What is the history of Chinese characters? The history of the development of Chinese characters

Chinese characters were invented, created and improved by the ancestors of the Han nation, and are an indispensable link to maintain the various dialects of the Han nationalityThe earliest surviving Chinese characters are the oracle bone inscription of the Yin Shang dynasty around 1300 BC and the later Jin script [1], which evolved into the Zhou script [2] in the Western Zhou Dynasty, then to the small seal [3] and Lishu in the Qin Dynasty, to the Han and Wei dynasties, and to the late Han DynastyRegular script prevailed in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and is still in use [4] .

Chinese characters are by far the longest continuously used script, and they are the only one of the major writing systems of antiquity that has been passed down to the present dayIn ancient times, Chinese characters also served as the only international communication script in East Asia, and before the 20th century, it was still the official written standard script of Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam, Ryukyu and other countries, and all East Asian countries created their own Chinese characters to a certain extentIn non-Chinese systems, Japan has formulated a "List of Commonly Used Chinese Characters", and South Korea has also formulated "Basic Chinese Characters for Education".

Stage 1: Picture and text stage.

The earliest writing was basically developed from pictures, and before the appearance of oracle bone inscriptions, it experienced periods such as carved runes, bone inscriptions, Taosi Zhuwen, and Xia Dynasty water scripts.

The second stage: the phonetic writing stage.

In the phonetic writing stage, it is subdivided into oracle bone inscription and seal script, and seal script is a general term for large seal and small seal, which is developed from the basis of oracle bone inscription.

The third stage: the stage of morphophonetic characters.

The third stage is the stage of morphophonetic characters with morphophonetic characters as the main body, and some morphophonetic characters and phonetic characters are also retained.

Chinese characters are not only a kind of writing and a language, but also represent the unique culture and wisdom of the Chinese nation. So how were Chinese characters born? What has been the development process?

Origin Background In ancient times, with the birth of human beings, language also appeared, and at that time, oral language facilitated communication between people.

The development of Chinese characters is mainly divided into three stages, the first stage is the pictorial writing stage before the Shang Dynasty. The origin of Chinese characters is the most primitive picture, primitive people used this kind of picture to express their thoughts in life, and slowly, this picture evolved into a kind of ideogram. The second stage is the oracle bone inscription to the Qin Dynasty script, based on the epigraphic script, the phonetic script as the center of the writing stage, this stage from the pictorial script slowly evolved and standardized, into the oracle bone inscription, they are engraved on animal bones or turtle shells, which is the characteristic of this stage.

The third stage is the Qin and Han dynasties to the present, with the theme of morphophonetic characters to retain some morphophonetic characters and phonetic characters.

1. Oracle bone inscriptions of Shang and pre-Shang periods: Oracle bone inscriptions are one of the three oldest scripts in the world. The oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties were already a relatively complete writing system.

2. Jin Wen of the Zhou Dynasty: At the same time as the oracle bone inscription, the text cast on the bronze ware was called Jin Wen or Zhong Ding Wen.

3. The seal script of the Qin Dynasty: After Qin Shi Huang unified China, in order to standardize the order of the whole country, Li Si formulated the small seal as the unified writing font of the Qin Dynasty. The small seal is generally rectangular, with rounded strokes and smooth lines.

4. Lishu of the Han Dynasty: Lishu of the Han Dynasty replaced the small seal as the main book style. Its appearance also laid the foundation for the glyph structure of modern Chinese characters, and is the dividing line between ancient and modern characters.

5. Regular script (late Han Dynasty): It is the evolution of Lishu, which is more simplified in comparison, horizontal and vertical.

6. Cursive script (late Han Dynasty): In order to make it easy to write, it evolved from official script.

7. Xingshu (late Han Dynasty): It is not like cursive scribble, nor is it neat like regular script, and it is a font between cursive and regular script.

Advantages of Chinese character pinyin.

1. Beautiful. 2. High recognition.

3. Easy to understand and relevant.

4. Image, intuitive and meaningful.

5. A large amount of information.

6. It is convenient for computer input.

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

1. Oracle bone inscription: The text written on tortoise shells and animal bones at all times in the Shang Dynasty is called "oracle bone inscription". 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.

