How did Chinese characters evolve?

Three stages of the evolution of Chinese character fonts

1. The inscriptions on bronzes in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Shang and Zhou Dynasties evolved into Xiao Zhuan: from realistic hieroglyphics with random shapes close to pictures to neat shapes close to abstract symbols.

2. The evolution of Xiao Zhuan into official script: also known as "official script change", is the biggest and most important change in the history of Chinese character development. The transition from ancient Chinese characters to modern Chinese characters makes Chinese characters enter the present writing stage from ancient Chinese characters, which is the transition of ancient and modern Chinese characters.

Lishu broke the pictographic structure and formed the basic pattern of modern characters and strokes, with the pictographic meaning weakened and the symbolic meaning further strengthened.

3. The official script evolved into regular script: the font structure remained basically unchanged, but the pen was slightly changed.

Attached:

1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions: It is a character carved on tortoise shell bones, and it is the earliest known Chinese character system. 1899 found it by accident by the epigraph master Wang. It mainly appears in Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan. Its content is mostly the divination of Oracle Bone Inscriptions at that time, also known as "Oracle Bone Inscriptions".

2. Bronze inscriptions: refers to the characters carved on bronzes in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, which belong to the same system as Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Because it was originally found in Zhong Ding and other cultural relics, it is also called Zhong Dingwen.

3. Calligraphy (Da Zhuan): At the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhou Xuanwang wrote Shi Shuo Pian as a book to teach students, and used it to unify the writing of the Zhou Dynasty. According to Ban Gu's Han Shu Yi Wen Zhi and Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Xu, the font used is Da Zhuan.

4. Six-nation script: refers to the six eastern scripts except Qin in the Warring States period. Also known as ancient prose, it comes from the ancient prose classics on the cave wall.

5. Official script: a font formed on the basis of the cursive script of Qin seal script at the end of the Warring States Period. In addition to the cursive script of seal script, it has gradually become a regular font. It is the standard font of Han Dynasty.

6, cursive script:

1) in a broad sense: scribbling in various fonts, commonly known as "cursive script" (for "normal").

2) Narrow sense: a specific font formed on ancient Chinese characters.

7. In italics:

Regular script, also known as official script or original script, was formed on the basis of Han Li cursive script in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and influenced by cursive script. Wei and Jin Dynasties were a period of integration of regular script and modern official script. After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, regular script replaced regular script as the prevailing standard font.

8. Run the script:

It is a font between regular script and modern grass. Those close to regular script are called running script, and those close to cursive script are called running script. It is a common font in people's daily writing.