隶书为秦书八体（许慎《说文解字》中叙“自尔秦书有八体：一曰大篆；二曰小篆；三曰刻符；四曰虫书；五曰摹印；六曰署书；七曰殳书；八曰隶书）之一，是汉字中常见的一种庄重的字体风格，书写效果略微宽扁，横画长而直画短，呈长方形状，讲究「蚕头雁尾」、「一波三折」。隶书起源于秦朝，相传由程邈整理而成，在东汉时期达到顶峰，书法界有「汉隶唐楷」之称。隶变，又称为隶定，是汉字由小篆演变为隶书的过程，大约发生在秦汉之间，是汉字发展的转折点，对后世的汉字有很大的影响。中国文本在小篆以前仍然遵从「六书」造字原则，汉隶则不再遵守「六书」原则，自行变化造形。现代的楷书和行书写法绝大部份和隶变之后相差不远。

The clerical script (traditional Chinese:隶书; simplified Chinese:隶书; pinyin:lìshū; Japanese: 隷书体, Reishotai), also formerly chancery script, is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which evolved in the Warring States period to the Qin dynasty, was dominant in the Han dynasty, and remained in use through the Wei-Jin periods. Due to its high legibility to modern readers, it is still used for artistic flavor in a variety of functional applications such as headlines, signboards, and advertisements. This legibility stems from the highly rectilinear structure, a feature shared with modern regular script (kaishu). In structure and rectilinearity, it is generally similar to the modern script; however, in contrast with the tall to square modern script, it tends to be square to wide, and often has a pronounced, wavelike flaring of isolated major strokes, especially a dominant rightward or downward diagonal stroke. Some structures are also archaic.