Introduce the evolution of Chinese characters in China.

Evolution of Chinese Characters: Oracle Bone Inscriptions-> Jinwen->; Xiao Chuan-> Official script-> Regular script-> Cursive script-> semi-cursive/running script/hand (in Chinese calligraphy)

The Chinese nation is a great nation, and Chinese civilization is also the most unique civilization. Of all the countries in the world, only our China culture has been passed down without interruption, and only our "Chinese character" is the only writing form in the world that has evolved without interruption in ancient times. From about14th century BC, "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" in the late Shang Dynasty was regarded as the first form of "Chinese characters", and today, various fonts have been born one after another.

In Chinese characters, all kinds of fonts formed in different historical periods have their own distinctive artistic characteristics. For example, seal script is simple and elegant, official script is static and dynamic, rich in decoration, fast in cursive script, compact in structure, neat and beautiful in regular script, easy to read and write, practical, diverse in style and different in personality. However, before the Qin Dynasty unified Chinese characters, China's Chinese characters were still confused in font and application. In a broad sense, ancient Chinese includes the characters before Xiao Zhuan, and also includes Da Zhuan. In a narrow sense, it refers to the characters before Dazhuan 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 considered as the earliest stereotyped writing in China.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions: Most of the characters left on tortoise shells and animal bones by writing or carving in the late Shang Dynasty are "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" and a few are "notes". Most of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's characters conform to the principles of pictographic characters and knowing characters, with pictophonetic characters accounting for only 20%. Its characters are carved with a knife, some filled with cinnabar, and some written directly in ink. Because characters are mostly evolved from pictures and characters, they are pictographic, multi-character, and the strokes are uncertain. This shows that China's writing was not unified in the Yin and Shang Dynasties.

Image Inscription in the Yin Dynasty: In the pre-Qin period, copper was called gold, so the words cast on bronze ware were called inscriptions, also known as Zhong Dingwen and Qi Yi. Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions are more pictographic, showing ancient characters. The bronze inscription has a solid brushwork and vivid and natural image.

In the history of China, Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties made the most important contribution to philology. Shicheng is a historian in Zhou Xuanwang, and should not innovate for simplicity. Biography is also called Wen Shu, Biography of Shu, Shushu and History Book. Because it was written by Ishikawa, it is called "Wen Chuan". Dazhuan can be found in Shuowen Jiezi and various Zhong Ding Yi wares collected by later generations. Among them, Shi Guwen in Zhou Xuanwang is the most famous.

The evolution of Chinese characters is a process of gradually standardizing and stabilizing Chinese fonts. Small seal script makes the number of strokes of each word fixed; The official script forms a new pen system, and the font gradually becomes flat and square; After the birth of regular script, the font of Chinese characters tends to be stable, and the basic strokes of "horizontal, vertical, left, point, pick and fold" are determined, which further standardizes the stroke shape and fixes the number and order of strokes of each character. For more than a thousand years, regular script has been the standard character of Chinese characters. Chinese characters are an ideographic writing system based on pictophonetic characters, with pictophonetic characters as the main body, totaling about 10 thousand, of which about 3 thousand are the most commonly used. These 3000 Chinese characters can form an infinite number of phrases, and then form various sentences. After the appearance of Chinese characters, it has had a far-reaching impact on neighboring countries. At present, archaeologists have unearthed more than 1.6 million pieces of Oracle bones. Some are complete, and some are just fragments without written records. According to statistics, there are more than 4,000 words on all these Oracle bones, of which about 3,000 words have been verified by scholars, and among these 3,000 words, scholars have interpreted more than 1000 words. The rest are either unreadable or scholars are seriously divided. Nevertheless, through this word 1000, people can already have a general understanding of the politics, economy and culture of the Shang Dynasty. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a mature and systematic writing, which laid the foundation for the development of Chinese characters in later generations. Since then, Chinese characters have gone through various forms, such as inscriptions on bronze, seal script, official script and regular script, and have been in use ever since. The characters of Japan, Vietnam, South Korea and other countries are all created on the basis of Chinese characters.

