What is the origin of Chinese characters in China?

Legend has it that once, the troops of the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou were at war, and they were very happy and inseparable. The Yellow Emperor wanted to change his strategy and asked Cang Xie to bring the battle map, but he found that the map had been lost. We must retreat and negotiate. After returning to the camp, the Yellow Emperor was very angry and blamed Cang Xie for not doing well. Cang Xie said that there are too many facts to record now, and it is really difficult to deal with them by knotting notes. Now people are also very worried and often encounter the same problem. The yellow emperor said, is there any way? Cang Xie told the Yellow Emperor that changing the painting method can record more things, and everyone will understand at a glance. The Yellow Emperor ordered Cang Xie to handle this matter, so there was no need to fight the army.

After accepting the task, Cang Xie has been thinking hard all day. It's been half a year, and no progress has been made. It's winter, and it's snowing heavily outside. Cang Xie wants to go hunting. Along the way, I saw pheasants and deer running by, leaving rows of footprints in the snow. Cang Xie found that their footprints were all different, and he was suddenly inspired. Draw a pheasant's footprint is a pheasant, draw a deer's footprint is a deer. If everything in the world is painted with its image characteristics, it will represent different things. After Cang Xie reported to the Yellow Emperor, the Yellow Emperor was very happy. Cang Xie was ordered to draw everything in the world, from the sun and the moon to birds and animals. According to different characteristics, he called this symbol Zi.

Therefore, Cang Xie began a journey of word-making, looking up at the sun, moon and stars every day and overlooking all beings, creating more and more hieroglyphics. Carved on stone and wood. Later, people found it was too heavy to carry, which became Cang Xie's heart disease. Later, someone caught a turtle from the river and asked Cang Xie to make a word. Cang Xie found that there were many Fang Gezi on the turtle shell, so he made a word "turtle" and carved it on the turtle shell. But the tortoise escaped when people were unprepared.

Three years later, the tortoise was caught in another place. He told Cang Xie that the words engraved on the tortoise shell were still there. Not only was it not washed away by water, but it was longer and clearer. Therefore, Cang Xie thought that tortoise shells were ordinary, not only light, but also carved clearly, which was a good record material. He recorded all the words he created on the tortoise shell and strung them together. The Yellow Emperor greatly appreciated it and promulgated it in the world. This is what we now call Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This is the origin of Chinese characters in China's legend.

Second, archaeological discoveries:

According to archaeological findings, before Chinese characters appeared, there were ways such as "tying rope", "gossip", "drawing" and "calligraphy". Modern research believes that Chinese characters come from collective wisdom. If Cang Xie really exists, he should be the organizer and publisher of Chinese characters. With the progress of archaeology, more and more sites have been discovered, which also provides more new evidence for the origin and origin of Chinese characters.

Through systematic investigation and comparison, there are 19 archaeological culture * * * 100 sites in all parts of China. Wang, a doctoral supervisor of Zhengzhou University, believes that the earliest carving symbols in China come from the present Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan Province, with a history of more than 8,000 years. Judging from the characters unearthed from archaeological excavations, the Chinese character system was formally formed in the Central Plains, and the characters first matured in the Shang Dynasty.

But nothing is simple. Because the symbols unearthed in various places are very scattered and seriously missing. There are strong regional colors and complex backgrounds everywhere. So, Hanci. Com believes that the origin and origin of Chinese characters is still a mystery to be solved.

Extended data:

1. According to archaeological evidence, in the early Shang Dynasty, China civilization had developed to a fairly high level, and one of its main features was the appearance of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an ancient writing carved on tortoise shells and animal bones. In Shang Dynasty, the king had to do divination before doing anything, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions was the tool of divination. Oracle Bone Inscriptions should be treated before use. Remove the flesh and blood from the Oracle bones first, and then saw them flat. Then, use a knife to drill a notch on the inside of the nail or the back of the animal bone. The arrangement of these gaps is orderly.

A fortune teller or wizard engraves his name, the date of divination and the questions to be asked on the Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and then burns the hole in the Oracle Bone Inscriptions with a torch. The cracks that appear when these depressions are heated are called "signs". The wizard analyzes the trend of these cracks, obtains the result of divination, and engraves the divination on the Oracle bone. After the divination came true, these Oracle bones engraved with Oracle Bone Inscriptions became official files and were preserved.

2. Up to now, Chinese characters are mainly divided into three categories: pictographic characters, ideographic characters and pictophonetic characters. ?

1. Ideographic characters: such as "sun, moon, mountain and river" all describe the shape of things. These are hieroglyphics in a narrow sense.

2. Literacy: For example, two "trees" form a word "forest" and two "fires" form a word "inflammation". Refers to words that are knowingly committed.

3. Pictophonetic characters: They are formed on the basis of pictographs, signifiers and knowing words, and are usually a complex of two words, consisting of pictographs (ideographic characters) representing semantic classes and phonetic symbols (phonetic symbols) representing phonetic classes. Generally speaking, pictographs or signifiers can act as phonetic side, and pictographs, signifiers and knowing words can act as phonetic side. Pictophonetic characters are the largest batch of Chinese characters.

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Baidu Encyclopedia —— The Origin and Evolution of Chinese Characters