What is the name of the calligraphy style that combines elements of cursive and regular script, often used for notes?

What is the name of the calligraphy style that combines elements of cursive and regular script, often used for notes? It is running script, called xingshu in Chinese.

Running script occupies a middle ground between regular script and fully cursive writing. Its characters remain recognizable and retain much of regular script’s structure, but strokes may be joined, abbreviated, or written with less formal separation. That balance makes it faster than regular script while remaining easier to read than cursive script.

Xingshu became especially useful for letters, personal notes, drafts, and everyday writing. It is not simply careless regular script: skilled practitioners control the rhythm, spacing, joins, and brush pressure so that speed and legibility work together.

The most famous historical example is Wang Xizhi’s Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion, traditionally regarded as a supreme model of semi-cursive or running writing. A frequent mix-up is “running-cursive,” which combines running and cursive more aggressively; ordinary xingshu is the broader intermediate style.