The origin story of Chinese characters

About14th century BC, Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the late Shang Dynasty was regarded as the first form of Chinese characters. Up to today, all kinds of fonts, such as full body, whole block, floating clouds and variant characters, have been born, which is the concrete manifestation of cultural prosperity and the inevitable result of the development of Chinese characters. 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. The following is the story of the origin of Chinese characters I brought to you, I hope it will help you!

Several viewpoints on the origin of Chinese characters

There are many theories about the origin of Chinese characters, including knot theory, gossip theory, Hutuluo theory, Cangjie word theory, picture theory and so on.

1, the knot indicates:

"The History of the Northern Wei Dynasty" said: The ancestors of the Northern Wei Dynasty "hunted for a career, and simplicity was a custom, and simplicity was a change; Not for words, but for woodcarving ",which records tribes in primitive society or some ethnic minorities in China. Before the appearance of writing, they recorded wars, hunting, alliances, elections, celebrations, marriages, births, diseases, disasters and other large and small events by knotting notes.

2, gossip said:

Kong Anguo's Preface to Shangshu (a fake, but very old) said: "The ancients began to draw gossip and make books to replace the politics of tying ropes, so literary books came into being."

3, "River Map Luo Shu" said:

Book of Changes: "Rivers draw, Luo writes, and saints write." "Picture" and "book" are from Heluo, how mysterious! Mysticism is the main feature of this theory. In vain, it can be understood as books, but in fact, it can be understood as I ching and history books.

4, Cang Xie said:

"Cang Xie's Theory of Word Creation" was popular in the Warring States Period. "Lv Chunqiu JUNSHOU" said: "Cang Xie is a book and Hou Ji is a crop." Xunzi and Han Feizi also recorded it. Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi Xu: "Cang Xie's first book, Gai Yi is like pictograph."

Who the hell is Cang Xie? Legend has it that he is a historian of the Yellow Emperor, who was the leader of the tribal alliance in ancient Central Plains. With the society entering the stage of large-scale tribal alliances, the external affairs between alliances are becoming more and more frequent, and it is urgent to establish a set of communication symbols enjoyed by all alliances, so the work of collecting and sorting out * * * was handed over to historian Cang Xie.

5. The picture says:

Modern scholars believe that Chinese characters really originated from the original picture. The figures depicted on some unearthed cultural relics are probably related to words.

Painted pottery pots of Yangshao culture unearthed from Anbanpo site in Xi 'an and fish-shaped patterns on bronzes in the late Shang Dynasty are vivid. Comparing them with some "fish" in ancient Chinese characters, the similarity is enough to make people believe that Chinese characters evolved from the original picture.

Chinese character structure

On the structure of Chinese characters, there is traditionally a saying of "six books". "Book" refers to writing in ancient times, and it also refers to written words, so "Liu Shu" literally means six characters, and Liu Shu is about the theory of six Chinese characters:

1, hieroglyphics:

Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi Xu said: "Ideographic characters are painted into their objects, followed by the body, the sun and the moon." That is to say, pictographic characters are the shapes of things represented by the meaning of words drawn in glyphs, and the strokes of words are zigzag with the shapes of objects, such as "day" and "month".

The seal script "Sun" looks like the sun, and a short horizontal line in the middle is a decorative painting to fill the gap, which has no practical significance; The "Moon" seal script is like a string moon, and a painting in the middle is also a decorative painting. If we study Shang and Zhou scripts, the pictographic degree of the two characters is higher.

Ideographic characters, such as:

Sheep, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like a sheep's head.

Wood, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like a tree, with branches and roots.

Water, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like running water, and its original meaning is river.

2. Description:

Xu Shen's "Narration of Explaining Words" said: "Those who refer to things can see and know, and see from top to bottom." A demonstrative word can be recognized at a glance, and its meaning can be found by careful observation. The words "up" and "down" are such words. Refers to a word that uses abstract symbols to express what the word means.

Finger words such as:

Ben and Xiao Zhuan pointed out the roots of trees with dots or horizontal lines, which originally meant roots.

