Information on the Origin of Chinese Characters (Introduction to the Origin of Chinese Characters)

Today, Xiaobian will share with you the knowledge about the origin of Chinese characters, which will also analyze and answer the information about the origin of Chinese characters. If you can solve the problem you want to know, pay attention to this website.

The origin of Chinese characters

The origin of Chinese characters:

From the ancient legend of Cangjie word-making to the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions more than 1000 years ago, China scholars have been trying to uncover the mystery of the origin of Chinese characters. There are always different opinions about the origin of Chinese characters, among which the most influential ones are: knot rope theory, gossip theory, seal cutting theory, Cangjie word-making theory, description theory and picture theory.

1927 Mr. Shen Jianshi put forward the view that Chinese characters originated from notes and pictures, and thought that ancient Chinese characters were preceded by the origin stage of "calligraphy and painting".

Shen Jianshi deduced figures and paintings before Liu Shu from ancient artifacts: "There should be another stage before Liu Shu's writing period, which is the source of Liu Shu's writing, and now it is named' People and Painting Period'". Figure painting is a narrative painting that evolved into characters. It has the characteristics of drawing and writing, and initially has the recognizable function of recording information in words.

Regarding the connection and difference between pictograph and notation, Mr. Shen Jianshi spoke brilliantly: "Literature is an image depicting things, not a symbol representing words. Although it is a mother-type pictograph, it should not refer to the pictograph of the six books. "

The influence of Chinese characters:

As an important tool to carry culture, Chinese characters have a large number of ancient books written in Chinese characters. Different dialects and even languages use Chinese characters as their writing system. In ancient Japan, Korean Peninsula, Vietnam, Ryukyu Islands, Lanfang and Borneo Republic, Chinese characters were all official documents of the country, so China culture played an important role in the spread and sharing of surrounding civilizations in history.

Because the relationship between Chinese characters and pronunciation is not very close, it is easy to be borrowed by other ethnic groups, such as Japan, the Korean peninsula and Vietnam. There was a historical stage when only Chinese characters were written and no Chinese was spoken. This feature of Chinese characters plays an important role in maintaining a cultural circle, a nation full of various dialect groups and unable to communicate with each other.

Chinese characters have had a great influence on the cultures of neighboring countries, forming a cultural circle of Chinese characters, such as Japan, Vietnam, Korean Peninsula, Ryukyu Islands and so on.

Origin data of Chinese characters

Chinese characters have been used for the longest time so far, and they are also the only inheritors of the ancient Otomachi system. Chinese characters have always been the main official language in China. In ancient times, Chinese characters were also used as the only international communication language in East Asia. So do you know the origin of Chinese characters? The following is the information on the origin of Chinese characters I compiled, hoping to help you.

The origin of Chinese characters

What is the symbol of the birth of human civilization? It is marked by the invention of mature characters. Without the birth of writing, human beings can't have real civilization. China people can create Chinese characters 5,000 years ago, and make it a unique pictographic ideograph among many languages in the world today, which shows that this kind of writing has incomparable advantages over other languages. Han culture is the only culture in the world that has not been interrupted for thousands of years in one place, while letter culture is interrupted and wandering.

From the ancient legend of Cangjie's word-making to the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions more than 65,438,000 years ago, China scholars have been trying to uncover the mystery of the origin of Chinese characters. On the origin of Chinese characters, there are many sayings in China ancient literature, such as "knot rope theory", "gossip theory", "picture theory" and "calligraphy contract theory". Ancient books also generally recorded the legend of Cang Xie, the historian of the Yellow Emperor who created Chinese characters. Modern scholars believe that systematic writing tools cannot be completely created by one person. If Cang Xie really exists, he should be a text organizer or publisher.

Myths and legends

In ancient times, there were no words, so people could only tie a rope to record things, which was more troublesome and could not record complicated things. At that time, Cang Xie, the minister and historian of Fuxi, often wanted to find a good way to take notes. The surname is Hou, Ming Gang and Ming Jia. Because he was from Chencang, he was later called Cang Xie.

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. If you are busy, things will go wrong. Now ordinary people are also very worried and often encounter the same problem. The Yellow Emperor said that you are the first minister of our dynasty. Is there any solution? Cang Xie told the Yellow Emperor that more things can be recorded with pictures, 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 and relax. 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. So, Cang Xie started the journey of word-building.

