But the earliest documents concerning so-called "creative" calligraphy can be traced back to the end of the Han dynasty. Zhao Yi in the treatise Fei Cao Shu (" Against Cao-style Calligraphy "), criticized the literati of the time, who were immersed in calligraphy to such a degree that" their lips and teeth are constantly black, "and they" neither eat nor sleep. "
但所謂「自覺性」的書法創作，目前最早的文獻記錄是在漢末，趙壹在「非草書」一文中批評當時文人忘情於書法已到「唇齒常黑」、「廢寢忘食」的地步。