Finally, the bronze inscription pointed out the treetops with horizontal paintings on wood, which originally meant treetops.

Once upon a time, bronze inscriptions were like the rising sun, attached to the ground below (said to be clouds). Its original meaning is dawn and morning.

3. Understand:

Xu Shen's "Narration of Explaining Characters by Explaining Literatures" said: "The knower compares the class to see the finger, and Wu Xin also." It means that the word "know" is a coordinate part of speech, that is, more than two words. Combine their meanings to show what the meaning of this word points to. "Nothing" and "faith" are such words. The seal script of the word "Wu" consists of the word "stop", which is like a human foot. In other words, it means that people move forward, so "stop" means to move forward with Ge, that is, to conquer and fight. The seal script of "Xin" consists of two words, the original meaning is honesty, and people must be honest.

Understand words, such as:

Light, Oracle Bone Inscriptions shines on people from the fire, and there is light shining on people's heads. The original intention is brilliant.

During the reign of Emperor Zong, Oracle bone inscriptions appeared from mi, which was called "in-house manifestation" (that is, God). The original meaning is ancestral temple.

From, Oracle Bone Inscriptions from two people, the original intention is to listen.

4. Voice:

Xu Shen's "Narration of Explaining Words" said: "Those who have sound and tangible, in the name of things, complement each other with examples, and rivers are also." That is to say, pictophonetic characters are created with words related to the things expressed by the meaning of words, and words with similar pronunciation to new words, that is, words with the same or similar pronunciation to new words, are synthesized with them. "Jiang" and "He" are such words.

Pictophonetic characters, such as:

At dusk, Oracle Bone Inscriptions knew this word from the fact that the sun was on four blocks (pictographs of grass) or four trees. The original intention was that when the sun was about to set, it was designated as "Mo". Later, an pictograph was added under the word "Mo" to express its original meaning.

Overflow, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like water overflowing from a container; The baby seal bubbled water from the plate. Both are the word "profit", which means that water overflows. Later, a pictophonetic symbol was added next to the word "one", which became the pictophonetic word "one" from water to express its original meaning.

However, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like a bird, that is, the word "Wei" is the same as the word "bird". Oracle Bone Inscriptions and he often used it to represent words, and later generations added the pictophonetic word "mouth", which changed from the sound of reconciliation to the pictophonetic word "Wei", and its original meaning was response sound.

5. Transfer:

Xu Shen's "Narration of Explaining Words" said: "Those who pass notes, build classes, agree to accept each other, and often take exams."

Under the guise of ...:

Xu Shen's "Narration of Explaining Words by Writing" said: "The borrower is speechless, and he can do things according to his voice, and he will also do it."

Since the Warring States Period, people have summed up six rules by analyzing and summarizing the physical structure and usage of Chinese characters. The four books on image number, pointing, knowing and pictophonetic characters talk about word formation, while the two books on turning and borrowing talk about word formation. It is common sense to know that things can only be classified according to the same standard every time, and different categories cannot be compared. Since the ancients unified the word "Shu" with the word "Liu", we can know that the word "Shu" can only have one meaning in the word "Liu Shu", and it cannot be used as a word-making method and a word-using method at the same time. Therefore, the traditional theory of six books can never be a mixture of word-making and word-using in essence.

Morphological evolution of Chinese characters

Chinese characters are constantly evolving, including the evolution of text structure and form, which is not only related to the times, but also related to the differences in countries or regions, text uses and writing materials. The form of Chinese characters refers to the writing shape of Chinese characters, commonly known as fonts.

People are generally used to calling the characters written from the generation of Chinese characters to the font of Xiao Zhuan as ancient Chinese characters; The characters written in the fonts after Qin Lishu are collectively called modern characters.

