Before Shang dynasty

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. Slowly changed from the original picture to "ideographic symbol"

Yin and Shang dynasties

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 the tortoise shell of animal bones and 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 have been unable to read the hieroglyphics of their ancestors. Only modern people in China can understand some "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" in Shang Dynasty. 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.

Western Zhou Dynasty

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.

Qin dynasty

Qin Shihuang unified writing and measurement. His outstanding achievement was Li Si, the prime minister at that time. Li Si collected and sorted out the characters at that time, and then simplified and beautified them. The unified characters were called Xiao Zhuan, also known as Qin Zhuan. At this time, there are almost no hieroglyphs in the text.

The writing of Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty was too standard and slow, so many simple fonts appeared among the people. This font is characterized by changing the circle of "Xiao Zhuan" into a square. The tune of Xiao Zhuan was straightened and some radical parts were separated, which was called Qin Li.

Han Dynasty

Official script is very popular. Qin Li has not completely got rid of the structural features of Xiao Zhuan, and it is basically square, while Han Li gives full play to the role of a brush, with the twists and turns of "silkworm head and geese tail", which is easy to write. This kind of official script was popular in the Western Han Dynasty. Call it "Han Li".

When Han Li was popular in the Han Dynasty, regular script was still 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.

the Tang Dynasty

"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.

Song dynasty

One of the four great inventions in China, engraving printing was improved by Bi Sheng to movable type printing, and "Song typeface" should also be made. First produced in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was changed from regular script. There are fat and thin, but regardless of fat and thin, they are horizontal, thin, vertical and square. Looks quaint and dignified.

"Imitation of Song Dynasty" is also a font that imitates Song Dynasty. This font has only appeared for 70 or 80 years, but it 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.

New China period

There are variety shows, whole pieces, floating clouds, variants and so on. This is the concrete manifestation of the cultural prosperity of the motherland and the inevitable result of the development of Chinese characters. Chinese characters, also known as Chinese characters, Chinese characters and Chinese characters, are widely used in the cultural circle of Chinese characters. They belong to morpheme syllables of ideographic characters, which were invented and improved by the ancient Han people. The exact history can be traced back to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty around 1300 BC. Then the seal script of the Qin Dynasty was named "Chinese Characters" in the Han Dynasty, and in the Tang Dynasty it became the standard of handwritten fonts used today-regular script. Chinese characters are the main characters that have been used for the longest time so far, and they are also the only characters that have been passed down to this day in various ancient writing systems. Some scholars believe that Chinese characters are one of the key elements to maintain the long-term reunification of China's north and south, and some scholars list Chinese characters as China's fifth greatest invention. In China, Chinese characters are the main official languages of several generations.

The development history of Chinese characters-Chinese homophony

Besides shape, Chinese characters have a phonetic problem. In some cases, pronunciation becomes the only means to express the meaning of words. In addition, there are many homonyms in Chinese, which have the same pronunciation, but different shapes and meanings. Chinese homophony is the ingenious use of these Chinese characters with the same pronunciation but different forms and meanings, expressing intriguing meanings.

In the past, ordinary people were oppressed and bullied, but they dared not speak out directly. They often write some ballads related to current politics with homophones of Chinese characters. Such as popular songs in the Song Dynasty:

It's a good world to throw vegetables in a broken bucket.

Kill, cut vegetables and eat mutton lotus leaves.

Homophonic techniques were used in ballads to curse traitors and thieves Tong Guan, Cai Jing, Gao Qiu, He Zhizhong and others at that time. "Tong" and "Tong" are homophonic, "Cai" and "Cai" are homophonic, "Lamb" and "Gao" are homophonic, and "He" and "He" are homophonic, expressing their own sufferings respectively.

After repeated use, the homonym of this Chinese character has formed a rhetorical method called homonym. It's been used since midnight. For example: "When you first want to know your heart, two hearts look the same, and you can't understand it." This song describes the twists and turns of love. At first, I hoped that two hearts could be one and love each other wholeheartedly, but later the situation changed, just like the arranged silk entered the broken loom, neither silk nor horse. Its "silk" and "thinking" are consistent, and "silk" and "thinking" are consistent with "horse", that is, they cannot be paired. In love songs, lotus is usually regarded as a husband's ability, lotus is regarded as pity or connection, lotus is regarded as a couple, silk is regarded as thought, pear is regarded as separation, and purity is regarded as emotion.

