Clerical Script - Origins

Origins

Clerical script is popularly but mistakenly thought to have developed or been invented in the early Hàn dynasty from the small seal script. There are also historical traditions dating to the Hàn dynasty which mistakenly attributed the creation of clerical script to the Qín dynasty and in particular to Chéng Miǎo, who was said to have invented it at the behest of Qín Shĭhuáng. Another traditional account is that it was invented by government scribes, in particular those involved in the justice and penal systems. However, from written materials unearthed by archaeologists, it is now known that all stages of Chinese writing underwent periods of natural evolution, and none of them were inventions by one person; this is true of clerical script as well. Furthermore, rather than being established by government scribes, it has been argued that clerical script was already in popular use, and the Qín dynasty use by scribes merely reflects this trend. Archaeological discoveries now clearly show that an immature form of clerical script ("proto-clerical") was already developing in the state of Qín during the Warring States period, and into the early Western Hàn; this can be seen on a number of bamboo books unearthed recently. Furthermore, the writing immediately preceding clerical script was not merely seal script; rather, there was a coexistence of seal script (the at-first dominant and formal style) alongside an increasingly popular but secondary form of "vulgar", "popular", or "common" writing which was very roughly executed and which was generally rectilinear. The popularity of this vulgar writing grew as the use of writing itself became more widespread. The structures and style of many of the characters executed in this vulgar writing were similar or even identical to their later clerical script counterparts, leading some to conclude that proto-clerical (and therefore clerical) script evolved not from seal script but from the vulgar writing of Qín which coexisted with seal script in Warring States to Qín dynasty. The Qín bamboo script is a good example of this transition, having evolved from vulgar Qín writing and considered by some to constitute Qín clerical script.