After people created Clerical script, writing was much faster than with Small Seal script because Clerical script was more flexible and more straight strokes. However, the bamboo slips and wooden tablets for writing were inconvenient. They were heavy, thick, and difficult to carry and store. Silk was good for writing, but it was too expensive.
The desire for cheap light writing material to replace bamboo slips and wooden tablets was very high.
From the archaeological finds, experts believe that in the early of West Han Dynasty (208 B.C. - 8 A.D.), people started to make paper for writing. The paper making technology was not good until Mr. Cai Lun' great contribution about 200 years later in East Han Dynasty.
Mr. Cai Lun (63 - 121 A. D., East Han Dynasty) was an Imperial Palace official, in charge of making palace utensils. He studied the folk cloth making technologies, he tried to use tree skin, old cloth, hemp plants, fish net materials to make paper. He was successfully in 105 A. D., making the breakthrough in calligraphy history. Chinese believe he was the first person in the world to invent papermaking technology and make paper.
Mr. Cai Lun (63 - 121 A. D., East Han Dynasty) was an Imperial Palace official, in charge of making palace utensils. He studied the folk cloth making technologies, he tried to use tree skin, old cloth, hemp plants, fish net materials to make paper. He was successfully in 105 A. D., making the breakthrough in calligraphy history. Chinese believe he was the first person in the world to invent papermaking technology and make paper.
Cai Lun (Han Dynasty)
Paper Making process (Han Dynasty)
The paper invention made the writing so cheap, the calligraphy finally got into people’s daily life. People had paper, plus brush, ink, people had all writing tools. The comprehensive calligraphy prosperity was ready to break out.
With paper in hand, the writing was from one dimensional to two dimensional, which gave the writer great freedom in writing. Writing on slips, just like riding a horse in small mountain road, you could only walk slowly. Writing on paper, you have great plains, you gallop in the grasslands.
As paper became popular, more people could write. So in the late of Han Dynasty, the Standard script, and the Running script were emerged. The Cursive was believed to be emerged in Warring States （403－ 221 B. C.), but got promoted in Han Dynasty because people were not limited on the bamboo or wooden slips to draw a very narrow small seal script any more,
the brush could go horizontal freely.
Let's compare the two style scripts
On the left are small seal scripts of Mountain, Wood, and Door. On the right are corresponding clerical scripts of Mountain, Wood, and Door.
We see the clerical scripts are shorter and wider than their counterparts of small seal scripts.
With paper, people could draw characters more freely, so it is understandable that standard script, running script, and cursive script, were all appeared and developed in Han Dynasty.
Zhang Cao - the earliest cursive script in Han Dynasty
It is paper that made Running script and Cursive script popular and progress possible.
The Running and Cursive scripts are much more flexible, there is no clear separation.
People more like the flexible, artistic, personalized Running script and Cursive script. Even many Emperors liked Running and Cursive scripts. For example, Shimin Li (599 － 649，Tang Dynasty)，the second Emperor of Tang Dynasty loved Wang Xizhi’s Running script writings very much, collected all Wang's works found in that time. Wang Xizhi (303 － 361 A. D., Jin Dynasty) was believed to be the greatest calligraphist in China. The Running script was accepted as an official script for government documents sometimes. But the major official script was still Standard Script. The print script has been Song script since Song Dynasty.
Wang Xizhi (303 - 361 A. D. , Jin Dynasty)
Lan Ting Xu by Wang Xi Zhi (Jin Dynasty)
The Running script and Cursive script represent the direction of artistic Chinese calligraphy, which is still active and vitality. Because different people have different personality, and writing style, there are many different calligraphic works. This is the art feature of the Chinese calligraphy, and why it is attractive forever.
The governments used the standard scripts in documents which were formal, no confusion. Clerical script was the standard script in Han Dynasty, Standard script has been the standard writing script since Tang Dynasty （618 － 907). Song script has been the standard print script since Song Dynasty (960 － 1279.
All Clerical script, Standard script, Running script, Cursive script were developed after the paper invention. Before paper, people wrote characters in one dimensional; after paper, people write characters in two-dimensional, which dramatically increased the calligraphy expression.
Cursive script - 黄庭坚 (Huang, Tingjian), Tang Dynasty
The governments used the standard scripts in documents which were formal, no confusion. Clerical script was the standard script in Han Dynasty, Standard script has been the standard writing script since Tang Dynasty （618 － 907). Song script has been the standard print script since Song Dynasty (960 － 1279.
Standard script - 颜真卿 （Yan, Zhenqing), Tang Dynasty
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