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The earliest script appeared in the late Shang Dynasty, about14th century BC, when the initial stereotyped writing, namely Oracle Bone Inscriptions, was formed. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is both a hieroglyph and a phonography. Until now, there are still some pictographs in Chinese characters, which are very vivid.

Ideographic writing is the earliest writing in the history of Chinese formation in China. Chinese characters have gone through three stages: ideographic writing, phonography and ideographic writing, and phonography. Among them, ideographic characters refer to characters created according to the meaning of summarized content. In the initial stage of Chinese characters, there are no strokes and letters, which are gradually developed from pictures and physical records, so it is natural to incorporate the most dependent meaning into the font first.

Ideographic characters come from picture characters, but they weaken the nature of pictures and enhance the symbolism. Is the most primitive word formation. It has great limitations, because some physical abstract things can't be drawn. Therefore, on the basis of hieroglyphics, Chinese characters have developed into ideographic characters, and other word-forming methods have been added, such as understanding, referring to things, pictophonetic characters and so on. However, these new word-making methods still need to be based on the original pictographs, and they should be based on pictographs to combine, omit or add or delete symbols.

Since ancient times, China has said that "calligraphy and painting are of the same origin", because the earliest source of words is pictures, and calligraphy and painting are brothers, born from the same root, and have many internal relations. The origin of Chinese characters is the original painting, and primitive people express themselves in the form of "painting" in their lives. They have gradually changed from the original pictures to "ideographic symbols", which are neat and regular and have the characteristics of simplified Chinese characters. Scholars think that they may be the seeds of Chinese characters.

The original Oracle Bone Inscriptions has a great degree of abstract significance. Ancient civilizations such as Egypt did not have this level. Why? Many scientists think: 1. There are still earlier characters not found; 2. Oracle Bone Inscriptions was abstract from the beginning. If it is the latter, then why are ancient civilizations such as Egypt not so high?

About BC14th century, late Yin and Shang dynasties. "Ideographic symbol" evolved into a relatively stereotyped "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". This is considered to be the first form of Chinese characters. The characters carved on animal bones and tortoise shells, as well as those found in Yin Ruins, are considered as the direct ancestors of "modern Chinese characters", which can prove the continuation of Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, Middle Easterners could not read the hieroglyphics of their ancestors, and only modern people in China could read some "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. The words on these tortoise shells were originally used to predict good luck or bad luck. Ancient people thought that if some problems about diseases, dreams, hunting, weather, etc. were carved on tortoise shells, and then tortoise shells and animal bones were burned, then the cracks could be judged by fortune tellers according to the shapes and directions of these cracks. This is the ancestor of the modern Chinese character "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". Up to now, there are more than 5,000 species of "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". And there are more than 1000 kinds that can be interpreted. The formation of systematic Chinese characters is the emergence of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty in the 6th century BC/KLOC-0. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an ancient writing carved on tortoise shells and animal bones. Oracle Bone Inscriptions should be treated before use. Remove the flesh and blood from the Oracle bones first, and then saw them flat. Then, use a knife to drill a notch on the inside of the nail or the back of the animal bone. The arrangement of these gaps is orderly. A fortune teller or wizard engraves his name, the date of divination and the questions to be asked on the Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and then burns the hole in the Oracle Bone Inscriptions with a torch. The cracks that appear when these depressions are heated are called "signs". The wizard analyzes the trend of these cracks, obtains the result of divination, and engraves the divination on the Oracle bone. After the divination came true, these Oracle bones engraved with Oracle Bone Inscriptions became official files and were preserved.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a vulgar style in Shang Dynasty, and the bronze inscription is an orthodox style, which shows that the orthodox style is complex and the vulgar style is simplified. Later Biography of Xiao and Qin Li also proved this point well. Bronzes are widely used, and the words engraved on bronze Zhong Ding and stone drum are "inscriptions on bronze". Also known as Zhong Dingwen and Shi Guwen. Legend has it that it was written by Taishi Gong of Zhou Xuanwang. Up to now, the Palace Museum has ten Zhou Dynasty stone drums engraved with ten four-character poems. Because the feudal regime was fragmented, the words were different. Until the Qin dynasty. Qin Shihuang unified China. To unify the text.

