Evolution of Chinese Characters in China

As for the history of Chinese characters, according to the existing ancient documents and archaeological discoveries that have been confirmed now, there is at least Dawenkou culture in Wen Tao.

Five thousand years, and the history of the origin of Chinese characters is the beginning of ancient civilization in China, so we usually say that the Han nationality has a civilization history of five thousand years.

Archaeological and documentary records show that Chinese characters originated in Yangshao culture period of Neolithic Age, entered the stage of character accumulation in about 4000 BC and 2000 BC, and formed a fairly systematic writing system in Shang Dynasty.

During the evolution of Chinese characters for thousands of years, there have been many differences. After the founding of New China, in the 1950s, specialized institutions were organized to standardize the form, sound and meaning of Chinese characters, commonly known as "simplified characters" (Chinese characters before the 1950s were commonly known as "traditional characters"), which were popularized with reference books such as Xinhua Dictionary and Modern Chinese Dictionary, and simplified characters were juxtaposed with traditional characters (variant characters). At present, Chinese mainland, Singapore, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian regions use simplified Chinese characters, while Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions still use "traditional Chinese characters".

The evolution of Chinese characters

The evolution of Chinese characters has gone through thousands of years, including Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script, running script, etc., and it has not yet been fully finalized.

Chinese characters were written in ancient times, before the Han Dynasty. More vivid.

Warring States period text: "The princes are in power, not unified with the monarch, and evil rituals and music harm themselves, all of which go to their classics." "Different fields, different car paintings, different methods, different clothes and different words." It has a strong regional character.

The mainstream of the development of Qin characters and Chinese characters.

There are great regional differences in the characters of the six countries, which do not reflect the development track of Chinese characters and are tributaries.

1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions

The ancestor of Chinese characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions (Figure 40) refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, which was carved (or written) on tortoise shells and animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty in China (14 ~1century). It is the earliest and relatively complete ancient Chinese character discovered by China.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an ancient script in China, regarded as an early form of modern Chinese characters, sometimes regarded as a script of Chinese characters, and also the oldest mature script in China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is also called Wen Qi, tortoise shell or tortoise shell animal bone. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a very important ancient writing material. Most Oracle Bone Inscriptions were found in Yin Ruins. Yin Ruins is a famous site of Yin Shang Dynasty, located in Xiaotun Village, Huayuanzhuang and Houjiazhuang in the northwest of Anyang City, Henan Province. It was once the capital of the central dynasty in the late Shang Dynasty, so it was called Yin Ruins. These Oracle Bone Inscriptions are basically the divination records of Shang rulers. Shang rulers are superstitious about whether there will be disasters, whether it will rain, whether there will be a good harvest of crops, whether there will be a victory in the war, what to sacrifice to ghosts and gods, and divination based on fertility, disease, dreaming and other things to understand the will of ghosts and gods and the quality of things. The materials used for divination are mainly tortoise's bellybutton, carapace and cattle's scapula. Small pits are usually dug or drilled on the back of Oracle bones for divination. This kind of pit is called "drilling" by experts in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Heating these pits during divination leads to cracks on the surface of Oracle bones. This kind of crack is called "omen" The word "Bu" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like a symbol. People engaged in divination judge good or bad according to the various shapes of divination. According to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty, Chinese characters at that time had developed into a complete Chinese writing system. In the discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, the number of words has reached about 4000. There are a lot of signifiers, pictographs, knowing characters, and many pictographs. These words are very different in appearance from the words we use now. But from the point of word formation, they are basically the same.

At present, there are about 6.5438+0.5 million pieces of Oracle bones with more than 4,500 words. These Oracle Bone Inscriptions records are extremely rich in content, involving many aspects of social life in Shang Dynasty, including not only politics, military affairs, culture and social customs, but also astronomy, calendars, medicine and other science and technology. Judging from about 1500 characters identified in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the methods of "pictographic, comprehending, pictophonetic, referring to things, transferring notes and borrowing words" have been developed, which shows the unique charm of China characters. Documents based on tortoise shells and animal bones in Shang Dynasty and early Western Zhou Dynasty in China (about 16 BC-0/0 BC). This is the earliest known form of Chinese literature. The characters carved on Oracle bones were previously called Wen Qi, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Turtle Edition, Yin Ruins, etc. Now they are usually called Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Due to superstition, Shang and Zhou emperors used tortoise shells (common in tortoise shells) or animal bones (common in cattle scapula) for divination, and then carved divination related matters (such as divination time, diviner, divination content, divination result, verification, etc. ) in the Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and preserved by the royal historian as archival materials (see Oracle Bone Inscriptions archives). In addition to Oracle inscriptions, there are some unforgettable inscriptions in Oracle Bone Inscriptions's offerings. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's contribution covers astronomy, calendar, meteorology, geography, country, lineage, family, figures, officials, conquest, imprisonment, agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, transportation, religion, sacrifice, disease, birth and disaster. It is extremely valuable first-hand information for studying the social history, culture and language of ancient China, especially the Shang Dynasty.

