The Origin of China Square Characters

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.

Regarding 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.

The earliest carved symbols were more than 8000 years ago.

In recent decades, Chinese archaeologists have published a series of unearthed materials about the origin of Chinese characters earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions in 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 comparison of the carving symbols on pottery pieces unearthed from more than 100 archaeological sites in China, and thought that the earliest carving symbols in China appeared in Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan Province, with a history of more than 8,000 years.

Although few countries use Chinese characters, the number of people using Chinese characters ranks first in the world. According to the number of people, Chinese characters can be said to be the largest language in the world.

Chinese characters are the only language symbol in the world that does not express sounds but only meanings (some Chinese characters can be used as phonetic symbols beside other Chinese characters).

Forbidden city:

The Forbidden City, which used to mean the Imperial Palace, is what people often say. It is located in the center of Beijing.

The Forbidden City was built in the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1420), covering an area of 720,000 square meters, with a building area of160,000 square meters and more than 9,000 palace buildings. It is the largest and most complete ancient palace complex in China and even the world.

Twenty-four emperors lived in the Forbidden City, which was the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (A.D.1368 ~1911) and is now the "Palace Museum". The whole building of the Forbidden City is resplendent and magnificent. It is known as one of the five largest palaces in the world (the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Palace of Versailles in France, Buckingham Palace in Britain, the White House in the United States and the Kremlin in Russia) and is listed as a "World Cultural Heritage" by UNESCO.

Palace buildings in the Forbidden City are the largest and most complete ancient buildings in China, with a total area of over 720,000 square meters. It is said that there are 9,999 semi-palaces, which are called "the sea of palaces" and are magnificent. Whether it is plane layout, three-dimensional effect or grand form, it is an unparalleled masterpiece.

A central axis runs through the whole Forbidden City, which is on the central axis of Beijing. The three main halls, the last three palaces and the imperial garden are all located on this central axis. On both sides of the central axis palace, there are also many temples symmetrically distributed, all of which are magnificent. These palaces can be divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner court. The outer court is centered on the three halls of Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe, and the Wenhua Hall and Wuying Hall are two wings. The Forbidden City is centered on Gan Qing Palace, Jiaotai Palace and Kunning Palace, with six palaces in the east and west as its wings, and its layout is rigorous and orderly. There are exquisite turrets in all four corners of the Forbidden City, which are beautifully built and very beautiful. Miyagi is surrounded by palace walls, which are 10 meters high and 3400 meters long. There is a moat 52 meters wide outside the wall.

At present, some palaces in the Forbidden City have established comprehensive historical and artistic museums, painting museums, classified ceramics museum, bronze museums, Ming and Qing craft museums, sculpture museums, toy museums, Four Treasures of the Study museums, toy museums, treasures museums, clocks and watches museums and cultural relics exhibitions in the Qing Dynasty. According to statistics, there are 1052653 pieces, accounting for 6% of the total national cultural relics.

Peking Opera:

Peking Opera, the largest opera in China, was formed in Beijing during Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty (it is said that it was formed during Daoguang period).

In the early Qing Dynasty, Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera (also known as Gao Opera, which originated from Yiyang Opera) coexisted in the Liyuan. In the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (1779), Wei Changsheng, a Shaanxi opera actor, went to Beijing from Sichuan and moved the capital under the name of "Gunlou", which greatly reduced the color of Beijing opera and actually "shelved the old Beijing opera". In the fifty-fifth year of Qianlong (1790), Huizhou class of Sanqing in Yangzhou entered Beijing and gradually absorbed the Beijing-Qin dialect. Therefore, the predecessor of Beijing Opera is Hui Opera, commonly known as Pihuang Opera. The original Huizhou Opera mainly sang Huang Er tune, and also sang Kunqu opera, Chuidiao, Siping tune, Paizi and so on. Until the Daoguang period, the Han Dynasty was transferred to Beijing, forming a confluence of Hui and Han Dynasties, which led to the fusion of Hubei Xipi tune and Anhui Huang Er tune, hence the name "Drama".

