The origin of Chinese characters

China is an ancient civilization with a long history, and her writing has a history of about 4,000 years. Chinese characters have flowed down the river in the long river of time, and have been passed down to this day and come to us. The Chinese character memory contest is coming soon. At this moment, it is better to take this opportunity to deepen our understanding of Chinese characters.

There are always different opinions about the origin of Chinese characters, which are hard to be true. There are many related records in ancient books, such as the Book of Changes? The copula reads:? In ancient times, it was ruled by knots, and later saints easily used books to contract? It is pointed out that human beings first remembered things through knotted ropes, and later? Deed? Replace. In addition, there is a well-known legend, that is, the characters created by Cang Xie. Shuo Wen Jie Zi? The preface says:? Cang Xie, in Huangdi Neijing, saw the traces of hoofs and claws of birds and animals, knowing that today can be different, so he wrote a book about it. ? This legend, such as Cang Jie's word-making, is interesting, but don't believe it. But in any case, Chinese characters were born in response to the social factors and needs of our ancestors, and gradually enriched and developed under long-term social practice.

Modern Chinese characters are evolved from ancient Chinese characters. Is the evolution of Chinese characters from complex to simple, from pictographic characters to ideographic characters with more vivid symbolic meaning? . At the beginning of the appearance of China characters, there was no obvious boundary between characters and pictures, and they were mixed together, so it was also called figure painting. On the basis of figure painting, Chinese characters have further evolved. In the history of China writing, there have been seven kinds of fonts, namely Oracle Bone Inscriptions, inscriptions on bronze, seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script and running script.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions? Mainly refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, mainly in the late Shang Dynasty. Written on tortoise shells and animal bones. During the Shang Dynasty, divination in Oracle Bone Inscriptions was very popular, so most of these Oracle Bone Inscriptions were used for divination. What are the contents of the text? Oracle Bone Inscriptions? . It is the earliest systematic writing found in China. Most of them are pictographs or ideographs, and pictographs only account for about 20%. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is highly pictographic, and his strokes are uncertain. Most of them are carved with knives, so the strokes are thin.

Jin Wen? Refers to the pre-Qin inscriptions. It's a word cast on a bronze, also called an inscription. Most of them are pictographs and comprehensible words synthesized by pictographs. These characters keep the characteristics of the original hieroglyphics, just like pictures, vivid and lifelike. The font is thick and full, sometimes with round or square lumps. Jin Wen and Oracle Bone Inscriptions belong to the same system, but they are more standardized and orderly than Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

Xiao zhuan? After the reunification of Qin, Qin Shihuang unified the writing. Li Si, the prime minister, collected and sorted out the characters at that time according to the writing norms of Qin State, and simplified and beautified them. This unified word is called Xiao Zhuan? Also known as? Qin Zhuan? . The strokes of seal script turn around, although the pictographic meaning is retained to some extent, the symbolism is obviously greatly strengthened. It is the last form of ancient Chinese characters, that is, the bridge to all kinds of earlier Chinese characters, and it is the basis for the continuous development and evolution of Chinese characters.

Official script? It is divided into Qin Li and Han Li. The official script of Qin Dynasty is the official script used in Qin Dynasty. In fact, it is a simpler and more stereotyped new book style based on Xiao Zhuan. It changes the round strokes of Xiao Zhuan into straight strokes, basically getting rid of the basic characteristics of ancient Chinese characters, but retaining some strokes of the seal script. Han Li evolved from the popular Qin Li in Han Dynasty. Its shape is regular, and there are few strokes in seal script. Since the official script, Chinese characters have officially entered the category of modern characters.

Regular script? It flourished in the late Han Dynasty and prevailed in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and it has been in use ever since. From official script to regular script, the font structure has not changed obviously, but the wave-picking method of official script has been changed to stereotyped hook, which makes the font more square and straight and makes writing easier. The development of Chinese characters has been basically stereotyped.

Cursive script? Parallel to regular script. The cursive script is characterized by continuous strokes, coherent momentum and free fonts. This is a fluent, one-stop, rhythmic and artistic font.

