Introduction of Chinese character fonts

Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, which was written by the royal family on tortoise shells and animal bones in the late Shang Dynasty in China (14 ~ 1 1 century). It is the earliest and most complete ancient Chinese character discovered by China.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an ancient script in China, regarded as an early form of modern Chinese characters, sometimes regarded as a script of Chinese characters, and also the oldest mature script in China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is also called Wen Qi, tortoise shell or tortoise shell animal bone. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a very important ancient writing material. Most Oracle Bone Inscriptions were found in Yin Ruins. Yin Ruins is a famous site of Yin Shang Dynasty, located in Xiaotun Village, Huayuanzhuang and Houjiazhuang in the northwest of Anyang City, Henan Province. It was once the capital of the central dynasty in the late Shang Dynasty, so it was called Yin Ruins. These Oracle Bone Inscriptions are basically the divination records of Shang rulers. Shang rulers are superstitious about whether there will be disasters, whether it will rain, whether there will be a good harvest of crops, whether there will be a victory in the war, what to sacrifice to ghosts and gods, and divination based on fertility, disease, dreaming and other things to understand the will of ghosts and gods and the quality of things. The materials used for divination are mainly tortoise's bellybutton, carapace and cattle's scapula. Small pits are usually dug or drilled on the back of Oracle bones for divination. This kind of pit is called "drilling" by experts in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Heating these pits during divination leads to cracks on the surface of Oracle bones. This kind of crack is called "omen" The word "Bu" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like a symbol. People engaged in divination judge good or bad according to the various shapes of divination. According to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty, Chinese characters at that time had developed into a complete Chinese writing system. In the discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, the number of words has reached about 4000. There are a lot of signifiers, pictographs, knowing characters, and many pictographs. These words are very different in appearance from the words we use now. But from the point of word formation, they are basically the same.

2. Jinwen

Bronze inscriptions refer to characters cast on bronze wares of Yin and Zhou Dynasties, also known as 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. Therefore, Zhong Dingwen or inscriptions on bronze refers to inscriptions cast or carved on bronzes.

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. China entered the Bronze Age in the Xia Dynasty, and the smelting of copper and the manufacture of bronzes were very developed. Because copper was also called gold a week ago, the inscriptions on bronzes were called "bronze inscriptions" or "auspicious words"; This bronze ware was called "Zhong Dingwen" in the past because it had the largest number of characters on Zhong Ding.

The application time of bronze inscriptions is about 1200 years, from the early Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty's destruction of the Six Kingdoms. According to Rong Geng's Jin Wen Bian, there are 3,722 inscriptions, of which 2,420 can be identified.

There are different words in the inscriptions on bronzes. The content of memory is also very different. Its main content is mostly to praise the achievements of ancestors and princes, but also to record major historical events. For example, the famous Mao has 497 words, covering a wide range, reflecting the social life at that time.

3. Big seal script

The current representative figures are named after a book handed down by Taishi in the Zhou Dynasty. On the basis of the original text, he transformed it and got his name because it was engraved on the stone drum. It is the earliest stone carving text that has been circulated so far, and it is the ancestor of stone carving.

It began in the late Western Zhou Dynasty and traveled in Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The fonts are similar to those of Qin Zhuan, but the configurations of glyphs overlap.

4. Xiao zhuan

Also known as "Qin Zhuan". It was in the Qin dynasty. The shape is long, even and neat, and it evolved from Da Zhuan. Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Shuo Wen Jie Zi? Syria said: "Qin Shihuang was the first emperor in the world ... Let it not be combined with Qin Wen. (Li) wrote Cang Xie, CZ ordered Zhao Gao to write Love Calendar, and a surname ordered Hu Wujing to write Bo Xue, all of which were based on Shi Shu's big seal script, or were well preserved, so-called small seal script writers also.

5. Official script

Official script is basically 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.

Official script is also called "official character" and "ancient book". It is a font produced on the basis of seal script to meet the needs of convenient writing. The seal script is simplified, and the uniform circle lines of the seal script are changed into straight strokes, which is convenient for writing. Official script can be divided into "Qin Li" (also called "Guli") and "Han Li" (also called "Golden Calendar"). The appearance of official script is a great change in ancient writing and calligraphy.

