How many fonts are there?

Chinese characters have changed for more than 6000 years, and the evolution process is as follows:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions → bronze inscription → seal script → official script → regular script → running script.

(Shang) (Zhou) (Qin) (Han) (Wei and Jin Dynasties) cursive script

The seven fonts of the above-mentioned "Jin Jia seal, Cao Li and Xing Kai" are called "seven-body Chinese characters"

It is well documented that China script, Chinese characters, came into being in the late Shang Dynasty, about14th century BC, when a preliminary stereotyped script, namely Oracle Bone Inscriptions, was formed. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is both a hieroglyph and a phonography. Until now, there are still some pictographs in Chinese characters, which are very vivid.

In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese characters developed into Da Zhuan. The development of seal script has produced two characteristics: first, the lines with uneven thickness in the early days became uniform and soft, and the lines they drew with utensils were very concise and vivid; Second, standardization, the glyph structure tends to be neat, and gradually deviates from the original shape of the picture, laying the foundation for the square characters.

Later, Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty, simplified Da Zhuan and changed it to Xiao Zhuan. Small seal script not only simplifies the shape of big seal script, but also achieves the perfection of lineation and standardization, almost completely divorced from pictures and characters, and has become a neat, harmonious and very beautiful square font which is basically rectangular. However, Xiao Zhuan also has its own fundamental shortcoming, that is, its lines are very inconvenient to write with a pen, so almost at the same time, a kind of official script with flat sides was produced.

By the Han Dynasty, the official script had developed to a mature stage, and the readability and writing speed of Chinese characters had been greatly improved. After Li Shu, it evolved into Cao Zhang, and now it is grass. In the Tang dynasty, there was Weeds, which expressed the writer's thoughts and feelings with a pen. Subsequently, regular script (also known as original script), a combination of official script and cursive script, became popular in the Tang Dynasty. The print we use today evolved from regular script. Between regular script and cursive script is a running script, which is fluent in writing and flexible in using a pen. It is said that it was invented by Liu Desheng in Han Dynasty, and it is still the font used in our daily writing today.

In the Song Dynasty, with the development of printing, block printing was widely used, and Chinese characters were further improved and developed, resulting in a new type of calligraphy-Songti printing font. After the invention of printing, the carving knife used for lettering had a far-reaching influence on the glyph of Chinese characters, resulting in a kind of printing font with fine horizontal and thick vertical, which is eye-catching and easy to read, and later called Song Style. There are two kinds of fonts for the moment: fat imitation face, Liu style, thin imitation European style and dangerous style. Among them, the strokes of Yan and Liu are towering, with some characteristics of horizontal, thin and vertical. In the Ming Dynasty, between Qin Long and Wanli, it changed from Song style to Ming style, with fine strokes and square fonts. It turned out that at that time, a kind of Hongwu style with thin horizontal and thick vertical was popular among the people, and this font was used for the title cards of official posts, lanterns, notices, private stones, ancestral halls and other gods. Later, some book carvers created a non-face and non-European skin silhouette in the process of imitating Hongwu's style. Especially because the strokes of this font are horizontal and vertical, it is really easy to engrave. It is different from seal script, official script, original script and cursive script, unique, fresh and pleasing to the eye. Therefore, it has been widely used since16th century and has become a very popular main printing font. It's also called Song Style, and it's also called lead font.

In Chinese characters, all kinds of fonts formed in different historical periods have their own distinctive artistic characteristics. For example, seal script is simple and elegant, official script is static and dynamic, rich in decoration, fast in cursive script, compact in structure, neat and beautiful in regular script, easy to read and write, practical, diverse in style and different in personality.

The evolution of Chinese characters is from pictographic pictures to linear symbols, strokes adapted to brush writing and printed fonts convenient for carving. Its evolution provides rich inspiration for China's font design. In character design, if we can give full play to the characteristics and elegant demeanor of various fonts of Chinese characters, we will certainly be able to design exquisite works with ingenious application and unique conception.

Since the unification of Qin Shihuang, China characters have gradually embarked on the road of development. China characters in different times have distinctive national and folk customs, and the history of China characters is deeply engraved with the wisdom and hard work of China people. However, now some people know little about their own language, but their enthusiasm for other languages is still half-toned. Words are the soul of a country. In order to understand the changes, history and soul of the motherland, we chose this topic.

With the development of Chinese characters, after China was unified by Qin Dynasty, Chinese characters were constantly simplified and sorted out, which made them gradually standardized. The development of Chinese characters can be roughly divided into four stages: ancient prose, seal script, official script and regular script. Among them, seal script is divided into big seal script and small seal script; Lishu is different from Qin Lishu and Lishu. It can be seen that any new font in history has been gradually formed through long-term evolution. Generally speaking, after the formation of regular script, China characters have been basically finalized (table 1).