5. Lishu: The strokes of the seal script are round. The symbolism is clearly greatly strengthened. The small seal text is standardized, but it is inconvenient to write, and a simpler font is popular among the people, called Lishu.

6. Regular script: In the late Han Dynasty, official script evolved into regular script. There are no changes to the glyph knots, and it is easier to write.

7. Cursive: Cursive is characterized by joint strokes, simple knots, and unrestrained glyphs.

8. Xingshu: Xingshu is a font between regular script and cursive script, which is simpler than regular script and easier to identify than cursive script.

2. About Chinese characters.

1. Origin: The Chinese archaeological community has released a series of excavated materials related to the origin of writing earlier than the Yinxu oracle bone inscription. The Jiahu inscription has been physically determined by carbon 14 and is about 7762 years (128 years) old; There are also 7,000 years ago Shuangdun inscriptions, 6,000 years ago Banpo pottery symbols, more than 5,000 years ago Qingdun ruins inscriptions, Zhuangqiao tomb ruins text with words into sentences, Dawenkou pottery symbols, Yaoshun era Tao Temple ruins Zhu Wen, Xia Ruin water book.

The early bone inscriptions are rich writing systems, and the later ones belong to the initial maturity stage. These archaeological discoveries may be important clues to the origin of Chinese characters, or they may be different sources of the development of various scripts.

In the early 80s of the century, on the pottery excavated at the Dengfeng Xia cultural site in Henan, a more complete text was found. This is the earliest written language that has been confirmed by scholars to have an exact age in Japan so far.

3. Introduction: Chinese characters are one of the oldest scripts in the world, with a history of at least 4,000 years, and the earliest existing recognizable mature Chinese character system is the oracle bone script of the Shang Dynasty. In form, Chinese characters gradually change from graphics to strokes, pictograms to symbols, and complexity to simplicity. In the principle of word making, from the form, ideogram to shape and sound.

With very few exceptions, it is one syllable per character.

Oracle Bone Jane Yewen.

The oldest Chinese character that can be found today is an oracle bone inscription formed in the late Yin Shang period around the 14th century BC. Oracle bone inscriptions are written on tortoise shells or animal bones, mainly for divination or memorization. Because the oracle bone inscription evolved from the drawing, it also belongs to hieroglyphs.

Clementi. Later, with the emergence and popularization of bronzes, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, people began to widely cast and engrave words on bronzes, and such characters were called "golden scripts".

The Shang Dynasty Jin Wen is mostly pictographs and huiyi characters synthesized by pictographs, these characters are like pictures, vivid and realistic, vigorous and natural, and some are lumpy.

Big seal, small seal.

The big seal is said to have been created by the history of the Zhou Dynasty, and it is a Chinese character font that transitions from ancient characters to small seals.

And the small seal is said to have been sorted out by Li Wunais, the prime minister of Qin during the Warring States Period. Compared with the large seal, the shape and structure of the small seal is concise, regular and coordinated, the gesture is uniform and neat, and there is also a certain variation and merger on the side.

Compared with the big seal, the pictorial nature of the small seal has been greatly weakened, and the structure of each character has been relatively fixed.

Lishu. Soon after the passage of the small seal, the folk created a new book style that is simpler and more stereotyped than the small seal, which is the "official book".

At first, Lishu was written sloppily and not standardized enough, but by the time Qin Shi Huang unified the script, Lishu had formed a fixed and standardized font.

The appearance of Lishu is an important milestone in the history of the development of Chinese characters, the Chinese characters before Lishu were written with pictorial lines, and the Chinese characters after Lishu were composed of horizontal and vertical strokes such as horizontal and vertical apostrophes. Since the appearance of Lishu, the structure of Chinese characters has been basically fixed.

Regular script. The regular script evolved from the official script, which flourished in the late Han Dynasty and flourished in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Until now, it has been the standard font for Chinese characters for nearly 2,000 years.

Kaishu, also called "real book" or "Zhengshu", Kai is the meaning of rules, neatness, and model, which means that this font can be used as a French style and model, that is, a standard font.

Simplified characters. Many characters in Chinese characters have been written in a variety of ways since ancient times, some with more strokes and some with fewer strokes. To put it simply, those with many strokes are called traditional characters, and those with few strokes are called simplified characters.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the simplification of Chinese characters was comprehensive, and finally the simplified Chinese characters we see today were gradually formed!