The rise of Pihuang opera has brought a new atmosphere to the drama world. At first, it was a troupe with Dan as the main role, and later it became a troupe with live roles as the main role. Cheng Changgeng, Zhang Erkui and Yu Sansheng are among them. Secondly, the number of performance venues has increased, and court and theater performances have been frequent. Due to the preference of Empress Dowager Cixi in the late Qing Dynasty, there were nearly 100 people teaching in the palace, which attracted almost all famous people in Beijing. Thirdly, a special actor training class has emerged, which has produced a large number of accomplished actors, among whom Tan Xinpei is an outstanding representative. On the basis of predecessors' achievements, he made a comprehensive and bold innovation in Pihuang opera, which made it look brand-new. Tan Xinpei not only enriched his singing, but also changed the flute to the huqin, unifying the accompaniment instruments. He is good at writing and martial arts, and he is good at body art. He combines the three skills of "safety", "backrest" and "declining faction" to become a real "civil and military chaos" actor. Another outstanding contribution of Tan Xinpei was to unify the pronunciations used on the stage at that time, and to change the original situation of Beijing pronunciation, Wu pronunciation, Hui pronunciation and Huguang pronunciation into the method of reading Zhongzhou rhyme with Huguang pronunciation, which became the standard of Beijing opera pronunciation later. In this sense, Tan Xinpei is one of the founders of Beijing Opera.

During the reign of Guangxu and Xuantong, the Beijing Pi Huang class went to Shanghai to perform one after another. Because the skin yellow sung by Beijing school is different from the homologous Anhui skin yellow, it is better to listen to. In order to distinguish the two, it is called Beijing dialect. After the Revolution of 1911, the pear orchards in Shanghai were all controlled by the Beijing class, so they were called Peking Opera (once called Pingju). A Beijing opera was created in Shanghai and then spread to Beijing.

Beijing opera art, in literature, performance, music, singing, gongs and drums, makeup, facial makeup and other aspects, has formed a set of standardized, standardized, mutually restrictive and complementary programs through the long-term stage practice, persistent exploration and bold innovation of several generations of outstanding artists. The creation of stage art image is not only colorful, but also rigorous in usage, which is a treasure representing national traditional culture. As a performing art, Peking Opera is characterized by its combination of reality and fiction, which transcends the limitations of stage space and time to the maximum extent, thus achieving the artistic realm of "expressing the spirit with form and having both form and spirit". Delicate and delicate performances, everywhere into the play; The song is melodious and euphemistic, full of sound and emotion; Martial arts are not won by bravery and popularity, but by "singing martial arts." All these achievements are really a wonderful flower in the world performing arts garden.

With the improvement of Beijing opera art, a large number of Beijing opera artists stand out. In addition to two representatives who contributed to the birth of Peking Opera, there are, Yan, Tan, Zhou, Zhou, Li Shaochun and so on. Mei Lanfang, Cheng, Shang Xiaoyun, Xun Huisheng,, Guan, etc. , Hao,, Hou,, Qiu,, etc. Cheng Jixian, Yu Zhenfei and Ye Shenglan. At the beginning of a small ascension; Military, commercial, etc. , leaves, etc. ; Gong Yunfu, Li Duokui and so on. It has played a historical role in the development of Beijing Opera. With their artistic talent, the stage of Beijing opera shines brilliantly.

Bell:

The chime is a percussion instrument in ancient China. It is made of bronze. It consists of flat round clocks of different sizes arranged in pitch order and hung on a huge clock rack. The bronze bell can be struck with a T-shaped wooden hammer and a long stick, which can produce different musical sounds. Because the tone of each clock is different, you can play beautiful music according to the sound spectrum.

