Small Seal Script Calligraphy 小篆书法

Li Si's Small Seal Script 李斯的篆书

The Small Seal script, or the Lesser Seal script, is based on Large Seal scripts and emphasizes regulation and simplification. As such, it can be considered to be the first standardized script.

The biggest characteristic of Small Seal script is its round strokes. As the round brush technique was used to write it, the strokes have the same thickness and seem soft, round, fine and glossy, but actually full of tenacity. Generally speaking, it has level horizontal strokes and plump vertical strokes to ensure an aesthetic distribution of the characters in the writing space. The characters are think and tall.

The normative and regular characteristic of Small Seal script is the product of the unified politics in the Qin dynasty. It lost its foundation for development after the collapse of Qin dynasty. Besides political reason, it had its own disadvantages. Its requirement of regularity and orderliness hindered its writing rapidity; it is not simple enough to meet the needs of the era.

The Prime Minister Li Si is said to be the originator of the Small Seal script. His Small Seal script was written by following strictly the rule of centered-tip technique, his strokes were all plump and shapely, and with the beauty of strength and flexibility. He had integrated into Small Seal script a beauty of ornament. Under his pen, curves with different radian and lines with different length were tactfully assembled into characters with the same decorating beauty as picture. The famous Stone Tablet of Mount Yi is said to be written by him.

Sun Guoting of the Tang dynasty said that the artistic character of Small Seal script was flexible, elegant and mellifluent. And the calligraphic style of Small Seal created by Li Si is very influential and considered as standard by calligraphers of later generations.

Please click here to learn more about other Chinese writing scripts.

.

小篆是由各种大篆发展而成，强调规整简约。因此，它可以说是最早的真书（或正书）。

小篆最大的特色是圆转的笔划。用圆转的笔法来书写，线条粗细一致，看起来柔圆细润，实则韧劲十足。一般来说，横画平行，竖笔垂直，确保字的线条空间分布富有美感。字体瘦长。

规整与划一的小篆是秦朝一统天下的政治产品。秦朝灭亡后，它就失去了发展的依据。除了政治的理由，它也有本身的缺点。它对于规范与整齐的要求也妨碍了书写的速度。它无法符合当时时代书写的需求。

宰相李斯是小篆的鼻祖。他本身的小篆严格遵循中锋笔法，笔划圆匀劲健，有刚柔并济之美。他把装饰美带进了小篆。在他的笔下，不同弧度的曲线与不同长度的直线巧妙地组合成装饰性强的文字，宛如美丽的图案。著名的《泰山刻石》据说是他的杰作。

唐代孙过庭说过，小篆的艺术特征是曲折优雅，流畅无阻。李斯所开创的小篆书法风格为后世书法家当作规范，影响深远。

请点击这里阅读其他字体的书法。

.