What are the ancient Chinese characters in China?

Judging from the development law of characters and calligraphy, it is naturally formed in the process of the evolution of characters (excluding the calligraphy style formed by calligraphers due to their personal styles), and there are the following fonts:

oracle bone script

Ancient bronze inscriptions

big seal character

Small/small seal characters

A simple book

official script

Commemorative manuscript

Semi-cursive/running/calligraphy (China's calligraphy)

Modern cursive script

Inscriptions in the Northern Dynasties (386-58 1)

regular script

Crazy Grass (China Calligraphy)

Running script/script

The above fonts are roughly arranged in chronological order, but summing up the history of calligraphy, there are five fonts, which are called five-body calligraphy, namely:

Seal script-including Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscription, big seal script and small seal script.

Li-including bamboo slips and silk books

True (block letters)-including Weibei.

line

Grass-including Cao Zhang, modern grass, walking grass and weeds.

After the Song Dynasty, due to the invention of movable type printing, a special font for printing-Songti was produced.

Many fine arts fonts like today are gradually invented by modern people.

1. Oracle Bone Inscriptions

Mainly refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, also known as "Yin Ruins Characters", "Guibadan" and "Yin Qi", which were carved on tortoise shell bones in Shang Dynasty and used for divination by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty in China (14 ~ 1 1 century). The knife is sharp and blunt, and the bones are thin and thick, hard and soft, so the strokes carved out are different in thickness, and some are even as thin as hair, and the joints of the strokes are peeling off, thick and heavy. Structurally, the length and size are not necessarily the same, or the dispersion is uneven; Or the dense layers are stacked, which is very neat and solemn, so it can show the infinite interest of simplicity and variety.

Although the structure of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is complex and varied, it has a symmetrical and stable pattern. Therefore, some people think that China's calligraphy, strictly speaking, began in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, because Oracle Bone Inscriptions has prepared three elements of calligraphy, namely, using a pen, binding words and composing a composition.

2. Jinwen

Refers to the inscription on the bronze wares of Yin and Zhou Dynasties, also called Zhong Dingwen. Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the bronze age, with the tripod as the representative ritual vessel and the bell as the representative musical instrument. "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronze ware.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions's brushwork is fine, with many straight strokes and turning points, while his inscriptions on bronze are thick, with many bent pens and many lumps. After Qin unified the six countries, it began to standardize the characters, which were called "the same language characters". The standardized characters in the Qin Dynasty were based on the Qin language, and the evolution of Chinese characters after the Qin Dynasty was also developed on the basis of the standardized Qin Xiaozhuan and Qin Zhuan's daily writing form. After the Qin Dynasty, the six-nation script was eliminated, and Qin Wen became the real mainstream. Therefore, Qin Shu is an important link in inheriting the ancient prose of the Western Zhou Dynasty, creating official script of the Han and Wei Dynasties, and even regular script. Its change can be regarded as a part of the evolution of Chinese characters according to their own internal structural laws. Therefore, as far as philology is concerned, the study of western languages in the Qin Dynasty is more important than that in the six countries, because they are direct blood relatives of Chinese characters, while the six countries are collateral branches, although they also influence and absorb each other.

3. Big seal script

In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese characters developed into Da Zhuan. The development of seal script has produced two characteristics: first, the lines with uneven thickness in the early days became even and soft, and the lines they drew with utensils were very concise and vivid; Second, standardization, the glyph structure tends to be neat, gradually divorced from the original form of the picture, laying the foundation for the square characters to be more uniform than the inscriptions, and the line drawing has reached the level of completion, with no obvious uneven thickness. The body structure is more neat than the bronze inscriptions, and it began to get rid of the shackles of hieroglyphics, laying the foundation for square Chinese characters. There are few variants on the same object. The font is complex, the radicals often overlap, and writing is inconvenient. The oldest rubbings known in the world are Song rubbings collected by Fan Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

The font is roughly between Zhou and Qin Xiao Zhuan. It is known to belong to the calligraphy system before Qin Shihuang. Compared with Xiao Zhuan, it can be called Da Zhuan, which is a masterpiece of Da Zhuan. Its font is small and complicated, like a ritual vessel in Zongzhou period, which is relatively complete and can be called neat. Kang Youwei called Shi Guwen in "Guangyi, One Boat, Two Cans": "When gold falls to the ground, the grass clouds are strange, and it is not annoying to cut it all. The body is slightly flat, and the insect is similar to qi. Shigu is not only the first antique in China, but also the first method for calligraphers. " It can be said that it is appreciation. Shi Guwen was cherished by Yilin, but after the Northern Song Dynasty, calligraphy research flourished and few people set foot in it. Until the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the wind of archaeological respect for monuments revived, and the stone drum characters were especially valued by calligraphers. Wu Da, you can get strict rhymes. Wu Changshuo, on the other hand, was angry that he was a man in ancient times. Both of them regard contemporary calligraphy as the most important thing for future generations.