1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions wrote it on tortoise shell and beast bones, which are often used for divination. As early as the Neolithic Jiahu Site in Wuyang County, Henan Province and the Longshan Cultural Site in garden village County, Chang 'an County, Shaanxi Province, Oracle Bone Inscriptions has been discovered. At present, there are more than 0/0,000 pieces of Oracle bones, and the total number of Oracle bones with characters is about 62,000, and 3978 characters have been sorted out. There are now more than 900 Oracle Bone Inscriptions that can be read and confirmed, most of which are commonly used words; More than 3,000 people can't read and confirm, and most of them are special names such as names, place names and surnames.

2. Jinwen:

Bronze inscriptions refer to the characters carved on various bronzes in the pre-Qin period. The ancients called bronze gold, which is the provincial name of bronze inscriptions. Among the bronzes, the bell is the most musical instrument, and the tripod is the most ritual vessel. Zhong Ding is commonly used to represent ancient bronzes, so it is also called Zhong Dingwen. Among them, the concave is called yin, also called segment, which means empty; The outstanding person is called Yang Wen, also known as knowledge, and knowledge is the meaning of this symbol. Collectively. So far, more than 8,000 pre-Qin bronzes with inscriptions have been unearthed, with more than 3,000 non-repetitive characters on them, and the number of recognizable readers is about 1800 words.

3. Big seal script:

Dazhuan refers to the Qin characters in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Inheriting the inscriptions on bronze in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and enlightening Xiao Zhuan in the next, the strokes are more linear, and the characters are gradually shaped.

4. Xiao Yan:

Small seal script refers to the common script of Qin State after Qin Shihuang unified China, also known as Qin Zhuan, which is the symmetry of big seal script. After Qin Shihuang annexed the six countries, in order to consolidate political unity, he carried out a series of reforms, one of which was to unify the characters in order to change the chaotic situation of deformed characters in the Warring States period. Generally speaking, there is only one unified writing method for each character, which has abolished many old abnormal characters in ancient Chinese characters. Fonts are further symbolized. Glyphs are developing towards simplification.

5. Official script:

Lishu is a simpler and easier-to-write font than Zhuanshu, which was developed on the basis of scribbling of Zhuanshu in the late Warring States period. This font was originally dedicated to the jailers of the Qin Dynasty, so it was called official script. The Chinese characters in Lishu are completely symbolic in form, that is, the pictographic factors of ancient Chinese characters are completely abandoned, making the characters become symbols composed solely of strokes and losing their original pictographic and figurative functions. For example, birds, horses, fish, swallows and Xiao Zhuan still have pictographic meanings, but Li Shu changed the tail of fish and swallows and the feet and tails of birds and horses into four parts, and the prototype was no longer visible. Thorough strokes, that is, dissolving seal script, changing round strokes into square or truncated strokes, decomposing fonts into the accumulation of several basic strokes, and gradually forming several strokes such as point, horizontal, straight, curved, left, press, pick and hook.

6, cursive script:

Cursive script is a kind of modern font produced by convenient writing. The word "grass" in cursive script means sloppy. There are three common cursive scripts: Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Crazy Grass.

Because cursive script is difficult to write, recognize, use and spread, it destroys the structural system of Chinese characters to some extent and makes them lose their communicative function. Therefore, it has always been an auxiliary font and cannot be officially used. It is just a work of art for people to appreciate.

Because cursive strokes are simpler than other fonts, it has a great influence on the simplification of Chinese characters later. There are many variations of cursive script in the simplified Chinese characters used today, which shows that cursive script has certain progressive significance in the development of Chinese characters.

7. Run the script:

Running script is a font between regular script and cursive script. It came into being in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and prevailed in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Until today, it is still the most widely used handwriting in daily writing, recording and drafting.

Running script is characterized by informal brushwork, fine brushwork, continuous strokes and independent characters. Various fonts such as seal script, official script, regular script and cursive script have their own rules, but running script has no certain rules. If you write well and have many elements of regular script, it is called regular script, or it is really good; If writing is indulgent and cursive script contains many elements, it is called cursive script or cursive script. Wang Xizhi, a native of Jin Dynasty, was highly regarded as a calligrapher in past dynasties, and his Preface to Lanting was recognized as the best running script in the world.

