The relationship between the development of Chinese characters and their historical evolution

To put it simply: symbols - intentional symbols - sound intentional symbols (text prototype) - text - oracle bone inscription - golden text - big seal - small seal - official script - regular script - traditional Chinese characters - simplified characters, the approximate order is like this, but there is overlap and juxtaposition!

The relationship of historical evolution: from simple to complex to simple; From immature to mature.

Oracle bone inscription: It is the text engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones in the Yin Shang era. Because the characters are carved on tortoise shells and animal bones with steel and stone knives, (1) the shape is not fixed.

2) The writing of the program is not uniform. (3), the strokes are thin and hard, mostly with square pens, and there are few round pens, which is the prototype of "square words".

Jin Wen: Jin Wen refers to the writing engraved on bronze objects. Because the culture of the Zhou Dynasty was much more prosperous than that of the Yin Dynasty, and the classics and cultural relics were extremely rich, the Jin Wen (1) had more curved brushes, thick and natural lines, and the glyphs tended to be neat.

2) Jin Wen is generally engraved on the mold first, and it can be modified if it is not engraved well, so the glyph appears thick and simple, but by the end of the Zhou Dynasty, it tended to be fluent and beautiful. (3) The font is not fixed, and a word is often written in multiple ways.

Great Seal: The so-called "seal book" is actually the "rafter book", that is, the "official book". Characteristics of the Great Seal of the Warring States Period:

1 The linearization has reached the point of completion. 2. The structure is relatively neat. 3 There are almost no variants on the same artifact.

4 The strokes are too complicated and the writing is not convenient enough.

Small seal: In the era of Qin Shi Huang, there were many official affairs, and the official books were vast, so the text was unified, and the small seal was widely used, and its characteristics were larger: (1) deformation; 2) pseudo-transformation; (3) provincial changes; Among the above three ways of change, the province is the main one, which is in line with the law of the development of Chinese characters from complex to simplified.

Lishu: Lishu is an evolution of the grass seal (the seal script used by the people). Compared with the seal script, the appearance and disappearance of the pictogram made the text completely lose its pictorial color and became a purely symbolic communication aid.

"Libian" is a great progress in the history of the development of Chinese characters, and it is a great leap. If the shape of Chinese characters is divided into two categories, ancient and modern, then Lishu used to be called "Gu", and Lishu was called "Jin" after the beginning.

Regular script: Regular script is a font that is popular on behalf of Lishu.

The general evolution process is from pictograms to symbols, from complex to simple, and polymorphic to monomorphic.

The 10 Chinese characters that evolved are oracle bone script, golden script, small seal, official script, regular script, and line script.

In the history of Chinese writing, the Xia, Shang, and Third dynasties are the most important in terms of their contributions to philology. Shi Zhou was the historian of King Xuan of Zhou, and he created a new style to make it simpler. The big seal is also known as the text, the seal, the book, and the history book.

Because it is made by Shi Zhou, it is called Zhouwen, and the big seal is scattered in the "Shuowen Jiezi" and various Zhongding Yi vessels collected by later generations. Among them, the stone drum text written by King Xuan of Zhou is the most famous.

The small seal, also known as the Qin seal, is the standard font sorted out by Li Si, the prime minister of the Qin Dynasty, and others. It is simplified from a large seal. It is also known as the jade tendon seal, because it has the meaning of pen strength.

The shape and structure of the small seal are regular and coordinated, the gesture is uniform and neat, and the side of the collapsed ant bush has also been changed and merged. Compared with the large seal, there is no pictogram. The change of writing from the big seal to the small seal is of great significance in the history of Chinese writing.

The most notable change in the evolution from the small seal to the official script is the change from a graceful slip to a straight stroke, from a hornless to a horned one. It is generally believed that the official book refers to the official book with waves, and the long tail like a carving knife is dragged horizontally and horizontally, and this is just one of them. Lishu mainly includes Qin Li and Han Li, Qin Li is the early form of Lishu; Han Li is a mature font for Lishu.

The so-called Lishu refers to the eight points in the Han Li.

Eight points is after Qin Li, and gradually waves. Lishu has developed to eight points, and it is already mature. Lishu because of its words are more square, thick, so with a sense of seriousness, although it is an English letter, but it has a diamond and angular font, there is the taste of Lishu to dress up.

Eight points is after Qin Li, and gradually waves. Lishu has developed to eight points, and it is already mature. Lishu because of its words are more square, thick, so with a sense of seriousness, although it is an English letter, but it has a diamond and angular font, there is the taste of Lishu.

After more than 6,000 years of changes, the evolution process of Chinese characters is: oracle bone inscription (Shang) Jin Wen (Zhou) small seal (Qin) Lishu (Han) Kaishu (Wei and Jin) Xingshu, the above "Jia Jin Seal Licao Kaixing" seven fonts are called "Chinese characters seven bodies." 1. Oracle:

The characters written on tortoise shells and animal bones at all times in the Shang Dynasty are called "oracle bone inscriptions". Started from the Shang Dynasty. 2. Jin Wen:

It is an inscription cast on bronze in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Also known as Zhong Dingwen. Jin Wen has thick and wide strokes, and the dot painting is round, and Jin Wen is more standardized than oracle bone inscriptions.

3. Great Seal: In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, the shape of Jin Wen tended to be linear, and the strokes were relatively neat and symmetrical. 4. Small seal:

The symbolism is clearly greatly strengthened. The small seal script is standardized, but the writing is inconvenient.

The historical information of Chinese characters is as follows:

1. From the oracle bone inscriptions engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones in the Shang Dynasty, to the golden inscriptions carved on bronzes in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, to the large seals that evolved in the later years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then to the small seals that appeared in the writing reform after Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries.

2. Later, the small seal was gradually replaced by the more convenient and simplified official script, which later evolved into cursive script, and the regular script and cursive script that appeared at the same time. At this point, Chinese characters have been shaped in the form of a complete circle, and it is presented in front of the world together with the dazzling civilization of China.

3. Since ancient times, China has a saying that "calligraphy and painting have the same origin", this is because the earliest text is pictures, and calligraphy and painting are like brothers, born from the same root, and there are many internal connections. The origin of Chinese characters is the primitive picture, the form of "picture" that primitive people used to express themselves in life. Slowly, it changed from a primitive picture to an "ideogram".

4. Chinese characters are one of the oldest scripts in the world and a symbol of Chinese cultural inheritance, and the Yinxu oracle bone inscription is more than 3,000 years old.

Precautions: 1. Three stages of the development history of Chinese characters.

The first stage is the pictorial writing stage. Writings before the Shang Dynasty all belong to this stage. The second stage is the phonetic writing stage based on the ideographic script and with the phonetic script as the main body.

Writings from the oracle bone inscription to the early Qin dynasty belong to this stage. The third stage is the stage of morphophonetic characters with the main body and some morphophonetic characters and phonetic characters remaining, from the Qin and Han dynasties to modern Chinese characters.

2. About the advantages of Chinese characters:

Advantages of kanji. The greatest advantage of Chinese characters is their super-dialectal nature. China is a country with a vast territory and complex dialects. In ancient times, it was impossible to standardize the language, and even if the promotion of Mandarin is now, it cannot be completed in a short period of time.

However, Chinese characters are a national tool for communication in the written language. The language is different, and the words are written orally with a pen, but they are exactly the same. If the characters are pinyinized, Cantonese, Hokkien, Shanghainese, Beijing, etc., will appear, hindering people's exchange of ideas.