When did Chinese characters appear and how many of the earliest symbols evolved into Chinese characters?

Historical Records China has a written history of more than 3,000 years. But with the discovery of archaeologists, the history of China characters is more than 3,000 years, and the existence of characters is the progress of history. In the long river of history, with the change of dynasties, the characters have been continuously improved and simplified, and the bear symbol has evolved into a regular font today, so that people can use Chinese characters now. The earliest calligraphy book was Shuo Wen Jie Zi compiled by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, with 9,353 Chinese characters.

In the middle and late Shang Dynasty, a large number of Oracle Bone Inscriptions appeared, and more than 4,000 characters evolved into Chinese characters, marking the maturity of China characters. Oracle Bone Inscriptions was discovered in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty more than 100 years ago. King Guo Zijian was seriously ill, and he sought medical advice everywhere. He came across a tortoise shell engraved with words. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is mainly used for divination and divination, and records divination results. This discovery is of great value to the historical civilization and the beginning of the evolution of Chinese characters. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has attracted the attention of many scholars, antique dealers and collectors.

From Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty to today's regular script, the shape of Chinese characters has gradually evolved. This evolution can be divided into two stages, one is the ancient writing stage, and the other is the official script regular script stage. The previous stage began in Shang Dynasty and ended in Qin Dynasty. The fonts were Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jinwen, Dazhuan and Xiaozhuan. Later, it continued from the Han Dynasty to modern times, and the fonts were official script, cursive script, running script and regular script. The dividing line between these two stages is Xiao Zhuan.

Different fonts in different historical periods have their distinctive artistic characteristics. Seal script is simple and elegant, official script is thick and square, cursive script is hearty, regular script is beautiful and neat, running script is free and easy, and various font styles are diverse. These unique physical structures have triggered new artistic creation and promoted the development of Chinese characters. We can clearly see that it is synchronized with the development of society and can also reflect the spiritual outlook of each era.