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, and gradually deviates from the original shape of the picture, laying the foundation for the square characters.

Later, Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty, collected and sorted out the characters at that time, then simplified and beautified them and unified them. This unified script is called "Xiao Zhuan", also known as "Qin Zhuan". In addition to simplifying the shape of the big seal, the small seal has also reached the perfection of line and standardization. At this time, there are almost no traces of hieroglyphics. Into a neat, harmonious and beautiful square font that is basically rectangular.

However, the writing of Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty was too standard and the writing speed was very slow, so almost at the same time, many simple fonts in Lishu spread out to both sides and became flat. This font is characterized by changing the circle of "Xiao Zhuan" into a square. The tune of Xiao Zhuan was straightened and some radicals were separated, which was called Qin Li.

Official script is very popular, and "Qin Li" has not completely got rid of the structural characteristics of "Xiao Zhuan", which is basically square. By the Han Dynasty, the official script had developed to a mature stage, and the readability and writing speed of the characters were greatly improved, so it was called "Han Li". Han Li "gave full play to the characteristics of the brush, and appeared the zigzag brushwork of" silkworm head and goose tail ",which was convenient for writing. After the official script of the Western Han Dynasty, it evolved into Cao Zhang. Now, in the Tang Dynasty, there is a weed that expresses the author's thoughts and feelings in his pen. Subsequently, regular script (also known as original script), a combination of official script and cursive script, became popular in the Tang Dynasty. The print we use today evolved from regular script. Between regular script and cursive script, the running script "Han Li" was popular in Han Dynasty, while regular script was in its infancy. It was very popular in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi in Jin Dynasty were the real founders of regular script. At the same time, they absorbed the round strokes of seal script, retained the square straightness of official script, and removed the "dovetail". The structure of Chinese characters is generally fixed. At that time, it was called "true calligraphy", and later generations renamed it "orthodox calligraphy" because it was used as a model for learning calligraphy.

"Regular script" is particularly popular. Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Ou Yangxun and other calligraphers were outstanding at that time, and their calligraphy works are still studied as models.

The origin of "cursive script", such as running script or other characters, is uncertain when it began. According to historical records, "During the Warring States Period, Chu Huaiwang made Qu Yuan a constitutional order, but the draft was not published. Shangguanshi saw it and wanted to take it away. The ancestor of Gaicaoshu began in. " Therefore, cursive script originated from cursive script, indicating that cursive script was formed in the Warring States period. Because the font started from cursive script, in order to play the role of sketching, it is omitted and scribbled, so it can't be written neatly, just as the name suggests. But this cursive script can only be said to be the draft of the ancient seal script (the font used at that time). The real cursive script began in the early Han Dynasty, and its evolution process should be "Cao Zhang", "Modern Grass" and "Crazy Grass". Due to the neatness of regular script, the need of writing quickly, and the writer's creation of expressing his thoughts and feelings at the end of the pen, a smooth, rhythmic and artistic font-"cursive script" has been produced.

Between regular script and cursive script is "running script". Running script is not as standard and serious as regular script, nor as bold and unrestrained as cursive script, but it is elegant and cheerful, and the font is flexible. It is also the most popular and commonly used font. The writing is fluent and flexible. It is said that it was invented by Liu Desheng in Han Dynasty, and it is still the font used in our daily writing today.

