What is the evolution of China fonts?

1. 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 relatively mature Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Since the emergence of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the development of Chinese character fonts 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.

2. Oracle Bone Inscriptions was a popular script in Shang Dynasty more than 3000 years ago. Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly recorded the divination activities of the royal nobles in Shang Dynasty. Because it is carved on the bones of tortoise shells, people call it Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The main characteristics of Oracle Bone Inscriptions are: the picture features are obvious, because it is carved on the tortoise shell bone with a knife, so the strokes are thin and the fonts are different sizes.

3. Bronze inscriptions, also called Zhong Dingwen, are cast on bronzes-Zhong Ding, articles for daily use, weapons, etc. In the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period. In ancient times, bronze was called gold, so later generations called the words on the bronze inscriptions bronze inscriptions. Bronze inscriptions mainly record the sacrifices of rulers, the enfeoffment and conquest of princes and the achievements of masters. The main features of inscriptions on bronze inscriptions are: thick strokes, neat structural lines, obviously reduced picture features and strengthened text symbols.

4. Da Zhuan was a popular font in Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The font of Da Zhuan was directly developed from the inscriptions on bronze in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Its shape and structural features are roughly the same as those of the inscriptions on bronze, with slight changes and standardization, from which we can clearly see the traces of the development of China's fonts. The main features of seal script are: the font is neat and symmetrical, the strokes are uniform in thickness and tend to be straight, which is a big step forward compared with bronze inscriptions.

5. Xiao Zhuan is the standard font prevailing in the whole country after Qin unified the six countries. After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he implemented the policy of "using the same language but not the same name", taking the seal script popular in Qin Dynasty as the basis for sorting out Chinese characters, removing the strokes and structure of seal script, making it simpler and more standardized, thus unifying the original complex Chinese font, and having a unified standard, this unified font is seal script. Xiao Zhuan is the product of the first standardization of Chinese characters in the history of China, and it plays a very important role in the history of Chinese characters. The popularity of Xiao Zhuan ended the chaotic situation of various forms and writing methods of Chinese characters since Oracle Bone Inscriptions for more than 1000 years.