Evolution order of ancient Chinese characters

Evolution order of ancient Chinese characters: The evolution order of Chinese characters is roughly Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscription, seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script and running script.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions, also known as "Wen Qi", "Oracle Bone Inscriptions", "Yin Ruins" or "tortoise shell and animal bones", is the earliest mature writing system discovered in China so far, the source of Chinese characters and the root vein of Chinese excellent traditional culture. The remains of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the early Shang Dynasty were mainly found in Zhengzhou Mall, and the Yin Ruins in Anyang were the representative in the late Shang Dynasty.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the most important writing in the late Shang Dynasty. Archaeological findings show that there are a large number of Oracle bones here, with more than100000 pieces. The content is mainly the divination records of the Shang royal family, and it can also be seen that the clan emblems of many national tribes are named. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has about 4,000 words, which reflects the basic composition of the writing symbol system.

Compared with the stereotyped symbol system of ancient Chinese characters established in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, Oracle Bone Inscriptions already has many types of Chinese character configurations, including the "four shapes" in the traditional "Six Books", namely pictographic, ideographic, knowing and pictophonetic characters, which shows that in the late Shang Dynasty, the Chinese characters represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions have basically established the configuration mode and the configuration system has gradually matured.

It can be seen from the aspects of font composition, symbolic degree, writing form and function. Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the late Shang Dynasty is a character symbol system with long development time, mature structure and complete functions, and it is a systematic and complete character sample that can determine the maturity of Chinese characters.

Jinwen:

Bronze inscription is a calligraphy name of Chinese characters, which refers to the inscriptions cast on bronzes in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, also called Zhong Dingwen. Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the bronze age, with the tripod as the representative ritual vessel and the bell as the representative musical instrument. "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronze ware.

China entered the Bronze Age in Xia Dynasty, and the technology of copper smelting and bronze ware manufacturing was very developed. Because the Zhou Dynasty called copper gold, the inscriptions on bronzes were called "inscriptions on bronzes" or "auspicious words"; This bronze ware was called "Zhong Dingwen" in the past because it had the largest number of characters on Zhong Ding.

The application period of bronze inscriptions is about 800 years, from the end of Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty's destruction of the Six Kingdoms. According to Rong Geng's Jin Wen Bian, there are 3,722 inscriptions, of which 2,420 can be identified.