古朴而优美的形态，一直为书法家所钟爱，成为中国书法艺术的独特形态。
Small-seal script is a style of calligraphy derived from large-seal script. After unifying the country, the First Emperor of Qin ordered Li Si, his prime minister, to simplify the large-seal script that was most popular in the Western Zhou period. This simplified script was officially issued as the standard form of handwriting. Small-seal script uses beautifully cursive and uniform lines, facilitating handwriting and reading by reducing the number of variant forms of Chinese characters. Characters written in this style are gracefully long and symmetrical; they feature a smooth starting stroke and a natural, final vertical one. The curvy lines vary as the calligrapher wishes, thus producing many simple yet elegant variations. Calligraphers of all ages have loved small-seal script, a unique style of calligraphic art. It was replaced by clerical script in the Han Dynasty.
引例 Citation：
◎斯作《仓颉篇》，中车府令赵高作《爰历篇》，太史令胡毋敬作《博学篇》，皆取史籀大篆，或颇省改，所谓小篆者也。（许慎《说文解字·叙》）
（李斯写作的《仓颉篇》，中车府令赵高写作的《爰历篇》，太史令胡毋敬写作的《博学篇》，都是借鉴最早的大篆体字书《史籀篇》，有的加以简化和改造，这就是“小篆”。）
The Cang Jie written by Prime Minister Li Si, the Yuanli written by the imperial horse-drawn carriage manager Zhao Gao, and the Broad Learning written by the imperial astronomer Hu Wujing are all separate parts of an early school primer, and all borrow heavily from Shizhoupian, an early dictionary of Chinese large-seal characters, with quite a few simplifications and transformations. Hence what we call “small-seal script” today. (Xu Shen: Explanation of Script and Elucidation of Characters)
◎唐大历中，李阳冰篆迹殊绝，独冠古今，于是刊定《说文》，修正笔法，学者师慕，篆籀中兴。（《宋史·徐铉传》）
（唐大历年间，李阳冰的篆书特别奇妙，独为古今篆体书法之冠。他刊定了许慎的《说文解字》，修正了有些篆体笔法。学篆书者仰慕而师从他，篆体书法又兴盛起来。）
During Emperor Daizong of reign in the Tang period, Li Yangbing’s wonderfully handwritten small-seal characters crowned the world. His amended version of Xu Shen’s Explanation of Script and Elucidation of Characters revised small-seal script in a number of ways. Learners of small-seal calligraphy admired and followed him, thus making it prosperous again. (The History of the Song Dynasty)
