In the chaos which followed the collapse of the Han Dynasty, China was divided into a number of small states, and was subdivided further in the following centuries. The country began a long period of regime changes, social turbulence and competing intellectual activities. Official script lost its dominant influence, regular script and running script became popular. Many excellent calligraphists appeared and lots of their outstanding works were carried down to the present day. Zhong You's (Wei Dynasty) two memorials to the throne are among the first classics of regular script. Lu Ji's "Ping Fu Tie" is the earliest authentic work known. Wang Xizhi's (Eastern Jin Dynasty) "Lan Ting Xu" is regarded as "the best running script in the history" and set an unsurpassed example for later generations.