Engraving printing, one of the four great inventions in China, was improved to movable type printing by Bi Sheng, resulting in a new writing method-Songti printing font. After the invention of printing, the carving knife used for lettering had a far-reaching influence on the glyph of Chinese characters, resulting in a kind of printing font with fine horizontal and thick vertical, which was eye-catching and easy to read, and was later called Song Style. Why does Song Ti have these characteristics? Because of the need of printing, of course. In the Song Dynasty, when woodblock printing was popular, woodcuts were mostly used for woodblock printing and plate making, that is to say, rectangular boards were used for woodblock printing and plate making. There are lines on the board, and the plate making is generally horizontal, so that the horizontal lines of the carved words are consistent with the wood grain and are relatively strong; But when the vertical line of lettering crosses the wood grain, it is easy to break. Therefore, the vertical lines of fonts are thicker and the horizontal lines are thinner. Even if the horizontal line is strong, the end is easy to wear, so the end is thicker. Horizontal and vertical, of course, is for the convenience of carving and plate-making knife workers. Carving and plate making is a very laborious job. If you want to express the characteristics of handwriting, lettering must be much larger than horizontal and vertical. Do a simple experiment and you will know. Enter or paste a Chinese character in windows Notepad, and set the font to Song Ti No.9 and Kai Ti No.9 respectively to see which one is easier to read. Because of the texture of the board, it is more difficult to carve various curves. Moreover, each board can only print two pages, and a book needs to be carved with many boards. If the words are carved too big, not only the sculptor will work hard, but also the board will be used a lot, so the words carved on the board will not be too big. However, on such a small reverse lettering, it is difficult to show the change, roundness and delicacy of handwriting. As you can imagine, it is of course the best choice. As can be seen from the above, these characteristics of Song Ti are printed, which meets the needs of printing and is very different from the handwriting of a brush. There are two kinds of fonts for the moment: fat imitation face, Liu style, thin imitation European style and dangerous style. But no matter how fat or thin, they are all horizontal and thin, square and square. Looks quaint and dignified. Among them, the strokes of Yan and Liu are towering, with some characteristics of horizontal, thin and vertical. In the Ming Dynasty, between Qin Long and Wanli, it changed from Song style to Ming style, with fine strokes and square fonts. It turned out that at that time, a kind of Hongwu style with thin horizontal and thick vertical was popular among the people, and this font was used for the title cards of official posts, lanterns, notices, private stones, ancestral halls and other gods. Later, some book carvers created a non-face and non-European skin silhouette in the process of imitating Hongwu's style. Especially because the strokes of this font are horizontal and vertical, it is really easy to engrave. It is different from seal script, official script, original script and cursive script, unique, fresh and pleasing to the eye. Therefore, it has been widely used since16th century and has become a very popular main printing font. It's also called Song Style, and it's also called lead font.

Later, people imitated the structure and brushwork of Songti characters and changed them into beautiful long and narrow printed fonts with consistent strokes. This is the imitation of Song Dynasty "Song Dynasty", and it is also a kind of font produced by imitation of Song Dynasty, which has developed very rapidly. It is the standard font that people like to use most, and it has been widely used in printed matter and various occasions.

At the same time, the "black body" was born. This font is striking and generous, the handwriting is the same thickness, the structure is striking and compact, the strokes are strong and powerful, and the strokes are not sharp, which makes people read easily. Because of its striking characteristics, it is often used in titles, introductions, signs and so on. It enriches the expression forms of Chinese characters. Bold characters, also known as squares or isolines, have no serif decoration, dignified fonts, horizontal and vertical, and all handwriting is of the same thickness. After modern printing was introduced to the East, Chinese characters in black body were created according to the western sans-serif black body. Because Chinese characters have many strokes and the clarity of bold small characters is poor, they were mainly used for article titles at first. However, with the development of typesetting technology, there are many bold fonts suitable for words. In Chinese, fonts without serif are usually called bold, and the category of this word is similar to Sans-serif. Therefore, Chinese fonts are often "bold" and western fonts are often "sans serif". It can be called a serif font. "Bold" is called Goshikku-tai in Japanese (literally translated as "Gothic").