Wei Heng on Lishu卫恒：隶书

It was during the Wei Jin period where that rules for calligraphy writing were established. Four families then were famous for producing many calligraphers and Wei family was one of them. The family worked hard for three generation at calligraphy and was particularly good at clerical script (lishu). They revived the old and learned the new. Three members of Wei family, namely Wei Guan, Wei Heng and Wei Shuo, are famous not only for their calligraphic works, also for their contribution to the theories of calligraphy. Wei Guan was the father of Wei Heng and uncle of Wei Shuo.

Wei Shuo’s essay ‘Battle Formation of the Brushstroke’ instructed artists about the flow and law of calligraphy. She maintained that the most important part of calligraphy was the brush, ink, and ink stone. She also recorded seven methods for holding a brush.

Wei Heng’s essay on the ‘Calligraphy Postures of Four Styles’ detailed why calligraphy should be considered a beautiful art form. Below is extracted from the essay that talks about the calligraphy of clerical script (lishu).

When time-consuming seal script could not keep up with multiplied clerical work in Qin, people in servitude were assigned to assist. Their handwriting was called clerical script, a shortcut of seal script. This script continued into the Han while seal script was confined to seals, banners and title of inscriptions.

Wang Cizhong of Shanggu standardized clerical script. The then Emperor Ling was keen on calligraphy, and his keenness yielded many skilled men. The best of the bunch was Shi Yiguan, who could write big characters three meters square or hundreds of small characters on a wood slip an inch wide, which he was proud of. Sometimes he went to a wine shop with empty pockets. He wrote on its wall while waiting his wine money from admiring crowd. When he had enough copper cash for the day, he would scrape the wall clean. He used to pare or burn his wood slips at the finish. To obtain his slips, Liang Gu pretended to be partaking of his drink, and then stole his slips when he was drunk. Benefiting from those slips, Liang Gu at last advanced to the Minister of the Ministry of Official Personnel Affairs. Shi Yiguan joined Yuan Shu's army later. The skilled inscription of Stele of Geng Qiu in Songzi County, which was erected by Yuan, is said to be his handwriting.

Liang Gu joined Liu Biao later on. When Jingzhou fell, Cao Cao recruited him. Cao appointed him the Magistrate of Luoyang, but Liang mistook it for the Constable of the Watch. In confusion, he bound himself to see Cao, thereupon Cao reappointed him to the Secretariat. Liang was a diligent secretary; this is why we can see many of his works today. Cao took delight in hanging Liang Gu's calligraphy in his camp tent and inscribing it on the boards that still hang in his palace. With his favour Cao thought Liang wrote a better hand than Shi Yiguan.

Liang was good at big characters, while his contemporary Handan Chun was good at small characters. He once said that Handan had the essential of Wang Cizhong's standard; his characters in fact exerted it to the extreme. His disciple Mao Hong taught in the Secretariat, whose clerical style is what we practice today.

By the end of Han, Zuo Bo was famous, but a little inferior to Liang Gu and Handan Chun. To the beginning of Wei, Zhong Yao and Hu Zhao defined semi-cursive (walking) script that comes into fashion today. Both of them learned it from Liu Desheng, while Zhong is just a little different from Hu. Each man has his own characteristics; however, both ways of writing are very popular among the people.

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书法书写的法则建立于魏晋时期。当时四大家族出了不少书法家，卫家就是其中的一个家族。这个家族三代勤于书法，尤精于隶书。他们振旧立新。卫家的三名成员，卫瓘、卫恒与卫铄，除了书法闻名，还在书法理论方面做出了很大贡献。卫瓘是魏恒的父亲，也是卫铄的叔叔。

卫铄的‘笔阵图’指导艺术家书法的形势与法则。她认为书法以笔、墨、砚为重。她也详述了执笔七法。

卫恒的‘四体书势’叙述书法何以应是美丽的艺术形式。下面是该文讲书法中隶书。

秦既用篆，奏事繁多，篆字难成，即令隶人佐书，曰隶字。汉因用之，独符玺、幡信、题署用篆。隶书者，篆之捷也。

上谷王次仲始作楷法，至灵帝好书，时多能者，而师宜官为最，大则一字径丈，小则方寸千言，甚矜其能。或时不持钱诣酒家饮，因书其壁，顾观者以酬洒直，计钱足而灭之。每书辄削而焚其捬，梁鹄乃益为捬，而饮之酒，候其醉而窃其□。鹄卒以书至选部尚书。宜官后为袁术将，今巨鹿宋子有《耿球碑》，是术所立，其书甚工，云是宜官书也。

梁鹄奔刘表，魏武帝破荆州，募求鹄。鹄之为选部也，魏武欲为洛阳令而以为北部尉，故惧而自缚诣门。署军假司马，在秘书书勤书自效，是以今者多有鹄手迹。魏武帝悬著帐中，及以钉壁玩之，以为胜宜官，今宫殿题署多是鹄书。

鹄宜为大字，邯郸淳宜为小字，鹄谓淳得次仲法，然鹄之用笔，尽其势矣。鹄弟子毛弘教于秘书，今八分皆弘之法也。

汉末有左子邑，小与淳、鹄不同，然亦有名。魏初，有钟、胡二家为行书法，俱学之于刘德升，而钟氏小异，然亦各有其巧，今盛行于世。