明代早期的书风笼罩在赵孟頫之下，而中晚期书家王铎、傅山、徐渭等人的书法又有点过于放飞自我的感觉，所以整个明代书坛呈现出两极分化的态势。在这样的环境下，像唐代大书法家张旭、怀素这样的既传统又“狂放”的草书就显得太少了，我们所熟悉的也就祝枝山一位。
英文翻译:The wild grass is one of the most indulgent cursive scripts. The strokes are connected and round， and the characters are wild and changeable. The dots and paintings are written continuously on the basis of the modern grass， forming a “one brush book”， which is in the same line with the modern grass in terms of the rules and methods. As Li Zhimin said: “In the pool， drinking in the principle， teacher in the object， get in the heart， understand in the image， and then enter the wonderful scene of cursive script.”
中国狂草书法的代表是唐代张旭、怀素，他们的狂草达到了中国书法的极致。著名学者余英时在《汉晋之际士之自觉与新思潮》中说:汉中叶以后，“草书始为时人所喜爱。盖草书之任意挥洒，不拘形踪，最与士大夫之人生观相合，亦最能见个性之发挥也。”