Cang Xie looked up at the sun, moon and stars every day, looked down at all living things and created 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 appreciated it very much, and promulgated it, becoming what is now called Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This is the origin of Chinese characters in China's legend.

archaeological finds

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. It's everywhere.

The Origin of Chinese Characters in Guo Yun

From the ancient legend of word-making in Cangjie to the discovery of Chinese characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions more than 65,438+000 years ago, scholars in China have been working hard to uncover the mystery of the origin of Chinese characters. On the origin of Chinese characters, there are many sayings in China ancient literature, such as "knot rope theory", "gossip theory", "picture theory" and "calligraphy contract theory". Ancient books also generally recorded the legend of Cang Xie, the historian of the Yellow Emperor who created Chinese characters. Modern scholars believe that systematic writing tools cannot be completely created by one person. If Cang Xie really exists, he should be a text organizer or publisher.

Chinese characters originated from pictures. In the early stage of Chinese characters, the shape of pictographic characters is directly related to the meaning of morphemes it represents. Although each word has its own fixed pronunciation, the glyph itself is not a phonetic symbol, which is different from the pinyin letters. The pronunciation of hieroglyphics is transmitted to it through the morphemes it represents. With the evolution of glyphs, pictographs are becoming less and less pictographs. As a result, the glyph loses its original connection with the morpheme it represents. At this time, the glyph itself is neither phonetic nor semantic, and becomes an abstract symbol. If all morphemes in Chinese are represented by such symbols that neither express sound nor meaning, then Chinese characters can be said to be pure symbolic characters. But this is not the case. Chinese characters can be divided into single words and combined words. Only letter combinations are purely symbolic characters. Combination characters are composed of single characters. Structurally speaking, compound words are one level higher than single words.

In recent decades, a series of unearthed materials related to the origin of Chinese characters have been published in China's archaeological circles one after another, which predates the "Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Anyang Yin Ruins". These materials mainly refer to the carved or painted symbols that appeared on pottery in the late primitive society and early historical society, and also include a few symbols engraved on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, jade and stone tools. It can be said that they provide a new basis for explaining the origin of Chinese characters.

Wang, a doctoral supervisor of Zhengzhou University, made a systematic investigation and compared the carved symbols on pottery pieces unearthed from more than 9 archaeological and cultural sites in China 100. He thought that "the earliest carved symbols in China appeared in Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan, more than 8,000 years ago".

As a professional worker, he tried to comprehensively sort out these original materials by comprehensively using scientific methods such as archaeology, ancient Chinese character configuration, comparative philology, scientific archaeology and high-tech means, so as to compare some clues about the occurrence and development of Chinese characters before Shang Dynasty.

However, the situation is not so simple. Except for a few existing materials of Zhengzhou Mall site and Xiaoshuangqiao site, which can be directly compared with Yin Ruins, other symbols before Shang Dynasty are scattered and lack of connection, and most of them are out of touch with Shang Dynasty characters. There are also some symbols with heavy regional colors and complex backgrounds.

Chinese characters

Experience stage

Chinese characters mainly come from recordable pictographs, which are the basis of the formation and development of Chinese character system [9]. Later, it evolved for thousands of years, including Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script and running script. Regular script is used, but it has not been fully finalized.

oracle bone script

Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Yin Ruins, which is the writing carved on tortoise shells and animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty.

About 654.38+05,000 pieces of Oracle bones were found, with more than 4500 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. The documents of Shang Dynasty and early Western Zhou Dynasty in China were based on tortoise shell bones.

Ancient bronze inscriptions

Bronze inscriptions, also known as Zhong Dingwen, refer to the words carved on bronzes from the Shang Dynasty. 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.

big seal character

Dazhuan is a Chinese character. Legend has it that it was written by Zhou Xuanwang's uncle, so it is also called Wen Shu or Shu Shu. In the Qin dynasty, it was called Da Zhuan, which was different from Xiao Zhuan. Dazhuan originated 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. 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 and the ancestor of stone carving.