According to literature records and unearthed cultural relics, there were bells in the Western Zhou Dynasty in China, when bells were generally composed of three pieces. From the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, the number of chimes gradually increased, including 9 pieces in a group, 13 pieces in a group, and so on ... 1978 The chime unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Sui County, Hubei Province (about 433 BC) is the most striking set of chimes discovered so far, which is big enough to occupy a modern age. It consists of 19 button bells, 45 Yong bells and 65 pieces of a big Fu Zhong of King Hui of Chu. These clocks are hung on the clock stand in three layers and eight groups. The three groups hanging directly on the upper floor are called button bells, and the five groups hanging obliquely on the middle and lower floors are called Yong bells. The smallest button bell is 20.4 cm high and weighs 2.4 kg, which can be tuned in performance. The largest bass bell is as high as 153.4cm and weighs 203.6kg. The total weight of the whole set of bells is 2500kg. The bell frame is made of copper and wood, with a square shape (such as ┏), a total length of 10 meters, three floors up and down and a height of 273 meters. It is supported by six bronze warriors with swords and several pillars. The whole set of bells and beams is magnificent and spectacular. When playing, the band consists of several people. Six T-shaped wooden hammers strike high and middle notes, and two long sticks strike low notes. According to the research of acoustic experts, each bell in the chime can emit two different musical sounds. As long as the position of the mark sound on the clock is accurately struck, it can produce a musical sound that conforms to a certain frequency, and the whole set of chimes can play all the sounds of black and white keys on the modern piano. The fixed audio frequency of this set of chimes is 256.4 Hz, which is almost equal to the central "C" frequency on the piano now. The experimental performances after excavation show that although they have been buried underground for more than 2000 years, their musical performance is still very good. Their pronunciation is accurate, their timbre is beautiful, their range can span as many as five octaves, and their sound changes are relatively complete. Therefore, both classical and modern music can be played, and the accompaniment effect is also very good.

Ceng Houyi's chimes are made of copper, tin and aluminum alloy. The whole set of bells is decorated with patterns of people, animals and dragons, beautifully cast, with clear details, and engraved with inscriptions indicating the pronunciation tone of each bell. This is the real thing in 433 BC. It can be seen that more than 2400 years ago. China's music culture and casting technology have developed to a very high level, nearly 2000 years earlier than the appearance of European twelve-division keyboard instruments.

Zongzi:

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is the Dragon Boat Festival, and people have the habit of eating zongzi. The legend is to commemorate Qu Yuan, the minister of Chu State during the Warring States Period.

Qu Yuan is a great patriotic poet in China. He actively advocated that Chu and Qi should unite against Qin. His opinion was not adopted, but was dismissed and sent to a remote place.

When Chu was about to perish, on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River.

After Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, Chu people threw delicious food into the river to prevent fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs from eating Qu Yuan's body. In this way, year after year, in order to commemorate this patriotic poet, every Dragon Boat Festival, people throw food into the river to offer sacrifices to Qu Yuan.

One night, an old man dreamed of Qu Yuan in a dream and asked him, "Did you eat so much food we threw you?" Qu Yuan said, "The rice you gave me was eaten by those fish, shrimps, turtles and crabs." The old man asked, "How can I not be eaten by them?"

Qu Yuan said, "You wrap rice with bamboo leaves and make it into a pointed dumpling shaped like a water chestnut. They thought it was a water chestnut and dared not eat it. "

On the Dragon Boat Festival the following year, people put sharp zongzi into the Miluo River as Qu Yuan said. However, after the Dragon Boat Festival, Qu Yuan had a dream for the old man and said, "Thank you for sending me so many zongzi. I ate them all. But most of them are still eaten by fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs. "

The old man asked Qu Yuan, "What else can we do?"

Qu Yuan said: "The boat delivering zongzi should be dressed like Jackie Chan, because fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs are under the jurisdiction of dragons and dare not eat the dragon king."

Since then, every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, people paddle dragon boats to the Miluo River to deliver zongzi. This is the origin of eating zongzi and rowing dragon boats on the Dragon Boat Festival.