4. Xiao zhuan

Also known as "Qin Zhuan". During the Qin Dynasty, Li Si was ordered to unify the characters, which was called Xiao Zhuan. It was in the Qin dynasty. The shape is long and neat, and it evolved from Da Zhuan. Although Xiao Zhuan is not early, it is numerous, which has a special position in the history of China's writing development and is a bridge between ancient and modern writing.

The style of Xiao zhuan

From the existing cultural relics such as Taishan stone carving, Langyatai stone carving and power inscription, we can see the style of Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty. Xiao Zhuan's strokes are fine, so it is also called "Jade Zhuan". The shape is rectangular, and the structure is often symmetrical, giving people a tall and beautiful feeling.

Simplified Chinese characters are undoubtedly the representative of elegance and simplicity in calligraphy, which stirs up the thoughts of the warring States philosophers and scatters the spirit of Confucian scholars in Wei and Jin dynasties.

5. Jane Books Company

What is a simplified book? Simply put, Jane's book is the words written on Jane. From the Warring States to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there was a kind of calligraphy, which was written on bamboo and wood writing materials and had a long and narrow shape. Bamboo abbreviation; Wooden scales, or letters, are collectively called "Jane". Simple books are generally written in variants of Han Li or Han Li; Because bamboo slips flourished in Qin and Han Dynasties and Wei and Jin Dynasties, they are also called Han bamboo slips. There is a saying in Li Shangyin's "Bei Tie" that "monkeys and birds are still alert to your orders, and the clouds will protect the storage for a long time". It can be seen that bamboo slips are noble and sacred, and they are an ancient writing form that is not easy to use and very particular.

According to predecessors, bamboo slips are documents to remind people to recruit. He also said that simplified books are a tool for the country to ask for help in an emergency. In fact, these two explanations of predecessors are not accurate. They all talk about simplifying the difference between the use of books and the content of writing, and have nothing to do with the form of writing. In fact, the so-called simplified Chinese characters are one of the art forms of calligraphy, but they are relatively old.

Mr. Zhang Youqing is a famous contemporary calligrapher, who is famous for his good calligraphy and simplified Chinese characters. His short books, like his character and personality, are both profound and solid in excellent traditional culture and open and refreshing in modern culture; It not only has the majesty and grandeur of Qin Zhong and Ding Han, but also has the elegance and agility of Chu Ci in The Book of Songs. Appreciating his short book, we can really read the meaningful charm of "Shrinking a hundred feet, breaking the waves and flying on paper" (Guo Fenghui's Painting Loose in Qin Zhongwen).

6. Official script

Basically, it evolved from seal script, mainly changing the round strokes of seal script into square folds, which makes writing faster, and it is difficult to draw round strokes when writing with pigments on wooden slips. Regarding the definition of official script, Mr. Wu, a close friend, said in the article "Looking at the official script in the early Qin and Han Dynasties from the unearthed silk slips of Qin Dynasty": "It can be explained by the original meaning of this word. Shuo Wen Jie Zi explains that Li means "attached", while The Biography of Feng Yi in the Later Han Dynasty teaches it as "subordinate", which is still in use today, and there is the word "subordinate" in modern Chinese. The Book of Jin, Wei Hengzhuan, Shuowen Jiezi Preface and paragraph notes all think that official script is inferior to Sasuke Zhuan, so official script is an auxiliary font of Zhuan Zhuan. "

Secondly, what is ceremony? What is the strict difference between ceremony and seal script? Mr. Wu has done some analysis in the above article, and here are some small paragraphs worth considering. Wu Yun:

"Xiao Zhuan also retains the meaning of pictographs to draw its finished products; Lishu went a step further, breaking the knot of pictographs with stroke symbols and becoming pictographs without pictographs "(see the original text, for example). The evolution of official script-the change of official script

The evolution of official script is called "official change", which is a link between the past and the future and plays an important role in the formation of cursive script and regular script.

