China's oldest characters

The oracle bone inscriptions and the rock paintings of Damaidi are the oldest existing writings in China.

Oracle Bone Script is also known as "Qiwen", "Buqi", "Tortoise Shell Script", "Yinxu Script", and "Zhenbu Script". The oldest surviving script in China. The oldest existing script in China. It is so called because it is engraved and written on tortoise shell and animal bone. During the Yin and Shang dynasties, tortoise shell and animal bones were often used to write and carve divination and chronicles related to divination. Most of the oracle bones were found in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province (the site of the capital city of the Yin Shang, also known as Yin Ruins), and were discovered in 1898. After 1928, after many archaeological excavations, more than 100,000 pieces of oracle bones were unearthed, which were found during the two hundred and seventy-three years between Pan Geng's relocation to Yin and Zhou's death. The total number of single characters is about 4,600, and the recognizable characters are up to 1,700. The structure of the characters has tended to be merged from a single one, and there are a large number of form-sounding characters; however, the strokes and parts of the characters have not yet been finalized. The characters are simple and ancient, strong and beautiful, with high artistry. Qiwen is also known as Oracle Bone Script, so named because it is engraved on tortoise shells and animal bones with a Qiwen knife. In the Qing Dynasty, Sun Yijiang wrote two volumes of "Examples of Qiwen", which is the beginning of the interpretation of oracle bone inscriptions.

The oracle bone inscriptions are the most important data for the study of Shang Dynasty writing, history and culture, and also the representative of early calligraphy. The oracle bone inscriptions are mostly engraved with knives, and there are two forms of engraving and writing directly with knives as pens. Mining Mr. Dong Zuobin "Yin people's books and deeds" and "Anyang Houjiazhuang out of ten of the oracle-bone characters" contained in the two articles, in the oracle-bone inscription stroke carving omission, can be found in the merchants carved oracle-bone inscription, foot first book and then engraved. From the point of view of calligraphy, the oracle bones already have the later calligraphy of the brush, chapter, character elements. From the point of view of brushwork, the engravers of the Yin and Shang Dynasties used their knives like brushes, showing certain characteristics of calligraphy. At the same time, writing with ink or vermilion was found in the oracle bones, which indicated that there were writing tools similar to brushes in this period. These Zhu, ink handwriting of the pen, start and stop are sharp, there are light and heavy thickness changes, the two ends of the pointed, thick in the middle, can be regarded as the initial form of calligraphy with the pen, but also reflects the flexibility of the writing tool; and expressive. Chapter style, the oracle bone script is mostly vertical into the line, horizontal and without columns co-exist, sparse and dense, rich changes. On the character formation, there is symmetry, stability of the center of gravity, with the appropriate, but also a word a variety of structural changes in the beauty of complex combinations and present a variety of unity, the combination of square and round, open and close the degree of performance of the original art of calligraphy form beauty. Because the knife is different from the pen, it is not easy to turn round when carving, and the form is mainly square and folded, which is characterized by thin, strong and steep carving.

Damaidi, Ningxia Weining North Mountain is a rare place, as a kind of basin-shaped mountain, only a few passes can pass. For a long time, the environment here is harsh, deserted, the most vitality is those carved in the rock of the mountain beams like a text like a picture of the symbols. No one knows how long the petroglyphs have been dormant.

In April 1989, Li Xiangshi, who had discovered the petroglyphs in Helan Mountain, went into the desert with his brother. They searched with dry rations in a radius of dozens of miles, during which they experienced the danger of overturning the car, and finally found a group of petroglyphs in Dalmaidi. In the area of about 15 square kilometers of Dalmaidi, more than 3,000 groups and 8,000 petroglyphs are densely carved on the rocks, with an average of more than 200 groups per square kilometer, exceeding the world's recognized standard of density of the main distribution area of petroglyphs by 20 times, and with a large number, large scale, and rich content, which is rare in China and even in the world.

After more than 10 years of unremitting research, there is a greater discovery: Ningxia Damaidi remains of early rock paintings can be traced back to the late Paleolithic period, about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. What does that mean? These petroglyphs are thousands of years older than the oracle bones!

On the hard stones, people, animals, towers, the sun and the moon, the gods and goddesses of heaven and earth, male and female genitals, hoof and hand prints, and scenes of hunting, herding, dancing, and rituals are all vividly depicted. The most common animal in the petroglyphs is the sheep, reflecting the worship of the sheep at that time and the importance of the sheep in life.

Were the petroglyphs and carved symbols a form of writing or a precursor to writing? The latest research shows that this kind of symbols similar to the nature of writing in Dalmatian has an important feature: the early petroglyphs of the hieroglyphic nature, and the Chinese characters in the hieroglyphic form is similar to that can be deduced that it is a primitive writing (primitive characters are only drawings, and later on, by the representation of a variety of physical objects of the graphics to express a more complex meaning, and then gradually "hieroglyphic" characters). (later on, "hieroglyphic" characters appeared to represent more complicated meanings of various objects). In the Dalmatian petroglyphs, there are not a few symbols, single or grouped, accounting for about 1/10 of the Dalmatian petroglyphs. It can be said that the Dalmatian petroglyphs are a treasure trove of cultures and primitive characters, and the origin of the ancient characters can be found here.

At present, there is no text earlier than the oracle bone inscriptions, and the symbols found in Dalmaidi are undoubtedly of great significance to the study of the origin of hieroglyphic writing.