China Characters Evolution Text+Pictures

The evolution and development of China characters (Chinese characters) The development of China characters, after Qin unified China, simplified and sorted Chinese characters continuously, which made Chinese characters gradually standardized. The development of Chinese characters can be roughly divided into four stages: ancient prose, seal script, official script and regular script. Among them, seal script is divided into big seal script and small seal script; Official script is different from Qin official script and han li official script. It can be seen that any new font in history has been gradually formed through long-term evolution. Generally speaking, after the formation of regular script, China characters have been basically finalized (Table 2).

(Table 2: Evolution of Chinese Characters) 1 Before the unification of ancient Chinese characters in Qin Dynasty, the Chinese characters in China were still confused in terms of font and application. In a broad sense, ancient Chinese includes the characters before Xiao seal, including Da seal. In a narrow sense, it refers to the characters before Da Zhuan in the history of China characters. Here, the narrow concept of ancient prose is adopted. Ancient prose includes Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions on bronze; Among them, the former is regarded as the earliest stereotyped writing in China. Oracle inscriptions: The characters left on tortoise shells and animal bones by writing or engraving in the late Shang Dynasty, most of which are "Oracle inscriptions" and a few are "notes". Most of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's characters conform to the principle of pictographic and knowing, and pictophonetic characters only account for 2%. Its characters are carved with a knife, some filled with cinnabar, and some directly written in ink. Because the characters are mostly evolved from pictures and characters, they are highly pictographic, multi-character, and the strokes are uncertain. This shows that China's writing was not unified in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Image inscriptions in the Yin Dynasty: In the pre-Qin period, copper was called gold, so the words carved on bronzes were called inscriptions, also called Zhong Dingwen and Yi's inscriptions (the concave inscriptions on bronzes were inscriptions, and the protruding ones were inscriptions). Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, inscriptions on bronze inscriptions are more pictographic, showing the ancient characters. The solid writing style of the bronze inscription makes the image vivid and natural. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the vulgar style of writing in Shang Dynasty, and the bronze inscription is the orthodox style, which shows that the orthodox style is complicated and the vulgar style is simplified (see Table 3).

(Table 3: Comparison Table of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Bronze Inscriptions) Oracle Bone Inscriptions's writing has a hard brushwork because most of them are carved on tortoise shell bones with knives (as shown in Figure 8: part of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's works by Mr. Yantang). This kind of brushwork, such as knife carving, has also been applied to modern graphic design; As shown in Figure 9, it was designed in 1958.

(fig. 8) (fig. 9) 2 in the history of China characters, in Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, Shi Shua was the most important one in terms of its contribution to philology. Shi Cheng is a historian in Zhou Xuanwang, so he should not innovate in order to be simple. Da Zhuan is also known as Shu Wen, Shu Zhuan, Shu Shu and history books. Because it was written by Shi Chuan, it is known as "Chuanwen". Da Zhuan can be found in Shuo Wen Jie Zi and various Zhong Ding Yi wares collected by later generations. Among them, Shi Guwen, made in Zhou Xuanwang, is the most famous. 3 Xiao Zhuan Xiao Zhuan, also known as Qin Zhuan, is a standard font compiled by Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty. It is simplified by Da Zhuan. Also known as Yujin seal, because it has the meaning of vigorous brushwork. The shape and structure of Xiao Zhuan are in harmony, and the strokes are even and neat, and the radicals have also been changed and merged. Compared with the big seal script, it has no pictograph. The change of characters from Da Zhuan to Xiao Zhuan is of great significance in the history of China characters (Figure 1).

(Figure 1: Deng Wanbai's four-body seal script) 4 The first step in the evolution of official script from small seal script to official script, the most remarkable change is from graceful money bars to straight strokes, from no corners to angles. Generally speaking, official script refers to a kind of official script with a wavy (oblique to the right with a pen) and a long tail like a carving knife, which is just one of them. The official script mainly includes Qin Li and han li, and Qin Li is the early form of official script; Han li is a mature font of official script. The official script usually refers to the "eight points" in han li (Figure 11: Eight points in Cao Quanbei). "Eight points" came into being gradually after Qin Li (attributed to neatness, standardization and transformation). The official script has developed to eight points, and it is already mature. The official script is square and thick, so it has a serious sense of integrity (Figure 12: Deng Wanbai's four-body official script). Although Figure 13 is written in western languages, it has a rhombic font and a "taste" of official script.

(fig. 11) (fig. 12) (fig. 13: design in 1955/partial) fig. 1, comparison of the strokes of seal script, fig. 2, comparison of the strokes of seal script, part 2, 5. Regular script "regular script" is also known as real script, official script and modern script. Such as Ou Yangxun, Liu Gongquan and other inscriptions. It includes the founder of ancient Li, the beauty of eight points and the simplicity of Zhang Cao. This font has been used up to now, and it is regarded as a standard font and is loved by the world. Regular script has a sense of stability and tranquility; Characters have different styles of the same font because of different personal writing styles and personalities (Figures 14 and 15). Figure 16, like Song Huizong's thin gold body, outlines the characters with thin lines, but it presents a completely different visual sense from the thin gold body because of its smooth expression at the turning point.

(Figure 14: Chu Suiliang's calligraphy style) (Figure 15: Song Huizong's poetry style) (Figure 16: designed in 1949) Regular script is the font we use today, which is further evolved from official script, and is richer and more complete than official script. 6 The running script "running script" is a kind of book between regular script and cursive script, which is free to write. Running script is different from official script and official script, and its fluidity can be freely used by writers. The running script shows a romantic and aesthetic atmosphere (Figure 17).

(fig. 17: local running script in Dong Qichang) Because running script writing is more practical, more convenient than regular script, and less difficult to recognize than official script, it is still the most commonly used font until today. 7 cursive script "cursive script", also known as broken grass and modern grass, is made from seal script, eight-point script and Zhang-cao script, following a variety of ancient characters. The cursive script originated from Zhangcao, and Zhangcao has a strong taste of official script, so it is named because it is mostly used for memorials. Zhangcao further developed into "modern grass", which is commonly known as "a book". Most of today's grass tends to be simpler than zhangcao and running script. The cursive script gives the viewer a sense of freedom and fluency (as shown in Figures 18, 19 and 2).

(fig. 18: Zhu Yunming cursive script's seven unique surfaces) (fig. 19: Ou Yangxun cursive script's thousand-character part) (fig. 2: Zhang Xu Crazy Grass) 8 After the invention of printing font printing, in order to meet the needs of printing, especially book printing, the characters gradually developed in the direction suitable for printing, and a horizontal, vertical and square printing font-Song Ti appeared. It originated in the Song Dynasty, the golden age of block printing, and was shaped in the Ming Dynasty, so the Japanese called it "Ming Dynasty Style". Song typeface is the main font used in publishing and printing because it is suitable for printing engraving and people's visual requirements when reading. With the development of cultural undertakings and science and technology, under the influence of western writing styles, computer fonts have appeared many new fonts, such as bold font, art font, etc., such as poster (POP) style, comprehensive art style, kanting style, girl font, etc., and more variants of Song style, such as imitation Song and flat Song. And all kinds of Chinese characters are computerized, and the scope of application is wider. For example, from left to right, it is: round body, comprehensive body, ancient seal body, pavilion flow and poster body (all of which are all real systems). )