Explanation of Oracle Bone Inscriptions \ Bronze inscription \ Dazhuan \ Xiaozhuan \ Academy painting \ Literati painting \ Portrait stone (brick) \ Pottery paste \ Kuiwen and other terms.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions was discovered in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty more than 100 years ago. King Guo Zijian was seriously ill, and he sought medical advice everywhere. He came across a tortoise shell engraved with medicinal materials, and thought it was a valuable antique, so he sent people here to look for it. It turned out that these tortoise shells were picked up by farmers in Anyang, Henan Province and sold to Chinese medicine shops. Later, after research, it was found that the lines on the tortoise shell should be ancient characters. This discovery caused a sensation in the academic and cultural circles. Since then, Oracle Bone Inscriptions has been influenced by many things. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest China script we have found so far. It was carved on tortoise shells or animal bones in Shang Dynasty. These words are mainly used to predict good luck or bad luck. In the process of divination, the tortoise shell was burned first, and cracks appeared on the tortoise shell. People in Shang Dynasty predicted good or bad luck according to cracks, and recorded divination and results on tortoise shells. These words carved on tortoise shells or animal bones are called "Oracle Bone Inscriptions".

Ancient bronze inscriptions

The custom of casting inscriptions on bronzes became popular in the late Shang Dynasty and reached its peak in the Zhou Dynasty. The pre-Qin dynasty called copper gold, so later generations called the words on ancient bronzes bronze inscriptions. Because Zhong and Ding played an important role in various bronze inscriptions in the Zhou Dynasty, they were also called "Zhong Dingwen". The application of bronze inscriptions lasted for more than 1200 years from the early Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty's destruction of the Six Kingdoms. Like modern cast iron products, bronzes are usually cast in clay models, which are called "Fan Tao". Bronze inscriptions are pre-carved and then cast on the Fan Tao, and a few are directly carved after bronze casting. Because Fan Tao is soft, it is easier to carve than tortoise shells and animal bones, and the early bronze inscriptions are stronger than Oracle Bone Inscriptions's pictures, which are closer to the original characters.

big seal character

This is a common writing before the Qin Dynasty. Zhou Xuanwang's Shuowen is a children's literacy textbook written by Da Zhuan, so Da Zhuan is also called Zhu Wen. Because "Da Zhuan" evolved from Oracle Bone Inscriptions, many characters are similar to Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

Small/small seal characters

"Turn" is originally a combination of small turn and big turn. Because it is customary to call Wen Zhuan Da Zhuan, later generations often call him "Wen Zhuan". Xiao Zhuan, also known as Qin Zhuan, is a font that was omitted from Da Zhuan. It originated in the Qin State at the end of the Warring States Period and prevailed in the Qin Dynasty and the early Western Han Dynasty. During the Warring States period, countries were separated, and their characters were not uniform and their fonts were quite complicated. So Qin Shihuang unified the world characters with Qin characters, abolished various forms different from Qin characters in six countries, omitted and deleted the original characters of Qin, and absorbed some simplified and popular fonts from folk characters and standardized them, forming a new font-Xiao Zhuan.

China characters developed to the stage of Xiao Zhuan, and gradually began to finalize the outline, strokes and structure. The pictographic meaning is weakened, which makes the characters more symbolic and reduces the confusion and difficulty of writing and human reading. This is also the product of the first large-scale use of administrative means to standardize writing in the history of China. The Qin Dynasty unified the national characters with the sorted seal script, which not only basically eliminated the phenomenon of different lines of characters in different places, but also greatly changed the situation of different fonts in ancient Chinese, and played an important role in the development history of China characters. In addition to Xiao Zhuan, it also includes Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen, collectively referred to as Chinese characters; The development of ancient philology had a great influence on the study of ancient history, philosophy, economy, law, culture, science and technology in China.

Palace decorative painting

In the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Xu and Sacrifice were established in China. In the Five Dynasties, painting academies were established in Xishu and Nantang. Hanlin Painting Academy was established in Song Dynasty, and excellent painters were selected to serve the imperial court. Most of the landscapes, flowers and birds, figures and so on painted by painting academies in past dynasties require no color, meticulous, magnificent, rigorous composition, gorgeous colors, and some are very decorative, so they are called institutional paintings.

painting of man-of-letters

The first viewpoint: Based on the overall development of China's painting and the unique quality of China's painting, it is considered that literati painting is a unique style or style system in China's painting, which originated in Song Dynasty and achieved great success in Yuan Dynasty. Its artistic feature is that it pays attention to the interest of pen and ink, not seeking the shape, and integrates poetry, books, paintings and printing. [1] The third point of view: Based on Dong Qichang's "theory of southern and northern sects", it is considered that literati painting is the painting of southern sects.

Stone relief

The so-called relief stone is a painting art that takes stone as the ground and ghosts it with a knife.

Pottery sticker (is it a gluttonous pattern)

Also known as "animal face pattern". One of the common decorative patterns on bronzes. The pattern symbolizes the gluttonous face of a greedy and fierce beast in ancient legend, and there are many changes in the pattern.

The word gluttony can be found in Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals: "Write gluttony, take it as your body, and cannibalism will not harm you."

From the Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was often used as the theme decoration on utensils, and was mostly lined with Yun Leiwen. After the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the prominent position of theme decoration gradually improved, and the decoration on the ears or feet of imitators was often used.

This name has been used from generation to generation since it was called gluttonous pattern in Bo Gu Atlas in Song Dynasty.

Kuiwen

One of the decorative patterns on bronzes. This pattern shows a legendary animal similar to a dragon-Kui, which mostly has a horn and a foot, with its mouth open and its tail rolled up. In the description since the Song Dynasty, the reptilian objects on bronze wares are all called Solanum nigrum or Solanum nigrum, which is related to the record of "Kuiyi Foot" in ancient books. Say Wen Jianbu: "Hey, God is like a dragon's foot." Some poems have developed into geometric decorations, which have changed a lot. It is common that the body is divided into two parts, or the body is diagonal, with two heads at each end. Popular in Shang Dynasty and early Western Zhou Dynasty.