Listen to this articlekǎishū 楷书
Regular Script
汉字发展演变中的一种书体。亦称“正书”“真书”“正楷”。为了减少汉隶的波磔流转，端正草书的散漫无则，方便书写和辨识，书家在隶书的基础上更趋简化，横平竖直，逐渐演化出楷书。楷书笔画平整，结体方正，富有法度，可作楷模，故名“楷书”。它始自汉末，经魏晋时期的探索，到唐代成熟定型，通用至今，长盛不衰。按照时期划分，楷书可分为魏碑和唐楷。魏碑是指魏、晋、南北朝时期流行的，由隶书向楷书发展的过渡书体。唐楷是指唐代逐渐成熟的楷书。这个时期名家辈出，唐初的虞世南（558—638）、欧阳询（557—641）、褚遂良（596—658或659），中唐的颜真卿（708—784），晚唐的柳公权（778—865）等，皆是楷书大家，作品为后世所重，奉为习字楷模。
Regular script is one of the scripts of Chinese characters, also known as “proper script,” “true script,” or “model script.” To reduce the curviness and waviness of Han Dynasty clerical script, rectify the undisciplined and unregulated cursive script, facilitate writing and enhance intelligibility, calligraphers shifted toward a simpler style of writing, making both horizontal and vertical lines straighter. Thus, it evolved into the regular script. Characters written in this style looked neat and well laid out, upright and square, showing due reverence for rules governing the writing of calligraphy. This is precisely how it came to be called “model script.” It first emerged toward the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, became better known in the Wei and Jin dynasties, and fully matured and became widely accepted in the Tang Dynasty. It has been flourishing to this day. If divided by historical periods, regular script falls into two styles: Wei stone tablet regular script and Tang regular script. The former represented a transition from clerical script to regular script over the Wei, Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties period. The latter was Tang style regular script. Gaining its maturity in the Tang Dynasty, it witnessed many great calligraphers rising to fame, including Yu Shinan (558-638), Ouyang Xun (557-641), and Chu Suiliang (596-658 or 659) in the first years of the Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing (708-784) in the mid-Tang Dynasty and Liu Gongquan (778-865) in the last years of the same dynasty. These calligraphers have since been honored as paragons of Chinese calligraphy. Numerous practitioners have been using their calligraphic works as models of calligraphy through the ages.
引例 Citations：
◎在汉建初有王次仲者，始以隶字作楷法。所谓楷法者，今之正书是也。人既便之，世遂行焉。（《宣和书谱·正书序论》）
（东汉建初年间（76—84）有一位叫王次仲的人，开始变化隶书来写作楷书。当时的楷书就是今天所说的正书。人们觉得它书写方便，于是就推行开了。）
During the Jianchu period (76-84) of the Eastern Han, a man named Wang Cizhong gradually changed clerical script to regular script. The regular script of that time was the same as the model script of today. Believing that regular script facilitated writing, calligraphers started to popularize it. (Collected Works of Calligraphy Compiled by the Imperial Court During the Xuanhe Years of Emperor Huizong)
◎［充］善楷书，妙参钟、索，世咸重之。（《晋书·李充传》）
（［李充］善于写楷书，他妙悟参透了钟繇、索靖的书法真谛，世人都推重李充的书法。）
[Li Chong] excelled at regular script. He had a comprehensive and thorough understanding of the true meaning of the calligraphy of Zhong Yao and Suo Jing. Both his contemporaries and later generations have respected and admired him for his calligraphic skill. (The History of the Jin Dynasty)
