Handbook Information about Chinese Characters

Chinese characters, also known as Chinese characters, Chinese characters, and national characters, are a kind of script widely used in the Chinese character culture circle, belonging to the ideographic grapheme-syllable script, which was invented and improved by the Huaxia people in the ancient times, and the exact history of the Chinese characters can be traced back to the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty in about 1300 BC. It was then developed into the Small Seal Script of the Qin Dynasty, and then into the Han Dynasty, when it was named "Chinese Characters", and then into the Regular Script of the Tang Dynasty, which is the standard for handwriting fonts used today. Chinese characters have been in continuous use for the longest period of time, and are the only major writing system from the ancient times that has been passed down to the present day. Some scholars believe that Chinese characters are one of the key elements that have kept China's north and south united for a long period of time, and some scholars rank Chinese characters as the fifth most important invention in China. Some scholars consider Chinese characters to be one of the key elements of China's long history of unification, while others rank them as the fifth most important invention of China.

The history of Chinese characters, based on existing ancient documents and confirmed archaeological discoveries, is at least 5,000 years old, and the history of the origin of Chinese characters is the history of the beginning of ancient Chinese civilization, which is why we say that the Han Chinese people have a 5,000-year history of civilization.　Archaeological and documentary records show that Chinese characters originated in the Neolithic period of Yangshao culture, about 4000 BC, and began to enter the stage of character accumulation in 2000 BC, and a fairly systematic writing system was already formed in the period of Shang Dynasty.

Simplified and Traditional Characters

The Chinese character, named after the Han people and the Han dynasty, is the most widely used character in the world, and also the most widely circulated.　During the evolution of Chinese characters over thousands of years, numerous disagreements have arisen. After the founding of New China, in the 1950s, specialized agencies were organized to standardize the forms, sounds and meanings of Chinese characters, commonly known as "simplified characters" (pre-1950s Chinese characters were commonly known as "traditional characters"), and to popularize them with tools such as the Xinhua Zidian (Xinhua Zidian) and the Dictionary of Modern Chinese (Modern Chinese Dictionary). The simplified Chinese characters are now widely used in mainland China and the rest of the world. Currently, simplified characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian regions, while traditional characters are still used in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.　Chinese characters are non-pinyin characters, and their writing style is obviously different from that of pinyin characters, even in China's neighboring countries, which have changed a lot, take "hanja" as an example: Simplified Chinese: hanja Traditional Chinese: hanja Pinyin: hàn zì English: Chinese characters Japanese: hanja (kanji) Korean: ? ): ? (han ja) Vietnamese: Trung Qu?c nh?n v?t Italic type

German: chinesische Schrift Russian: Китайский French: Chinois Polish: Chiński Danish: Kinesisk Filipino: Intsik Origin of Chinese Characters

From the time of Cangjie's creation of Chinese characters.

From the ancient legend of Cangjie's creation of characters to the discovery of oracle bone inscriptions 1400 BC, Chinese scholars have been devoted to unraveling the mystery of the origin of Chinese characters.　Regarding the origin of Chinese characters, there are all sorts of sayings in ancient Chinese literature, such as "knotting rope", "gossip", "drawings", "book contract", etc. The ancient books have been written in the same way. "and so on, the ancient books are also commonly recorded in the yellow emperor historian Cangjie create word legend. Modern scholars believe that into a system of writing tools can not be created entirely by a person, Cangjie if indeed exist, should be the text organizer or promulgator.　The earliest engraved symbols more than 8,000 years ago Through systematic investigation and comparison of 19 archaeological cultures throughout China, more than 100 sites unearthed on the ceramic pieces of engraved symbols, Zhengzhou University doctoral supervisor Wang Yunzhi that the earliest engraved symbols appeared in Henan Maoyang Jahu site, more than 8,000 years of history.　Writing first matured during the Shang Dynasty.　The Shang Dynasty script, which is mainly based on oracle bones and bronze ritual objects used for divination in the Yinxu Ruins, is the earliest mature script found in China so far.　The basic characters of the Shang Dynasty can be divided into four main categories: the human body and a part of the human form as the basis of the character; labor creations and objects of labor as the basis of the character; images of beasts and domestic animals as the basis of the character; and images of natural objects as the basis of the character.

The Evolution of Chinese Characters

The evolution of Chinese characters has gone through a long process of thousands of years, through the stages of oracle bone inscriptions, gold inscriptions, seal scripts, clerical scripts, regular scripts, cursive scripts, and running scripts, and has yet to be fully finalized.　The ancient stage of Chinese characters before the Han Dynasty. More figurative.　1, Oracle Bone Script

Oracle Bone Script mainly refers to the Yinxu Oracle Bone Script, which is the script carved (or written) on tortoise shells and animal bones used by the royal family for divination and record-keeping during the late Shang Dynasty in China (14th to 11th centuries before the Shang Dynasty). It is the earliest and most complete system of ancient writing found in China.　2, Jinwen

Jinwen refers to the casting engraved on the Yin and Zhou bronzes, also known as Zhongdingwen. The Shang and Zhou dynasties are the era of bronze, bronze rituals represented by tripods, musical instruments represented by bells, "bells and tripods" is synonymous with bronze. Therefore, Zhong Dingwen or Jinwen refers to the inscriptions cast or engraved on the bronzes.

