Listen to this articlelìshū 隶书
Clerical Script
汉字发展演变中的一种书体。亦称“隶字”“古书”。隶书由篆书简化演变而成，在笔画方面，它改篆书的圆转为方折；在结体方面，其字形多呈宽扁，横画长而竖画短，讲究“蚕头雁尾”“一波三折”。隶书相传为秦时小吏程邈所创，实际起源于战国，而程邈为这一书体的整理与定型起了至关重要的作用。与篆书相比，隶书的字形结构趋于简化，书写方式更为便捷。东汉时期普遍使用隶书，使这一书体的发展达到顶峰。魏晋时期也称隶书为“楷书”“正书”，实为似隶而体势多波磔的“八分”。
Clerical script is a variety of Chinese calligraphy during its evolution, also known as the “official script” or “ancient style of calligraphy.” It evolved from and was a simplification of seal script. In terms of execution of strokes, clerical script changed rounded turns to abrupt turns. Structurally, each character was wider and flatter, with longer horizontal lines and shorter vertical ones, featuring an elegant style like “a silkworm’s head and the tail of a wild goose,” and “one wave and three bends.” Clerical script is said to have been invented by a junior clerk named Cheng Miao who lived in the Qin Dynasty but actually it originated during the earlier Warring States Period. Cheng Miao was responsible only for putting into order and standardizing this calligraphic style. Compared with the seal script, clerical script was simpler in structure and more convenient to write. It became popular in the Eastern Han Period, reaching an unprecedented height of development. In the Wei and Jin period, the clerical script was also referred to as regular script, or proper script, which is similar to clerical style, but with leftfalling and right-falling strokes.
引例 Citations：
◎是时秦烧灭经书，涤除旧典，大发吏卒，兴役戍，官狱职务繁，初有隶书，以趣约易。（许慎《说文解字·序》）
（这时秦始皇焚烧经书，废除过去的典籍，大规模征发官吏、士卒去服劳役、守边疆，使得官府、牢狱的事务非常繁多，于是产生了隶书，目的是书写简易便捷。）
The First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty ordered the burning of the classics and sent large numbers of government functionaries and soldiers for forced labor or garrison along the border, leaving a huge amount of routine matters at government offices and prisons unattended. As a result, clerical script was invented to make it easier to deal with the increasing amount of document writing. (Xu Shen: Explanation of Script and Elucidation of Characters)
◎秦既用篆，奏事繁多，篆字难成，即令隶人佐书，曰隶字。汉因行之，独符、印玺、幡信、题署用篆。隶书者，篆之捷也。（《晋书·卫恒传》）
（秦代使用篆书，由于奏报的事务繁多，篆书非常难写，于是命令隶人帮助抄写文书，故称之为隶书。汉代沿用这一书体，唯独兵符、玺印、作符节的旗帜以及匾额、楹柱等上面所题的字还使用篆书书写。隶书，是篆书的便捷书写。）
The seal script was adopted in the Qin Dynasty. Later, because matters became numerous and it was very difficult to write with the seal script, the Emperor ordered junior clerks to help copy government documents. Hence the name “clerical script.” The Han Dynasty continued to use this style of calligraphy, except when carving characters on a commander’s tally, an imperial seal, banners used as amulets, horizontal inscribed boards or pillars at the entrance to a hall. The clerical script evolved from the seal script into a more convenient form of writing. (The History of the Jin Dynasty)