Official script is a common solemn font in Chinese characters, with a slightly flat writing effect, long horizontal drawing and short straight drawing, and pays attention to "swallow tail of silkworm head" and "twists and turns". It originated in the Qin Dynasty and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Calligraphy is known as "Han Li Tang Kai". It is also said that official script originated in the Warring States period.

Official script is relative to seal script, and its name originated from the Eastern Han Dynasty. The appearance of official script is another great change of China characters, which brings China's calligraphy art into a new realm, is a turning point in the development history of Chinese characters, and lays the foundation for regular script. Official script is flat, neat and exquisite. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, stippling such as skimming was beautified as upward provocation, with different degrees of severity and artistic beauty of calligraphy. Styles also tend to be diversified, which is of great artistic appreciation value.

According to legend, the official script was compiled by Cheng Miao who was not in the prison of Qin Dynasty. By eliminating complexity and simplifying, the font becomes round and square, and the strokes become straight. Changing "Lian Bi" into "broken pen" and changing lines into strokes makes writing more convenient. "Li Ben" is not a prisoner, but a petty official, that is, a small official in charge of documents, so in ancient times, official script was called "Zuo Shu". Lishu prevailed in Han Dynasty and became the main style of calligraphy. As a start-up Qin Li, seal script has many meanings, and it has been continuously developed and processed. It broke the writing tradition since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties and gradually laid the foundation for regular script. Under the unification of the thought of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", the official script of the Han Dynasty gradually developed into the dominant script, and at the same time, cursive script, regular script and running script were derived, laying the foundation for art.

6 。 regular script

Regular script is also called official script, or 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 (attached).

In the early days, there were few official handwriting, the structure was slightly wider, the horizontal painting was long and the vertical painting was short. In Wei Jinzhong handed down from ancient times, such as Zhong You's "Declaration Form" (left), "List of Recommended Seasons", Wang Xizhi's "Le Yi Lun" and "Huang Ting Jing" can all be regarded as representative works. Look at its characteristics, as Weng Fanggang said: "Change the wave painting of official script, pick it up, and still keep the vertical of official script."

After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the north and the south were divided, and calligraphy was also divided into two factions. The calligraphy style of the Northern School has inherited the legacy of Han Li. Its brushwork is simple and rigorous, but its style is simple and rigorous, so it is called "Weibei". Southern calligraphy is more sparse and beautiful than letters. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, because of regional differences, personal habits and book styles were very different. The books in the North are strong and the books in the South are rich, each of which is wonderful and inseparable, while Bao and Kang Youwei highly admire the books of the two dynasties, especially the epitaphs of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Kang cited ten beauties to emphasize the advantages of Weibei.

Regular script in the Tang Dynasty, like the prosperity of the national situation in the Tang Dynasty, is really unprecedented. Calligraphy style is mature, and calligraphers come forth in large numbers. In terms of regular script, Yu Shinan, Ou Yangxun, Chu Suiliang in the early Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing in the middle Tang Dynasty and Liu Gongquan in the late Tang Dynasty all regarded his regular script works as models of calligraphy.

7 。 cursive script

Cursive script: a style of Chinese characters. Formed in the Han Dynasty, it evolved on the basis of official script for the convenience of writing. There are Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Crazy Grass. There are rules to follow in the changes of strokes, such as the urgent chapter of the Three Kingdoms Wu in Songjiang Edition. Today's grass is eclectic and fluent, and its representative works include Wang Xizhi's "The First Moon" and Jin Dynasty's "Getting Time". Mad grass appeared in the Tang Dynasty, represented by Zhang Xu and Huai Su, and its brushwork was wild and uninhibited, which became an artistic creation completely divorced from practicality. From then on, cursive script was only the works of calligraphers imitating Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Kuangcao. Masterpieces such as Zhang Xu's Abdominal Pain Post and Huai Su's Autobiography Post. Cursive script is a font produced for the convenience of writing. It began in the early Han Dynasty. At that time, it was "Cao Li", that is, scribbled official script, which gradually developed into a kind of "Cao Zhang" with artistic value. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhi changed "Cao Zhang" to "modern grass", and the character style was formed in one fell swoop. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xu and Huai Su developed into "weeds", with continuous strokes and changeable glyphs.

8. Running script

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.