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3. Big Seal Script

The Big Seal Script is represented by the surviving Shih Kuwen (石鼓文), which is named after the script written by Taishi Prefecture (太史籀) during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou. He reformed the original script, which was named after the stone drums on which it was carved. It is the earliest stone-carved script that has been handed down to the present day, and is the ancestor of stone carvings.　It started in the late Western Zhou Dynasty and was popularized in Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The script is similar to the Qin seal script, but the glyphs overlap.

4. Small Seal Script

The Small Seal Script is also called "Qin Seal Script". Li Si was commissioned to standardize the script during the Qin Dynasty, and this script was called the Small Seal Script. It was popularized during the Qin Dynasty. It is long, round and neat, and is derived from the Big Seal Script. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in his Shuo Wen Jie Zi (Explaining the Characters in Chinese), said, "When Qin Shi Huangdi first took over the whole world, ...... struck down those who did not fit in with the Qin script." Li Si wrote "Cangjie", Zhao Gao wrote "Ai Calendar", and Hu Shujing wrote "Bo Xue": "All of them were taken from the seal script of the pre-Han period, or quite modified, the so-called Small Seal Script." Today (Langya Terrace carved stone), "Taishan carved stone" remnants of the stone, that is, the small seal script.

5, Clerical Script

Clerical Script is basically evolved from the Seal Script, the main seal script rounded strokes into square folds, the writing speed is faster, it is difficult to write on wooden slips with lacquer to draw the rounded strokes.　Clerical Script is also called "Clerical Characters" and "Ancient Script". It is a script based on the Seal Script, which was developed to meet the need for ease of writing. It was simplified from the Small Seal Script, and the rounded lines of the Small Seal Script were turned into straight and square strokes, making it easier to write. There are two types of scripts: Qin Li (also known as "ancient Li") and Han Li (also known as "modern Li"), and the emergence of Li Script is a major change in ancient writing and calligraphy. The appearance of the official script is a major change in ancient writing and calligraphy. Clerical Script

6, Regular Script

Regular Script is also known as Zhengshu, or True Script. It is characterized by a square shape and straight strokes, which can be used as a model, hence its name. It began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are many famous writers of Regular Script, such as "Ou Style" (Tang - Ouyang Xun), "Yu Style" (Tang - Yu Shinan), "Yan Style" (Tang - Yan Zhenqing), " Liu Style" (Tang - Liu Gongquan), "Zhao Style" (Song and Yuan - Zhao Mengfu), and so on. Regular Script

7, Running Script

Between Regular Script and Cursive Script, it can be said that Regular Script of Cursive Script or Cursive Script of Regular Script. It is to make up for the Regular Script writing speed is too slow and Cursive Script is difficult to recognize and produce. The strokes are not as scribbly as those of cursive, nor do they require the regular script to be as upright. The Regular Script is more than the Cursive Script is called "Xing Kai". Those with more cursive than regular strokes are called "Running Cursive". Running script came into being around the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

8. Cursive Script

A form of Chinese characters. Formed in the Han Dynasty, it evolved on the basis of the official script for ease of writing. There are chapters of grass, grass, wild grass. Zhang cao brush strokes save change have chapter and verse to follow, representative works such as the Three Kingdoms Wu Huangxiang "rush to chapter" of the Songjiang this. The present cursive is not bound by the rules and regulations, the strokes are fluent, representative works such as the Jin Dynasty Wang Xizhi, "the first month", "to show" and other posts. Wild grass appeared in the tang dynasty, to zhang xu, huaisu as a representative of the wild and unrestrained, become completely detached from the practical art creation, from then on the cursive is just a calligrapher copying the chapter of grass, this grass, wild grass calligraphy works. Representative works such as zhang xu "belly pain" post, waisu "self narrative post". Cursive script for writing convenient and produce a font. Began in the early Han Dynasty. At that time, the common is "cursive scribe", that is, scribble scribe, and later gradually developed, forming a kind of artistic value of "Zhang Cao". At the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhi changed "zhang cao" into "jin cao", and the momentum of the word was made in one stroke. The Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xu, Huaisu, and developed into a continuous winding brushwork, the word shape of the many changes in the "wild grass".

Characteristics of Chinese Characters

Chinese characters are one of the oldest scripts in the world, and they are written symbols for recording events. In form, it gradually changed from a graphic to a square-shaped symbol made up of strokes, which is why Chinese characters are generally called "square characters". It has evolved from hieroglyphics (pictograms) to ideograms, which also express sound and meaning, but the overall system is still ideographic. Therefore, Chinese characters are characterized by a combination of image, sound and meaning. This characteristic is unique among the world's scripts, and therefore it has a unique charm. Chinese characters are the treasures of thousands of years of culture of the Han people, and they are also our lifelong mentors and friends, and everyone's spiritual home. Chinese characters can often cause us wonderful and bold associations, giving people the enjoyment of beauty.　 Wang Xizhi Calligraphy

Some characters are not found in writing, but only in folklore biang is the Chinese character with the most strokes, with 56 strokes, variant *** has 45 strokes, and traditional *** has 59 strokes. biangbiang noodles is a kind of noodle originating from Shaanxi, and is now also the brand name of a noodle shop, which is still using the character, and can only be found in the Kangxi Dictionary in the writing of the character biang.　There is an anagram about biang: one point flies up to the sky, two bends in the Yellow River, eight big openings, and the character for work goes inside .　A twist to the left, a twist to the right, a speech Lou Lou in the center.　A long left, a long right, a horse king in the center.　At the bottom of the character for heart, next to the character for moon, there is a golden hook hanging on the horse pond, pushing the car to stroll around Xianyang.

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