Small/small seal characters

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, "When Qin Shihuang started, he did not cooperate with Qin Wen." Reese wrote Cang Xie, CZ ordered Zhao Gao to write Calendar, and a surname ordered Hu Wujing to write Xueji. "They all took the master's big seal, or changed a lot, the so-called small seal." Today, there are remnants of "Engraving Stones in Langyatai" and "Engraving Stones in Taishan", which are the representative works of Xiao Zhuan. It is said that after Qin Shihuang unified China, Reese carried out the policy of "writing with the same language, cars with the same track" and was responsible for unified measurement. On the basis of the original seal script used by Qin, Li Si simplified it, canceled the variant characters of other six countries and created a unified writing form of Chinese characters. 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 praised 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.

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.

"Li Ben" is not a prisoner, but a small official, that is, a small official in charge of documents. According to legend, Li Shu was compiled by Cheng Miao in prison at the end of Qin Dynasty, which simplified traditional Chinese characters, rounded fonts and changed strokes into straight ones. Changing "Lian Bi" into "broken pen" and changing lines into strokes makes writing more convenient.

Lishu strengthened the marking function of Chinese characters and weakened the pictographic function. Great changes have taken place in Chinese characters, which has become a watershed between ancient and modern characters. Lishu laid the foundation for the derivation of cursive script, regular script and running script.

Official script is divided into Qin official script and official script. With the appearance of official script, official script is a common solemn font in Chinese characters, with a slightly wider and flatter writing effect, long horizontal drawing and short straight drawing, and paying attention to "swallow-tailed silkworm head" and "twists and turns".

The regular script of Ou Yangxun's regular script works, also known as official script, or original works, began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Its characteristics are: square shape, straight strokes, can be used as a model, hence the name.

At the beginning, there were not many official scripts left in regular script, which were slightly wider in structure, longer in horizontal drawing and shorter in straight drawing. In the Wei and Jin dynasties handed down from ancient times, such as Zhong You's Epiphany Table, Ji Zhi Table, Wang Xizhi's Le Yi Lun and Huang Ting Jing, they 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."

Regular script reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, and many famous regular script writers appeared, such as Ou Ti, Yu Ti, Yan Ti, Liu Ti and Zhao Ti.

In the Song Dynasty, "Song Style" appeared in regular script, and modern printing fonts such as Song Style, Black Style and Imitation Song Style all belong to regular script.

cursive script

Cursive script is a convenient font for writing. It began in the early Han Dynasty, when Cao Li, a scribbled official script, was popular, and then gradually developed into a Cao Zhang with artistic value. By the end of the Han Dynasty, it was said that Zhang Zhi had lost the trace of the official script strokes preserved by Cao Zhang, and the strokes between the upper and lower characters were often connected and borrowed from each other, which became a modern cursive script, commonly known as cursive script. Zhang Xu and Huai Su in the Tang Dynasty and Mi Fei in the Song Dynasty wrote this cursive script more indulgently, with continuous strokes and changeable glyphs, which became a kind of wild cursive script. Cursive script is commonly used by calligraphers.

Cao Zhang's rescue rod has rules to follow. Representative works, such as the Songjiang version of Urgent Chapter by Emperor Dongwu in the Three Kingdoms Period.

This grass is informal and the brushwork is smooth. Representative works such as "The First Moon" and "Getting Time" by Wang Xizhi in Jin Dynasty.

Mad grass appeared in the Tang Dynasty, represented by Zhang Xu and Huai Su, and became an artistic creation completely divorced from practicality. Since then, cursive script has only been copied by calligraphers. Representative works include Zhang Xu's epigastric post and Huai Su's autobiographical post.

Semi-cursive/running/calligraphy (China's calligraphy)

Running script works Running script came into being in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. It is a font between regular script and cursive script, which can be said to be cursive script or cursive script. 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". Representative figures: "Two Kings": Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi.

The Origin and Legend of Chinese Characters

The essence of Chinese characters is a carrier of culture, because it records the historical track and rich achievements of cultural development. There are many legends about the origin of Chinese characters in China ancient books. The following are the origins and legends of Chinese characters I collected for reference only. Let's have a look.

The origin of Chinese characters

China has a history of up and down 5,000 years, and China's ancient characters have also evolved with history. In modern society, the origin and evolution of almost every word can be found out. After reading a short story, we can get a glimpse of the mystery of Chinese characters in China and have a basic understanding of the origin and evolution of Chinese characters.