8. italics:

Regular script is a simplified font evolved from Han Li. The real name is a real book or a real book, which was renamed after the Tang Dynasty. Qi and fingering, that is, neatness and standardization, are exemplary.

It is believed that regular script germinated in the late Western Han Dynasty, and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were the stages when regular script gradually matured and official script gradually disappeared. As for the current regular script, its style is generally laid by the works of calligraphers in the Tang Dynasty, and the regular script in the Tang Dynasty completely eliminates the remaining official scripts in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, so the regular script in the Tang Dynasty is completely mature.

The main characteristics of regular script are square, horizontal and vertical, and clear strokes.

The structure of regular script is basically the same as that of Han Li, except that some characters are simpler than those of Han Li, and some official scripts have a little structure and strokes of seal script, but regular script is gone. The main difference between them lies in the different pen shapes. Han Li has long transverse waves, but regular script doesn't. Han Li's Long Cross Wave and Four Waves should be picked up at last, but regular script is not.

The origin story of Chinese characters

Legend has it that once, the troops of the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou were at war, and they were very happy and inseparable. The Yellow Emperor wanted to change his strategy and asked Cang Xie to bring the battle map, but he found that the map had been lost. We must retreat and negotiate. After returning to the camp, the Yellow Emperor was very angry and blamed Cang Xie for not doing well. Cang Xie said that there are too many facts to record now, and it is really difficult to deal with them by knotting notes. If you are busy, things will go wrong. Now ordinary people are also very worried and often encounter the same problem. The Yellow Emperor said that you are the first minister of our dynasty. Is there any solution? Cang Xie told the Yellow Emperor that more things can be recorded with pictures, and everyone will understand at a glance. The Yellow Emperor ordered Cang Xie to handle this matter, so there was no need to fight the army.

After accepting the task, Cang Xie has been thinking hard all day. It's been half a year, and no progress has been made. It's winter, and it's snowing heavily outside. Cang Xie wants to go hunting and relax. Along the way, I saw pheasants and deer running by, leaving rows of footprints in the snow. Cang Xie found that their footprints were all different, and he was suddenly inspired. Draw a pheasant's footprint is a pheasant, draw a deer's footprint is a deer. If everything in the world is painted with its image characteristics, it will represent different things. After Cang Xie reported to the Yellow Emperor, the Yellow Emperor was very happy. Cang Xie was ordered to draw everything in the world, from the sun and the moon to birds and animals. According to different characteristics, he called this symbol Zi. So, Cang Xie started the journey of word-building.

Cang Xie looked up at the sun, moon and stars every day, looked down at all living things and created more and more hieroglyphics. Carved on stone and wood. Later, people found it was too heavy to carry, which became Cang Xie's heart disease. Later, someone caught a turtle from the river and asked Cang Xie to make a word. Cang Xie found that there were many Fang Gezi on the turtle shell, so he made a word "turtle" and carved it on the turtle shell. But the tortoise escaped when people were unprepared. Three years later, the tortoise was caught in another place. He told Cang Xie that the words engraved on the tortoise shell were still there. Not only was it not washed away by water, but it was longer and clearer. Therefore, Cang Xie thought that tortoise shells were ordinary, not only light, but also carved clearly, which was a good record material. He recorded all the words he created on the tortoise shell and strung them together. The Yellow Emperor greatly appreciated it and promulgated it in the world. This is what we now call Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This is the origin of Chinese characters in China's legend.

The Story of Cangjie's Word-making

According to legend, Cang Xie was an official under the Yellow Emperor. Officials at that time were not imposing, just like ordinary people, but with different division of labor. The Yellow Emperor assigned him to be in charge of the number of livestock in the fence and the number of food on the chariot. This man is very clever and works hard. He soon became familiar with the animals and food he was in charge of, so he seldom made mistakes. But slowly, the storage of livestock and food is also gradually increasing and changing, and my head alone can't remember it. At that time, there were no words, let alone paper and pens. What shall we do? Cang Xie was puzzled.

