Lishu (official script) is developed from wild writing of Liuwen, a kind of calligraphy that is round in shape and has too many strokes. Because writing in Liuwen is time-consuming, people usually tended to write a little more wildly and changed orderly arced strokes into relatively flat and straight in informal occasions. Li calligraphy came into being in the Qin State of the late Warring States Period (475-221BC) and gradually became popular.

Lishu includes three types -- Qin Li of the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), Han Li of the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) and Bafen calligraphy. Qin Li refers to the simplified characters adopted for use during the reign of Qin Emperor Shihuang. By the Han Dynasty, the calligraphy in daily life was Lishu but its shape and handwriting got much development. Bafen calligraphy refers to the 80% style, which contracts the lesser seal calligraphy by a subtraction of 20%.

In fact, the simplified Chinese characters popular in the Qin Dynasty emerged before Qin Emperor Shihuang unified the eight calligraphic styles. According to archeological findings, characters on some wooden plates and bamboo pieces from the Warring States Period and weapons, and lacquers and potteries from the Qin Dynasty were simpler than the Zhuan (seal script). The shape of the Chinese characters changed from round to square and the strokes tend to be wave-shaped. This was the beginning of Lishu.

The emergence of Lishu is an important reform in Chinese calligraphy. It ended the 3,000-year history of archaic Chinese characters and replaced them with a simpler writing form. Signs and designs almost disappeared, and characters became solely symbols.