TS'AO-SHU

Pinyin Caoshu (Chinese: draft script, or grass script), in Chinese calligraphy, a cursive variant of the standard Chinese scripts li-shu and k'ai-shu (qq.v.) and their semicursive derivative hsing-shu. The script developed during the Han dynasty (206BCAD220), and it had its period of greatest growth during the T'ang dynasty (618907). In ts'ao-shu the number of strokes in characters are reduced to single scrawls or abstract abbreviations of curves and dots. Strokes of varying thickness and modulation show a great variety of shapes. Ts'ao-shu is not bound by rules for even spacing, and characters need not be of the same approximate size; the calligrapher thus has the fullest freedom of expressive movement of line. K'uang (crazy) ts'ao-shu is an extremely wild and illegible form.