(Table 1: Evolution of Chinese Characters)

1 Oracle Bone Inscriptions

Before the Qin Dynasty unified Chinese characters, China's Chinese characters were still confused in font and application. In a broad sense, ancient Chinese includes the characters before Xiao Zhuan, and also includes Da Zhuan. In a narrow sense, it refers to the characters before Dazhuan in the history of China characters. Here, the narrow concept of ancient prose is adopted. Ancient prose includes Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions on bronze; Among them, the former is considered as the earliest stereotyped writing in China.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions: Most of the characters left on tortoise shells and animal bones by writing or carving in the late Shang Dynasty are "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" and a few are "notes". Most of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's characters conform to the principles of pictographic characters and knowing characters, with pictophonetic characters accounting for only 20%. Its characters are carved with a knife, some filled with cinnabar, and some written directly in ink. Because characters are mostly evolved from pictures and characters, they are pictographic, multi-character, and the strokes are uncertain. This shows that China's writing was not unified in the Yin and Shang Dynasties.

Image Inscription in the Yin Dynasty: In the pre-Qin period, copper was called gold, so the words cast on bronze ware were called inscriptions, also known as Zhong Dingwen and Qi Yi. Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions are more pictographic, showing ancient characters. The bronze inscription has a solid brushwork and vivid and natural image.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a vulgar style in Shang Dynasty, and the bronze inscription is an orthodox style, which shows that the orthodox style is complex and the vulgar style is simplified (see Table 2).

(Table 2: Comparison Table of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen)

Oracle Bone Inscriptions's handwriting is hard (as shown in Figure 3), because most of them are carved on the tortoise shell bone with a knife. This knife method has also been applied to modern graphic design (Figure 4).

(Figure 3) (Figure 4)

2 major seal scripts

In the history of China, Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties made the most important contribution to philology. Shicheng is a historian in Zhou Xuanwang, and should not innovate for simplicity. Biography is also called Wen Shu, Biography of Shu, Shushu and History Book. Because it was written by Ishikawa, it is called "Wen Chuan". Dazhuan can be found in Shuowen Jiezi and various Zhong Ding Yi wares collected by later generations. Among them, Shi Guwen in Zhou Xuanwang is the most famous.

3 biographies

Xiao Zhuan, also known as Qin Zhuan, is a standard font compiled by Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty. It was simplified by Da Zhuan. Also known as Yujin Seal, because it has the meaning of vigorous brushwork. Xiao Zhuan's body structure is harmonious, the strokes are even and neat, and the radicals have also been changed and merged. Compared with Dazhuan, it has no pictographs. The change of characters from Dazhuan to Xiaozhuan is of great significance in the history of China characters (Figure 5).

(Figure 5)

4 official script

The first step in the evolution from Xiao Zhuan to Li Shu, the most remarkable change is from graceful money bar to straight strokes, from angular to angular. Generally speaking, official script refers to a kind of official script with wavy tail like a meat cleaver, which is just one of them. There are mainly Qin Li and Han Li in official script, and Qin Li is the early form of official script. Han Li is a mature official script font. Official script usually refers to Han Li's "eight points" (Figure 6). "Eight points" was gradually formed after Qin tune. Official script has developed to eight points, which is very mature. The official script is thick and has a serious sense of wholeness (Figure 7). Although Figure 8 is an English letter, it has a diamond font, which smells like official script.

(Figure 6) (Figure 7) (Figure 8)

5 regular script

"Regular script" is also called original script, official script and regular script. Such as Ou Yangxun and Liu Gongquan. It includes the founder of ancient Li, the beauty of eight points and the simplicity. This font has been used to this day and is regarded as a standard font, which is deeply loved by the world. Regular script has a sense of stability and tranquility; Because of different personal writing styles and personalities, the same font also has different styles (Figure 9, 10). Figure 1 1, the thin gold body in Hui Zong, Song Like, uses thin lines to outline characters, but because of the smooth performance at the turning point, it presents a completely different visual sense from the thin gold body.

(Figure 9) (Figure 10) (Figure 1 1)

Six-line script

"Running script" is a calligraphy style between regular script and cursive script, and it is free to write. Running script is different from official script and official script, and its fluidity can be freely used by writers. Running script shows a romantic and aesthetic atmosphere (figure 12).

