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Scripts Development / Clerical Scripts     (隸 書 "Li Shu")     (100 - 200 A.D.)
 
|中 文 / Chinese|
 
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  Shi Men
Monument
(石 門 頌)
Han (148 A.D.)
Yi Ying
Monument
(乙 瑛 碑)
Han (153 A.D.)
Li Qi
Monument
(禮 器 碑)
Han (156 A.D.)
Xi Ping Classics
on stone
(熹 平 石 經)
Han (175 A.D.)
Cao Quan
Monument
(曹 全 碑)
Han (185 A.D.)
 
 
The "Li" Script achieved perfection by late Eastern Han, which was several hundred years after it was first created in the Qin Dynasty.

Characters were now written in a way stretching the bottoms to further opposite ends, making it a "Ba Fen" (八 分). In Chinese, "Ba" (八) is the number eight with only two strokes each spreading to left and right, and "fen" (分) means split. The "Li" characters were styled flat and angular, and with emphasis focused generally on the stronger right lashes.

Now that the format of each character was more or less conformed and controlled, attention was then drawn to the artistic presentation of each character and the structure of the entire artwork.

Many of the remarkable tablets and monuments in "Li" script were found in the Han Dynasty. It is a pity that the artists at that time were too modest to inscribe their signatures on the artworks. As a result, the creators of these masterpieces remained unknown.



Let us look at some of the very famous monuments of this period.

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