During the times when printing was not common, the heritage and communication in writing was conducted with the annotations and copy of textbooks for beginners. The writing education was circulated and communicated in the form of copying books. In the Qin Dynasty, textbooks for beginners in and the strict limitation by laws of the educational system made written characters to be unified. As a widely used textbook in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty, Cangjiepian was a product to regulate the language policy and thinking. Complied in the early Qin Dynasty about two thousand years ago when Qin unified the kingdom, it recorded the form and meaning of Chinese characters in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty. As a textbook in the ancient times, the contents, style of characters and form of Cangjiepian was the “standard of the time.” The textbook can be regarded as the best evidence of Chinese writing over time regarding the evolution of the texts and written documents. Therefore, the hand-written characters on these textbooks can be regarded as the best examples for studies of the evolution of ancient Chinese characters and calligraphy. Because of the important values, they receive more and more attention from the researchers.

In the history of Chinese calligraphy, clerical script inherited the features of seal script, transforming it from round to square shape, from long to flat in form. Likewise, the writing became more practical and easier to use, initiating the legacy of cursive script, semi-cursive script and kai script, with the importance of inheriting the past and inspiring the future in Chinese writing. Since the twentieth century, jian du (bamboos slips) have been excavated massively, inviting vivid and inspiring academic discussions in the written Chinese and its history. Cangjiepian, collected in Beijing University demonstrates the example of the evolution of written Chinese characters in the Western Han Dynasty, shown to have significant meanings in the study of Chinese characters and calligraphy. It inherited the system of written Chinese characters in the Qin Dynasty. Yet, there are still variants in written characters, abbreviated written form, common written formats in the Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty, ancient form of characters, etc. Nevertheless, clerical script had developed its own features, manifesting the characteristics in the transitional period of the seal script.

The excavated bamboo slips of the Han Dynasty are mostly written records. On the long and narrow bamboo slips, the written characters were shown to be diverse in forms. The written Chinese character is an abstract form for symbols as well as an art form. In written Chinese, both characters and calligraphy are fused into a mutual dependent form. This thesis analyses and compares the styles of calligraphy and fathom its styles and the actual conditions of written Chinese characters in different periods from the perspective of art calligraphy with the help of the characters’ form, features and brushstrokes, form and style, spatial arrangements and overall layout. With the excavated written characters in jian du and other textbooks as object of studies, they are compared to find out the calligraphic style of different periods, With the evolution of the characters, the formation factors and mutual influence are cross-referenced, regarding the factors and influence.