Regular script is also known as "True Script" and "Standard Script". "Regular" means model, namely, this type of script can be deemed as a model or standard script. There was a saying about calligraphy learning in ancient times, "Regular script is a must when learning calligraphy". This is because regular script is easy to write due to its square form and structure as well as straight strokes. Accordingly, since the date it was created, regular script has served as an official script in China over thousands of years.

Regular script is a sort of chirography arising following official script in the developmental course of Chinese chirographies. The creator and exact period in which he lived are not clear. However, in the opinion of most of calligraphists in the past generations, the originator is Wang Cizhong in the late Han Dynasty. The "Wei Regular Script" appeared on stone stele of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Period is the initial form of regular script. By the Tang Dynasty, regular script had been developed into a mature and independent chirography. It is at that time that a number of regular-script calligraphists came into being. They include Yu Shinan, Ouyang Xun and Chu Suiliang in the early Tang Dynasty as well as Yan Zhenqing in the mid-Tang Dynasty and Liu Gongquan in the late Tang Dynasty. Their regular-script works were valued by later generations and elevated into models of calligraphy. Regular script is classified in line with the size into small, medium and large ones.

Regular script acts as an evolving mainstream of standard font and other fonts of Chinese characters. Also, it is an evolving anabranch of these two types of Chinese characters: cursive script and running script (auxiliary fonts). Chinese character was basically finalized after the formation of regular script. Evolving from ancient writing, regular script could fulfill people's requirements for character standardization. Meanwhile, it conforms to the requirements for character standardization by typography invention and thus became an official chirography used in China over thousands of years.