Cang Xie tried to find a way all day and all night. First, he tied a knot on the rope, using different colors of rope to represent different animals and food, and using knots to represent each number. But over time, it won't work. It is easy to tie a knot on the rope for this increased number, but it is troublesome to untie a knot on the rope when reducing the number. Cang Xie thought of winding the rope and hanging all kinds of shells in the circle, instead of what he was in charge of. If it increases, a shell is added; if it decreases, a shell is removed. This method works best and has been used continuously for several years.

Seeing that Cang Xie was so capable, the Yellow Emperor put him in charge of more and more things, such as the number of sacrifices each year, the distribution of hunting and the increase or decrease of tribal population, all of which were called Cang Xie. Cang Xie has made another mistake, which is no longer a matter of hanging a shell with a rope. How can I not make mistakes?

On this day, he took part in collective hunting and came to a fork in the road. Several old people were arguing about which way to take. An old man insisted on going east, saying there were antelopes; An old man wants to go north, saying that he can catch up with the deer not far ahead; An old man insisted on going west, saying that there were two tigers, and if they were not killed in time, they would miss the opportunity. Cang Xie, it turns out that they are all looking at the footprints of underground beasts. Cang Xie suddenly felt happy: Since a footprint represents a wild animal, why can't I use a symbol to represent what I am responsible for? He ran home happily and began to create various symbols to represent things. Sure enough, manage things well.

When the Yellow Emperor knew it, he praised it and ordered Cang Xie to teach this method to all tribes. Gradually, the usage of these symbols has been popularized. In this way, the text is formed.

Cang Xie made a word, and the Yellow Emperor attached great importance to him. Everyone praised him, and his reputation is growing. Cang Xie's mind was a little hot, and his eyes slowly moved to the top of his head. No one looks down on him, his handwriting is very scrawled.

This word reached the ears of the Yellow Emperor, who was very angry. Courtiers have no room for deterioration in his eyes. How did Cang Xie realize his mistake? The Yellow Emperor called the oldest old man around him to discuss. The old man has tied more than 120 knots on his long beard, which shows that he is over 120 years old. The old man hesitated and went to Cang Xie alone.

Cang Xie is teaching people from all tribes to read. The old man sits quietly at the end and listens as carefully as everyone else. After Cang Xie finished speaking, everyone else dispersed, and only the old man was still sitting in his old place. Cang Xie was a little curious and asked him why he didn't go.

The old man said, "Cang Xie, your words have become a household name, but I am old and dizzy, and a few words are still unclear. Will you teach me again? " Cang Xie looked at such a tall old man and respected him very much. He is very happy, urge him to speak quickly.

The old man said, "Are there four legs in the words horse, donkey and mule?" ? Cows also have four legs. Why didn't you invent the word' cow' with four legs and only one tail? "

Cang Xie was a little flustered when he heard this: when he first coined the word "fish", it was written like a cow, and when he coined the word "cow", it was written as a fish. It's all my own carelessness, and I actually taught it backwards.

The old man went on to say, "The word' heavy' you made means that you have to pronounce the word' out' from a long distance away, but you taught people to pronounce the word' heavy' as weight. On the other hand, the word "out" when two mountains are combined should be the word "heavy" for weight, but you have taught it to be the word "out" when going out. These words really puzzle me, so I have to ask you. "

At this time, Cang Xie was ashamed and knew that he had made a big mistake because of his pride. These words have been taught by all tribes and spread all over the world and cannot be changed. He quickly knelt down and expressed his regret with tears.

The old man took Cang Xie's hand and said sincerely, "Cang Xie, you have created words, so that the experience of our older generation can be recorded and passed on. You have done a great thing, and people will remember you from generation to generation. You can't be arrogant! "

From then on, every time Cang Xie made a word, he always scrutinized the meaning of the word, but he could ask people's opinions, and he was not careless. Everyone agreed, then decided, and then gradually spread to every tribe.