Evolution law of Chinese character form

The development and evolution of Chinese characters have obvious laws such as simplification, standardization, symbolization, assimilation, alienation, integration and complexity. ?

The simplification trend of Chinese characters is mainly manifested in the transformation from pictographic system to pure symbol system, from zigzag lines to pointillism, the omission and combination of components, the reduction of strokes and variant characters, and the gradual replacement of traditional characters by simplified characters. The fonts of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen are not completely finalized. There are several ways to write the same word. The parts are not unified, the position is not fixed, and there are many variants.

After Xiao's seal script, each character was gradually written with one form as the standard, the number of strokes was basically fixed, the writing method of parts was unified, the position was fixed, and it was basically standardized. Today, Chinese characters are more unified, stereotyped and standardized in parts, structure and shape. ?

Before Xiao Zhuan, the pictograph was very strong, but in Xiao Zhuan, with round and symmetrical lines, the pictograph was obviously weakened and the symbolism was obviously enhanced. Lishu completely broke the pictographic tradition of ancient Chinese characters before Xiao Zhuan, and made Chinese characters completely symbolic. When it comes to regular script, the purely symbolic square Chinese characters are formally finalized. ?

In the evolution of Chinese characters, different forms become the same form, which is called assimilation. Due to the assimilation of different forms, the stroke structure of Chinese characters tends to be simplified.

In the evolution of Chinese characters, the same form becomes different, which is called alienation or differentiation. The result of differentiation is that the radicals and structures of Chinese characters become more complicated. ?

In the evolution of Chinese characters, some characters have the same font structure from the initial Oracle Bone Inscriptions to the later regular script, but they are different when written in different fonts. This phenomenon is called casualness. The general trend of the evolution of Chinese characters is simplification, but as far as specific Chinese characters are concerned, many Chinese characters are from simple to complex, that is, complex. ?

Although the form of Chinese characters has become complicated, alienated and subservient, the general trend of the development and evolution of Chinese characters is from complexity to simplicity, from non-standardization to standardization, and from pictograph to complete symbolization. This is the objective law of the evolution of Chinese characters, which has always been dominant and the mainstream.