Is there any information about the origin of Chinese characters?

The earliest is the oracle bone inscription, which is the Shang Dynasty people carved on the turtle shell or animal bones, the oracle bone inscription is the basic form of the structure of Chinese characters, is a relatively mature script, there are more than 1,000 oracle bone inscriptions that have been interpreted, and the history of China's writing can be examined from the Shang Dynasty.

Chinese characters mainly originated from pictographic drawings of memorization, and pictographs are the basis for the formation and development of the Chinese character system. The later evolution has gone through a long process of thousands of years, through the stages of oracle bone inscription, golden script, seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script, line script, etc., and the regular script is widely used today, but it is still not completely finalized.

According to the ancient documents of our country, the era of the emperor has invented the Ganzhi and related records, and in the later inheritance, the name of the Ganzhi was simplified to one word in the Yellow Emperor's era.

There are records of comparative relationships in "Historical Records" and "Erya", but the versions of "Historical Records" and "Erya" are different. Invention numbers: zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, twenty, three, hundred, thousand, thousand.

Legend has it that Cangjie made Chinese characters. "Shuowen Jie Zi" records that Cangjie saw the footprints of birds and beasts and was inspired, divided into different categories, collected, sorted and used, played an important role in the process of creating Chinese characters, and was respected as a "sage of character making".

In the Shang Dynasty, the earliest known mature Han Jiana character oracle bone inscription appeared, and although the number of characters in Zhong Dingwen appeared later, there was no change in the form.

In the Zhou Dynasty, due to the vast territory and the long-term separation of the princes, the Chinese characters obviously appeared in the late Spring and Autumn Period, and the situation of the text was even more serious in the Warring States Period. After the unification of Qin, in order to consolidate the rule, Qin Shi Huang ordered Prime Minister Li Si, Zhongche Fu Ling Zhao Gao, Taishi Ling Hu Wujing, etc., to sort out the text, and formulated a small seal based on the Great Seal of Qin, which was used as a standard font and was used throughout the country.

Later, it was generally based on the popular font of the people at that time, and sorted out a simpler font Lishu, which was widely circulated throughout the country as a common script.

1. From the ancient legend of Cangjie to the discovery of the oracle bone inscription more than 100 years ago, Chinese scholars have been committed to unraveling the mystery of the origin of Chinese characters. Regarding the origin of Chinese characters, there are various sayings in ancient Chinese literature, such as "knotted rope", "gossip", "pictures", "book deeds", etc., and the legend of the Yellow Emperor's historian Cangjie making characters is also widely recorded in ancient books. Modern scholars believe that a systematic writing tool cannot be created entirely by a single person, and that Cangjie, if there is one, should be the compiler or promulgator of the text.

2. Oracle bone inscription: The earliest form of Chinese characters found so far originated in the Yin Shang period.

3. Jin Wen: The text engraved on the bell and other utensils appeared in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

4. Great Seal: Also known as Zhouwen, created by Zhou Taishi, it was used in Qin and other places during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

5. Small seal: formed to adapt to the form of Qin's unification of China, and simplified by the big seal.

6. Lishu: Formed in the late Warring States period, matured in the Han Dynasty, and simplified from the small seal.

7. Regular script: appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, further improved during the Six Dynasties, matured in the Tang Dynasty, and simplified from the official script.

The Yellow Emperor ordered that Cangjie, as a historian, was responsible for collecting and sorting out the text, and Cangjie invented the symbolic script according to the method of judging and recording information with animal footprints of the hunters, which was popularized by the Yellow Emperor to various tribes, which is the origin of Chinese characters.

Chinese characters were created about 4,000 years ago.