2. Jinwen

Bronze inscriptions refer to characters cast on bronze wares of Yin and Zhou Dynasties, also known as 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. Therefore, Zhong Dingwen or inscriptions on bronze refers to inscriptions cast or carved on bronzes.

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. China entered the Bronze Age in the Xia Dynasty, and the smelting of copper and the manufacture of bronzes were very developed. Because copper was also called gold a week ago, the inscriptions on bronzes were called "bronze inscriptions" 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 time of bronze inscriptions is about 1200 years, from the early 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.

There are different words in the inscriptions on bronzes. The content of memory is also very different. Its main content is mostly to praise the achievements of ancestors and princes, but also to record major historical events. For example, the famous Mao has 497 words, covering a wide range, reflecting the social life at that time.

.3, big seal script

Representing the present Shi Guwen, it was named after a book written by Tai Shihuan of Zhou Xuanwang. On the basis of the original text, he transformed it and got his name because it was engraved on the stone drum. It is the earliest stone carving text that has been circulated so far, and it is the ancestor of stone carving.

It began in the late Western Zhou Dynasty and traveled in Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The fonts are similar to those of Qin Zhuan, but the configurations of glyphs overlap.

4. Xiao zhuan

Xiao Zhuan is also called "Qin Zhuan". During the Qin Dynasty, Li Si was ordered to unify the characters, which was called Xiao Zhuan. It was popular in the Qin Dynasty. The shape is long, even and neat, and it evolved from Da Zhuan. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xu Shen said, "Qin Shihuang is the first emperor in the world, ... but he is not in harmony with Qin Wen." Li Si wrote Cang Xie, CZ ordered Zhao Gao to write, loved the calendar, and Grandmaster Hu Wujing wrote erudition: "They all took the stone script seal script, or saved a lot of changes, so-called small seal script." Today's remains (Langyatai Stone Carving) and "Taishan Stone Carving" are masterpieces of Xiao Zhuan.

It is said that the seal script carved by Qin Quan was written by Li Si. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he implemented the policy of "writing in the same language and cars on the same track". The policy of unified measurement has been taken care of by Prime Minister Reese. On the basis of the original seal script used by Qin, it was simplified, and the variant characters of other six countries were cancelled, creating a unified Chinese character writing form. It was popular in China until the end of the Western Han Dynasty, and was gradually replaced by official script. But because of its beautiful font, it has always been favored by calligraphers. Because of its complex strokes and simple form, it is possible to add twists and turns and seal cutting at will, especially the official seal that needs anti-counterfeiting. Seal script was always used until the collapse of feudal dynasty and the emergence of modern new anti-counterfeiting technology. All the words in Kangxi Dictionary are also marked with seal script writing.

5. Official script

Official script is basically evolved from seal script, mainly changing the round strokes of seal script into square folds, which makes writing faster, and it is difficult to draw round strokes when writing with pigments on wooden slips.

Official script is also called "official character" and "ancient book". It is a font produced on the basis of seal script to meet the needs of convenient writing. The seal script is simplified, and the uniform circle lines of the seal script are changed into straight strokes, which is convenient for writing. Official script can be divided into "Qin Li" (also called "Guli") and "Han Li" (also called "Golden Calendar"). The appearance of official script is a great change in ancient writing and calligraphy.

Official script is a common solemn font in Chinese characters, with a slightly flat writing effect, long horizontal drawing and short straight drawing, and pays attention to "swallow tail of silkworm head" and "twists and turns". It originated in the Qin Dynasty and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Calligraphy is known as "Han Li Tang Kai". It is also said that official script originated in the Warring States period.

Official script is relative to seal script, and its name originated from the Eastern Han Dynasty. The appearance of official script is another great change of China characters, which brings China's calligraphy art into a new realm, is a turning point in the development history of Chinese characters, and lays the foundation for regular script. Official script is flat, neat and exquisite. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, stippling such as skimming was beautified as upward provocation, with different degrees of severity and artistic beauty of calligraphy. Styles also tend to be diversified, which is of great artistic appreciation value.

