Fangsong

Fangsong (or Imitation Song) is a style of typeface for Chinese characters modeled after that used in block-printed works from Lin'an during the Southern Song dynasty. The script used in the printed work is derived from regular script. Fangsong is the standard typeface in official documents produced by the Chinese government,^[1] and civil drawings in both China and Taiwan.

The char­ac­ters 仿宋體 written in a modern fangsong typeface

Fangsong
Traditional Chinese	仿宋體
Simplified Chinese	仿宋体
Literal meaning	imitation Song style
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin fǎngsòng tǐ
Alternative Japanese name
Kanji	宋朝体
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn sōchōtai

Characteristics

Characteristics of Fangsong typefaces include:

• The basic structure of regular script.
• Relatively straight strokes, with horizontal strokes slanting up slightly.
• Low stroke width variation between horizontal and vertical strokes, with strokes usually being relatively thin.
• Overall geometrical regularity.

History

A page of a publication from Chén zhái shūjí bù

The printing industry that began during the Tang dynasty reached an apex in the Song dynasty, during which there were three major areas of production:^[2]

• Zhejiang, where publications imitated the regular script of Ouyang Xun
• Sichuan, where publications imitated the regular script of Yan Zhenqing
• Fujian, where publications imitated the regular script of Liu Gongquan

When Song lost control of northern China to the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), its capital was moved to Lin'an (modern Hangzhou), where there was a revival of printing, especially literature from Tang left in what was conquered by the Jin dynasty. Many publishers were established in Lin'an, including Chén zhái shūjí bù (陳宅書籍鋪) established by Chen Qi (陳起),^[2] from which publications used a distinct style of regular script with orderly, near-constant-width, straight strokes, simplifying carving for woodblock printing.

Modern typefaces that imitate this Song Dynasty carving style are called Fangsong, or "imitation Song", typefaces. The first typeface of this kind was produced in 1915 by brothers DING Shanzhi and DING Fuzhi, based on block-printed books from the Song dynasty as well as the stroke design in a Qing Dynasty copy of 朱柏庐先生治家格言 which was block-printed in an imitation Song style. The resulting metal movable typeface was called Juzhen Fangsong (聚珍仿宋体). It was used by the Chung Hwa Book Company [zh] to print a collection of classical texts called Sibu Beiyao [zh] starting in 1921.^[3]

In computing

See also: List of CJK fonts § Imitation Song

The aforementioned standard uses of Fangsong all make use of digitized typefaces.

"fangsong" was added to the list of generic font families in CSS Font Module Level 4 of 2024. This allows a Fangsong font to be used without knowing its name, the same way writing "serif" in CSS requests any serif font.^[4]