Official script nouns

Guli

Jinli

Li Qin

Hanshu (a popular writing form in Han Dynasty)

7. Cao Zhang

It is an early cursive script, which began in Han Dynasty and evolved from cursive script to official script. Cao Zhang is the predecessor of "modern grass", and the difference between Cao Zhang and "modern grass" is that the brushwork of official script is retained, and the upper and lower characters are independent.

Running script is a font between regular script and cursive script, which can be said to be cursive script or cursive script. It is to make up for the shortcomings of slow writing in regular script and illegible cursive script. The brushwork is not as sloppy as cursive script, and it is not required to write more unrestrained and close to cursive script. The writing is relatively correct and stable, close to regular script.

In the process of writing, the movement of brush strokes is obvious in various forms of stippling. This movement of brush strokes often leaves traces of each other between stippling and between words, which is delicate and delicate.

8. Running script

It is the quick writing of regular script, and it is the stream of regular script. Through the analysis of several groups of characters in regular script and running script, it is found that when writing in regular script and running script, the writing method of stippling and the principles to be followed when using the pen are consistent, such as centering, laying the pen, pushing the main body and hiding the front, while running script is relatively stretched and smooth.

Running script pen has the following characteristics:

[1] stippling is mostly written by exposing the front to paper;

[2] Replace flatness with side surface;

[3] Replace complex stippling with simple strokes;

[4] Strengthen the echo of stippling by hooking, picking and tying;

[5] replace the square fold with a round turn;

9. Cao Jin

Also known as "grass". A cursive script. It started at the end of Han Dynasty. This is an innovation of Cao Zhang. The strokes continue to wrap around, and there are couplets between words, making writing simple and convenient. It was developed and perfected by Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Cao Zhang in ancient times failed to escape, but it was different from the real body, combining the principles of poverty and falsehood, and it was extremely careless. If it is not between the lines, it will be better for adults to change their bodies. "The more vertical Wild Grass is the development of Modern Grass.

10. Weibei

The general name of the inscriptions in the Northern Dynasties is characterized by vigorous brushwork and strong fonts, which is a model of calligraphy in later generations. Wei Bei's calligraphy art is mainly divided into two categories: one is Buddhist statues and inscriptions; One is the folk epitaph calligraphy with Han Li's brushwork, which is rigorous in structure, steady in brushwork, changeable and beautiful.

Weibei refers to the inscriptions and calligraphy works in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The existing characters in Wei Bei are regular script, so these regular script inscriptions are sometimes called "Wei Kai". Weibei, also known as the North Monument, was the longest established in the Northern Dynasties. Later, "Weibei" was used to refer to the inscription calligraphy works of the whole Northern Dynasty, including the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty. These inscriptions mainly exist in the form of "stone tablet", "epitaph", "cliff" and "statue".

1 1. Regular script

Also known as a real book, or a real book. Its characteristics are: square shape, straight strokes, can be used as a model, hence the name. Began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are many famous regular script writers, such as Ou Ti (Ou Yangxun), Yu Ti (Yu Shinan), Yan Ti (Yan Zhenqing), Liu Ti (Liu Gongquan) and Zhao Ti (Zhao Mengfu).

12. Weeds

Pointillism is writing on the basis of this grass to form a "book", which is in the same strain in terms of composition.

Weeds, Expressionism in Calligraphy

The achievement of Crazy Grass is another manifestation of the peak of calligraphy in Tang Dynasty. Representative figures are Zhang Xu and Huai Su. In the ancient calligraphy theory of our country, no matter how to discuss seal script, official script, running script, regular script or cursive script, most of them take natural landscapes or some phenomena as metaphors and descriptions. Readers have to rely on a kind of life feeling and life experience to understand, so as to appreciate and understand them. Calligraphy is really a mysterious art, especially weeds. The author is often full of passion, in a state of excitement, and the reader vaguely feels some emotion from the pen and ink.

13. Running grass

A font between regular script and cursive script, which can be said to be cursive or cursive. It is to make up for the shortcomings of slow writing in regular script and illegible cursive script. The brushwork is not as sloppy as cursive script, and it is not required to be as correct as regular script. There are more methods of mold opening than cursive writing, which is called "mold opening". Cursive calligraphy is more than modular method, which is called "cursive calligraphy". Running script was produced in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.