According to legend, the official script was compiled by Cheng Miao who was not in the prison of Qin Dynasty. By eliminating complexity and simplifying, the font becomes round and square, and the strokes become straight. Change "Lian Bi" to "broken pen" and change from line to stroke, which is more convenient for writing. "Li Ben" is not a prisoner, but a petty official, that is, a small official in charge of documents, so in ancient times, official script was called "Zuo Shu". Lishu prevailed in Han Dynasty and became the main style of calligraphy. As a start-up Qin Li, seal script has many meanings, and it has been continuously developed and processed. It broke the writing tradition since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties and gradually laid the foundation for regular script. Under the unification of the thought of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", the official script of the Han Dynasty gradually developed into the dominant script, and at the same time, cursive script, regular script and running script were derived, laying the foundation for art.

6, cursive script

A style of Chinese characters. Formed in the Han Dynasty, it evolved on the basis of official script for the convenience of writing. There are Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Crazy Grass. There are rules to follow in the changes of strokes, such as the urgent chapter of the Three Kingdoms Wu in Songjiang Edition. Today's grass is eclectic and fluent, and its representative works include Wang Xizhi's "The First Moon" and Jin Dynasty's "Getting Time". Mad grass appeared in the Tang Dynasty, represented by Zhang Xu and Huai Su, and its brushwork was wild and uninhibited, which became an artistic creation completely divorced from practicality. From then on, cursive script was only the works of calligraphers imitating Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Kuangcao. Masterpieces such as Zhang Xu's Abdominal Pain Post and Huai Su's Autobiography Post. Cursive script is a font produced for the convenience of writing. It began in the early Han Dynasty. At that time, it was "Cao Li", that is, scribbled official script, which gradually developed into a kind of "Cao Zhang" with artistic value. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhi changed "Cao Zhang" to "modern grass", and the character style was formed in one fell swoop. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xu and Huai Su developed into "weeds", with continuous strokes and changeable glyphs.

7. Regular script

Regular script is also called official script, or real book. Its characteristics are: square shape, straight strokes, can be used as a model, hence the name. Began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are many famous regular script writers, such as Ou Ti (Tang-Ou Yangxun), Yu Ti (Tang-Yu Shinan), Yan Ti (Tang-Yan Zhenqing), Liu Ti (Tang-Liu Gongquan) and Zhao Ti (Song-Yuan-Zhao Mengfu).

In the early days, there were few official handwriting, the structure was slightly wider, the horizontal painting was long and the vertical painting was short. In Wei Jinzhong handed down from ancient times, such as Zhong You's "Declaration Form" (left), "List of Recommended Seasons", Wang Xizhi's "Le Yi Lun" and "Huang Ting Jing" can all be regarded as representative works. Look at its characteristics, as Weng Fanggang said: "Change the wave painting of official script, pick it up, and still keep the vertical of official script."

After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the north and the south were divided, and calligraphy was also divided into two factions. The calligraphy style of the Northern School has inherited the legacy of Han Li. The brushwork is simple and rigorous, but the style is simple and rigorous, so it is called "Weibei". Southern calligraphy is more sparse and beautiful than letters. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, because of regional differences, personal habits and book styles were very different. The books in the North are strong and the books in the South are rich, each of which is wonderful and inseparable, while Bao and Kang Youwei highly admire the books of the two dynasties, especially the epitaphs of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Kang cited ten beauties to emphasize the advantages of Weibei.

Regular script in the Tang Dynasty, like the prosperity of the national situation in the Tang Dynasty, is really unprecedented. Calligraphy style is mature, and calligraphers come forth in large numbers. In terms of regular script, Yu Shinan, Ou Yangxun, Chu Suiliang in the early Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing in the middle Tang Dynasty and Liu Gongquan in the late Tang Dynasty all valued their regular script works and regarded them as models of calligraphy.

8. Running script

A font between regular script and cursive script, which can be said to be cursive or cursive. It is to make up for the shortcomings of slow writing in regular script and illegible cursive script. The brushwork is not as sloppy as cursive script, and it is not required to be as correct as regular script. There are more methods of mold opening than cursive writing, which is called "mold opening". Cursive calligraphy is more than modular method, which is called "cursive calligraphy". Running script was produced in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Representative figures: "Two Kings": Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi.