What is the relationship between Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jinwen, Xiao Zhuan, Li and Kai?

(A) the evolution of China fonts

Chinese characters came into being at the end of primitive society and have a history of five or six thousand years. It has a history of more than 3,000 years since the mature Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Since the appearance of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the development of Chinese characters has gone through two stages: ancient Chinese characters and modern Chinese characters. The stage of ancient Chinese characters can be divided into four stages: Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jinwen, Dazhuan and Xiaozhuan. Modern writing stage can be divided into official script, cursive script and regular script.

1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, was a popular character in Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago. Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly recorded the divination activities of the Shang royal family. Because it is carved on the bones of tortoise shells, people call it Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The main features of Oracle Bone Inscriptions are: the picture features are obvious, because it is carved on tortoise shells and animal bones with a knife, so the strokes are thin and the font sizes are different.

Attached drawings:

2. Jinwen Jinwen, also known as Zhong Dingwen, was written on bronzes in the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period, such as Zhong Ding, articles for daily use and weapons. In ancient times, bronze was called gold, so later generations called it bronze inscription. The Jinwen mainly records the rulers' achievements in offering sacrifices, enfeoffing princes, conquering and using weapons. The main features of Jinwen are: thick brushstrokes, neat structural lines and obvious restoration of picture features.

Attached drawings:

3. Dazhuan Dazhuan is a popular Chinese font in Qin State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. This font was directly developed from the inscriptions on bronze in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and its shape and structural characteristics are roughly the same as those of the inscriptions on bronze, with a little modification and standardization, from which we can clearly see the traces of the development of Chinese font. The main features of Da Zhuan are: the font is neat and symmetrical, the stroke thickness is consistent, and it tends to be straight, which is a great progress compared with the bronze inscription.

4. Xiao Zhuan Xiao Zhuan is the national standard font after Qin unified the six countries. After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he carried out the policy of "using the same language but not the same name", taking the big seal script popular in Qin dynasty as the basis for sorting out Chinese characters, eliminating the strokes and structure of the big seal script, making it simpler and more standardized, thus unifying the original complex Chinese characters, and having a unified standard, this unified font is Xiao seal script. It plays a very important role in the development history of Chinese characters. The popularity of Xiao Zhuan ended the chaotic situation of complicated Chinese characters and various writing styles since Oracle Bone Inscriptions for more than 1000 years. The main features of Xiao Zhuan are simple and standardized strokes and structure, and highly unified fonts and glyphs.

Attached drawings:

5. Lishu Lishu is a kind of font that appeared in the Warring States period, formed in the Qin Dynasty and widely circulated among the people. In order to save time and speed, some lower-level clerks in Qin Dynasty did not write Chinese characters completely according to the strokes and structure of Xiao Zhuan when copying things, thus gradually forming new fonts. Because this font is mostly used by lower-level officials and servants, it is called official script. In the Qin Dynasty, official script was only used by Xiao Zhuan. Official script has finally developed into a brand-new Chinese font, replacing seal script as a common font. The main characteristics of official script are: completely breaking the structure of seal script, forming point, horizontal, vertical, left and right.