Running script? Running script is a font between regular script and cursive script. Running script is not as formal and serious as regular script, nor as unrestrained and free as cursive script, but it is elegant and smooth, with flexible fonts. It is a font widely used in daily life.

Chinese characters have now become an inseparable part of daily life. They can be seen everywhere, but few people are familiar with them. When it comes to Chinese characters, many people will use it as a tool to assist communication, but they don't fully understand the cultural essence behind it. Chinese characters play a vital role in the development and inheritance of culture. Its existence enables Han people with different dialects to communicate, indirectly promotes the cultural exchange and development in China, and also helps to enhance the sense of unity of Chinese people's psychology. In addition, Chinese characters are an important part of China culture. As Mr. Wang Feng wrote in his book From Chinese Characters to Chinese Characters,? Chinese characters are condensed with the social life and cultural and psychological characteristics of the Han nationality in their configuration and word-making methods. ? For example, the form and meaning of Chinese characters contain the wisdom of our ancestors. Ancestors used their feelings in life, whether physical or psychological, to create characters and improve their glyphs to cope with the changes in their own thinking. In this case, the historical evolution of Chinese characters from pictographic characters to ideographic characters with more vivid symbolic meaning fully reflects the evolution of ancestors' minds and ways of thinking. So, why don't you calm down and learn more about China's cultural treasures? Chinese characters!

Related knowledge: the influence of Chinese characters on neighboring countries

1, the influence of Chinese characters on Japanese characters

Although the Japanese nation has an ancient culture, it is quite late to create its own characters. For a long time, its people have used Chinese characters as a carrier to spread their thoughts and express their feelings, which is called "Chinese characters"? Real name? . At the beginning of the fifth century, the emergence of Japan was called? Pseudonym? Borrow the phonetic characters of Chinese characters. By the eighth century, it was relatively fixed to mark Japanese pronunciation with Chinese characters, and its symbol was the compilation of Ye Wan Collection, so it was called? Ye Wan pen name? . It is the basis of pure Japanese phonetic writing.

The final creation of Japanese characters was completed by Kibi No Asomi Makibi and master Kong Hai. Both of them lived in the Tang Dynasty in China for a long time and had a deep study of Chinese characters. Does the former form Japanese according to the radicals of standard Chinese characters? Katakana? Which one creates Japanese with Chinese characters? Hiragana? . Although pseudonyms have been popular in Japan since the tenth century, the use of Chinese characters has not been abolished. Today, Japanese characters, which have occupied an important position in the world, still retain more than 1000 simplified characters.

2. The influence of Chinese characters on Korean characters.

Korean characters are called proverbs. Its creation and application is an important achievement of ancient Korean culture. In fact, South Korea in the Middle Ages, like Japan, did not have its own characters, but used Chinese characters. Silla changed a little after reunification. When did Xue Cong create it? Official reading? , that is, using Chinese characters to represent Korean auxiliary words and verbs to assist reading chinese books. Finally, because of different languages, it cannot be popularized. In the early years of the Li Dynasty, Sejong set up a proverb bureau in the palace to make Zheng Linzhi, Cheng Sanwen and others formulate proverbs. They studied Korean phonetics according to China Phonology and created 1 1 vowels and 17 consonants, which were recorded in 1443? Cultivate people's correct voice? , released for use. North Korea has its own writing since then.

3. The influence of Chinese characters on Vietnamese characters.

10 century ago, Viet Nam was once a county in China. Officials from Qin, Han, Sui and Tang Dou ruled here, so they were deeply influenced by China culture. After Vietnam's independence, Chinese characters have been used as a tool for upper-class communication, school education and literary works. It was not until the13rd century that Vietnam had its own writing-Zinan. Zinan is a new word based on Chinese characters, which expresses Vietnamese pronunciation by pictophonetic characters, loanwords and literacy. By the 15th century, southern characters had spread all over the country, completely replacing Chinese characters. In a word, Chinese characters are rich in vocabulary and profound. It is the carrier of Chinese civilization for thousands of years, and it is also the witness of Chinese culture with a long history. We can see that the Chinese nation not only created a long and splendid civilization with its diligence and wisdom, but also promoted the development of world civilization and made great contributions to the development of world history.