(Figure 12)

7 cursive script

"Cursive script", also known as "broken grass" and "modern grass", consists of seal script, eight points and chapter grass, and follows a variety of ancient characters. The cursive script originated in Cao Zhang, and Cao Zhang has a strong taste of official script, so it is named because it is mostly used for memorials. Cao Zhang has further developed into a "modern grass", also known as a "book". Today's cursive script is mostly simpler than Cao Zhang's and running script. The cursive script gives the viewer a feeling of freedom and fluency (as shown in figures 13, 14, 15).

(Figure 13)

(figure 14) (figure 15)

8 print font

After the invention of printing, in order to meet the needs of printing, especially the printing of books and periodicals, characters gradually developed in the direction suitable for printing, and a horizontal, vertical and square printing font-Song Style appeared. It originated in the Song Dynasty in the golden age of block printing and was shaped in the Ming Dynasty, so the Japanese called it "Ming style". Songti is the main font used in publishing and printing, because it is suitable for printing and engraving and people's visual requirements when reading.

9 computer fonts

With the development of culture and science and technology, under the influence of western writing style, many new fonts have appeared, such as bold and artistic fonts. , have appeared, such as poster (POP) style, comprehensive art style, pavilion style, girl font, etc. , and more genre variants, such as imitation song, Pingsong and so on. Moreover, all kinds of Chinese characters are computerized, and the scope of application is wider.

As shown in the following figure (from left to right: overlapping circle, comprehensive art, ancient seal, pavilion, poster).

The origin of Chinese characters is an unsolved mystery. Speaking of Chinese characters, I have to mention Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Archaeological evidence of Shang Dynasty Oracle Bone Inscriptions first appeared 3,300 years ago, nearly 2,000 years later than the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian scripts in the two river basins. Up to now, * * * has found more than 5,000 Oracle characters, of which about 1700 characters can be recognized. To some extent, China, as one of the four ancient civilizations, has no reason to lag behind others so much! At the same time, we found that the earliest Oracle Bone Inscriptions had a certain degree of understanding and pictophonetic elements. In these Oracle Bone Inscriptions, "literacy" accounts for less than 80%, and pictophonetic characters account for more than 20%. This is very different from other early hieroglyphics such as the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians.

Some people think that the level of science and technology in ancient China is far less than that in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. When the ancient Egyptians had built huge pyramids with huge stones, China had only rammed earth buildings. The ancient Egyptians had carved exquisite hieroglyphs on hard stones, while China could only carve rough scratches on animal bones or tortoise shells. But look at China's Oracle Bone Inscriptions's abstraction, but it is far higher than those of ancient Egypt. Chinese characters seem to have directly crossed the early stage of early hieroglyphics and entered a more abstract and advanced stage. There is almost no pictographic stage in the development of Chinese characters: pictophonetic characters, and the so-called pictographic characters have been highly abstracted in Oracle Bone Inscriptions stage. Later, with the evolution of Chinese characters, Chinese characters are no longer purely ideographic characters. When the Greeks built the exquisite sculpture of the Parthenon and the Romans built the huge dome of the Pantheon, there were only rammed Great Wall and pottery terracotta warriors and horses in China during the Qin and Han Dynasties, while the seal script of the Qin Dynasty was a unified national standard, and the official script of the Han Dynasty was very close to today's Chinese characters. Whether it's a leap forward text.

Cang Xie is a legend in ancient China, and is said to be the historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters. Legend has it that Cang Xie was born with "two eyes and four eyes". There are only three people recorded in China's history books, namely Yu Shun, Cang Xie and Xiang Yu. Yu Shun is a modest and filial saint, Cang Xie is Wen Sheng, and Xiang Yu is a warrior. The legend of Cangjie's word-making "Cangjie's word-making" has been widely circulated in the Warring States period. The Book of Huainanzi records: "Cang Xie wrote a book once upon a time, and it rained heavily at night, making ghosts cry and wolves howl". It is recorded in the preface to Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Cang Xie's early book, Gai Yi is like pictographic characters, so it is called the text; After that, the form and sound benefit each other, that is, words. " Zhang Yanyuan's History of Famous Paintings and the Origin of Narrative Paintings explains: "You have four eyes and look up at the sky. Because of the traces of turtles, the shape of calligraphy is determined. Nature can't hide secrets, so it rains a lot; Ghosts can't hide from shapes, so ghosts cry at night. At that time, calligraphy and painting were inseparable, just like the creative system, but they were still slightly different. No book conveys its meaning, no painting sees its shape, and the meaning of heaven and earth saints. " It is generally believed that Cang Xie's creation of Chinese characters is only a legend, but he may be the organizer of Chinese characters. Textual research on Shouguang in Shandong, Kaifeng in Henan, Nanle in Hebei and Cang Xie in Chang 'an, Shaanxi.