Regular script, c. 200–700

Given the many hours being taught type attributes and characteristics, learning more about the history and hosts of impacts/roles that type plays in our life/heritage is, undoubtedly, refreshing.

I appreciate the rich history behind this regular Chinese script. Its origin dated back to the rule of Qin Shi Huang, who was the very first emperor to unify the raging fragments of China.

Owing to the evolution of Chinese calligraphy, the small seal script or the Seal script or Qin script, evolved into clerical, semi-cursive, cursive and finally, standard/regular script. Under his leadership, the Chinese writing was made standardised for the very first time, such that all words with the same meaning in the country’s varied languages would be represented by the same characters. By doing so, he was able to regulate the level of dissent in the country, thereby allowing him to keep a tight grip on his political rule and clout. He also rewrote history, both figuratively (by unifying China) and literally, by ridding of all politically-critical writing/literature.

This simply illustrates the core principle and purpose behind text, script or type (for that matter), communication. Communication with current and future generations.

This is an apt quote by Dan Brown and it says,

“History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, ‘What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”

Sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people/reference/qin-shi-huangdi/

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/148791-history-is-always-written-by-the-winners-when-two-cultures