In ancient times, the ancients tied a knot on a rope in order to remember one thing. When he sees this knot, he will think of it. If he wants to remember two things, he will tie two knots. Remember three things, he can tie three knots, and so on. This is a note-taking method used by people before the invention of writing, which is called knotting note-taking. Compared with that era, knotting notes are a very advanced recording method, which will get twice the result with half the effort when used in conjunction with language. Once you master the method, you will never forget it. However, the biggest problem with knotting notes is that it is cumbersome to express, it takes time to sort out, and it is very difficult to save, and the meaning it can express is really limited.

On one occasion, the armies of the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou fought, and the two sides were inextricably linked. The Yellow Emperor was going to change his strategy and told Cang Xie to bring a battle map. When Cang Xie touched it, the battle map he carried with him had been lost. The yellow emperor was angry and anxious, so he had to retire temporarily.

The Yellow Emperor said to Cang Xie, "You are the smartest minister around me. How did you lose the battle map in "Do or die"? " ? What a big mistake this is! Cang Xie replied, "Huangdi, there are many people and many things now, so we should always fight. It is really difficult to take notes with knotted ropes and carved wood as symbols. If this continues, there will be more troubles in the future. " The Yellow Emperor asked, "What should I do? Cang Xie said, "There is only one kind of picture. When people look at it, they can understand its meaning. Use this picture to show what you want to say, and people will do what you want. "The Yellow Emperor thought what he said was very reasonable, so he said," Well, don't fight with the army in the future, just stay and draw pictures and make words for us! " "

This stumped Cang Xie. How to make pictures and words? He meditated all day. Half a year has passed, and it is already winter. Cang Xie hasn't found a way to make Chinese characters. One night, there was a heavy snow. Cang Xie got up early in the morning and went hunting in the mountains. I see all the mountains and plains are covered with snow, and all the mountains and trees are covered with snow. Cang Xie turned a mountain and didn't see a prey. Just about to go back down the mountain, suddenly two pheasants jumped out of the Woods and foraged in the snow. After the pheasant passed by, it left two long lines of paw prints on the snow. Then, two fawns also ran out of the Woods and found that people ran away, leaving fawn footprints in the snow. Cang Xie was so absorbed that he completely forgot to hunt. He compared the paw prints of pheasants and deer and found that they were different in shape. So he thought, printing chicken feet is called chicken, and printing deer feet is called deer. Anything in the world, as long as its hieroglyphs are drawn, becomes a word! Thought of here, Cang Xie be elated, after returning, he reported his thoughts to the Yellow Emperor. After hearing this, the Yellow Emperor smiled and said, "I told you, you are a smart man, and it really happens. All right! You can make words according to the pictographs of the mountains, rivers, sun, moon, birds and animals in the world, and I will promulgate the world. "

From then on, Cang Xie looked up at the sun, the moon and the stars every day, looked down at the birds, animals and mountains, and created hieroglyphics. Soon, people, hands, sun, moon, stars, cows, sheep, horses, chickens and dogs were all created. But there are more and more hieroglyphs, where to write them? Writing on the stone tip is too heavy to carry, writing on the board is too heavy, and writing on the hide is not appropriate, which once again tripped Cang Xie. One day, a man caught a chinemys reevesii by the river and asked Cang Xie to write Chinese characters for it. Cang Xie carefully looked at the turtle and found that Fang Gezi was neatly arranged on its back, so he made a word "turtle" according to its hieroglyphics. Then he carved the words Fang Gezi on the turtle's back. The tortoise felt pain because of the words on his back, so he climbed into the river unprepared. Three years later, this turtle with words on its back was caught in another place. People told Cang Xie that the words carved on the turtle's back had not been washed away by water, but had grown up and the handwriting was more obvious.

From then on, Cang Xie ordered people to catch turtles and take them away. He carved all the hieroglyphics he created on the Fang Gezi of the tortoise shell, and then strung them together with ropes to give them to the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor was very happy to see it and ordered people to collect it well, which made great contributions to Cang Xie. Legend has it that since then, our Chinese nation has had the earliest hieroglyphs and Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

Myths and legends

In ancient times, there were no words, so people could only tie a rope to record things, which was more troublesome and could not record complicated things. At that time, Cang Xie, the minister and historian of Fuxi, often wanted to find a good way to take notes. The surname is Hou, Ming Gang and Ming Jia. Because he was from Chencang, he was later called Cang Xie.

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. If you are busy, things will go wrong. Now ordinary people are also very worried and often encounter the same problem. The Yellow Emperor said that you are the first minister of our dynasty. Is there any solution? Cang Xie told the Yellow Emperor that more things can be recorded with pictures, 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 and relax. 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. So, Cang Xie started the journey of word-building.

Cang Xie looked up at the sun, moon and stars every day, looked down at all living things and created 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 appreciated it very much, and promulgated it, becoming what is now called Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This is the origin of Chinese characters in China's legend.

archaeological finds

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.

Chinese characters, also known as Chinese characters and Chinese characters, are also called square characters, which are the recording symbols of Chinese and belong to morpheme syllables of ideographic characters. One of the oldest characters in the world has a history of more than 6000 years. In form, it gradually changes from graphics to strokes, pictographs to symbols, and complex to simple; In the principle of word formation, from ideographic, ideographic to phonological. Except for a few Chinese characters, they are all one Chinese character and one syllable.

Modern Chinese characters refer to capitalized Chinese characters, including traditional characters and simplified characters. Modern Chinese characters have developed from Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, big seal script and small seal script to official script, cursive script, regular script and running script. Chinese characters were invented and improved by Han ancestors, which is an indispensable link to maintain the Han dialect area. The earliest existing Chinese characters are Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty and later inscriptions on bronze in about 1300 BC, which evolved into seal script in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then to seal script and official script in the Qin Dynasty, until the official script prevailed in the Han and Wei Dynasties, and the official script was changed to regular script at the end of the Han Dynasty. Regular script prevailed in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Chinese characters have been used for the longest time so far, and they are also the only inheritors of the ancient Otomachi system. Chinese characters have always been the main official language in China. In ancient times, Chinese characters were also used as the only international communication language in East Asia. Before the 20th century, they were still the official written standard characters of Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam and Ryukyu, and all East Asian countries created their own Chinese characters to some extent. It should be noted that Japanese, Korean Peninsula, Vietnamese and other countries were deeply influenced by China culture in history, and even other languages borrowed Chinese characters. In the non-Chinese character system, Japan has formulated a list of commonly used Chinese characters, and South Korea has also formulated basic Chinese characters for education, while Vietnam, North Korea and Mongolia, which used Chinese characters in history, have now given up Chinese characters.

The origin and origin of Chinese characters

Legend has it that Chinese characters originated from the creation of characters in Cangjie. At present, the exact history of the origin of Chinese characters can be traced back to the tortoise shell symbol in Jiahu site around 6200 BC, and then to Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Zhangwen and Jinwen in Shang Dynasty, and finally to Zhangwen and Xiaozhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

The Han dynasty developed into official script, cursive script and regular script, and the Tang dynasty became the standard handwritten font-regular script, which is also a widely used modern Chinese character today.

Extended data:

In ancient Chinese, Chinese characters were only called "Zi". They were called "Chinese characters" to distinguish them from minority languages, which refer to the characters used by Han people. The latter is called "Fa", which is a Japanese loan word. Before the Yuan Dynasty, China was called "Zi" or "Wen" because it was one of the few big countries in the East, so it was not necessary to distinguish it from other small countries.

The word "Chinese characters" originated from the ninth volume of Jin History and Zhang Zong I in Yuan Dynasty: "In eighteen years, I was the king of Jinyuan County. I began to learn the fine print of the language of this dynasty and the classics of Chinese characters, and read them with Jinshi Wanyan Mine and Si Xu Jing Xiaomei.

The book "The History of Jin" also appeared many times: "Nuzhen had no characters at the beginning, and when the Liao Dynasty was broken, the Khitan Chinese characters were learned by all the later scholars", and "the eldest son Bu Hui knew Nuzhen and Khitan Chinese characters, and was good at riding and shooting", which distinguished the Chinese characters, the Jurchen characters and the Khitan characters.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the official script of the government was Manchu. At that time, Chinese characters were used to refer to the traditional Chinese characters of the Han nationality in China. In addition, the Japanese also call it "Chinese characters" to distinguish it from pseudonyms derived from Chinese characters. In North Korea, Chinese characters are different from Andrew.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Chinese Characters