Homophony is not only embodied in folk songs, but also widely used in people's daily life and folk life.

For example, in the folk, because it is auspicious to take happiness as the goal pursued by families or individuals, the word "happiness" will definitely be posted on the door every New Year. Sometimes, the word "Fu" will be pasted upside down and the slogan "Fu is here" will be taken. "Tao" and "Tao" are homophonic here. For another example, fish is the most popular theme in folk New Year pictures, usually naked chubby dolls with a big fish in their hands, as well as lotus ponds and lotus flowers. The theme of this painting is "more than every year, more than every year", which means: I hope more than every year, more than every year.

The development history of Chinese characters-the development of Chinese characters

Liu Jiaoshou, Chinese Department of Southwest Normal University, is in charge of the national social science fund project "Outline of the Development History of Chinese Characters". The final result is the monograph Outline of the Development of Chinese Characters published by China Encyclopedia Publishing House. This achievement puts forward some new viewpoints worthy of attention from the following aspects.

1. Three stages in the development history of Chinese characters.

The first stage is the drawing stage. People before Shang Dynasty should belong to this stage. The second stage is the phonetic stage with phonetic notation as the main body and hieroglyphics as the basis. The characters from Oracle Bone Inscriptions to Qin Dynasty all belong to this stage. The third stage is the writing stage of pictophonetic characters with pictophonetic characters as the main body, and there are still some pictophonetic characters and pictophonetic characters, which belong to this stage from Qin and Han dynasties to modern Chinese characters.

2. Advantages and disadvantages of Chinese characters.

Advantages of Chinese characters. The biggest advantage of Chinese characters is super dialect. China is a country with a vast territory and complicated dialects. In ancient times, it was impossible to standardize language. Even now, the promotion of Putonghua cannot be completed in a short time. However, Chinese characters are a popular written language communication tool in China. Different languages, writing with pen instead of mouth, are exactly the same. If the words are pinyin, Cantonese, Minnan, Shanghai dialect and Beijing dialect will appear, which will hinder people's exchange of ideas. Another advantage of Chinese characters is rationality. Character is a symbol system, which can be divided into rational characters and irrational characters. Unreasonable refers to pure phonetic symbols, such as loanwords, syllables and letters. This kind of writing is purely a symbol and has no direct connection with what is to be expressed. The so-called rational words, such as Chinese characters, not only represent the pronunciation of words, but also represent the symbol of things. For example, the word "water" evolved from the shape of hieroglyphic water. It has two functions: pictographic and phonological. Another example is the words "Wang" and "Yang". The word "water" means general name, and the words "Wang" and "Yang" mean pronunciation. They are called pictophonetic characters and are the main body of Chinese characters. This combination of sound and shape is easy to identify and remember.

Disadvantages of Chinese phonetic notation. A small number of ideograms of Chinese characters have long been used as loanwords, which are phonetic characters in Chinese characters. Because its number is not much, and most of them are commonly used words, so I won't say much. Only the phonetic functions of pictophonetic characters are discussed here. Phonetic symbols of pictophonetic characters are mostly pictophonetic characters that can be used alone, which are not as accurate as alphabetic sounds. The phonetic function of Chinese characters has many shortcomings, mainly the following three points: a, the phonetic symbols of pictophonetic characters cannot distinguish the differences of tones, and the same phonetic symbol often represents different tones. For example, the word "Hu" is accented, but "confused" and "paste" are pronounced as accented, while "confused" and "paste" are pronounced as falling tones. B, phonetic symbols of pictophonetic characters often lose or weaken their phonetic functions because of language changes. For example, "Shang" reads the fourth sound of "Shang", but "If" and "Lie" with "Shang" as phonetic symbols read the third sound of "Tang", "Dang" reads the third sound of "Dang" and "Chang" reads the second sound. C, the stress phenomenon of Chinese characters reading more than one word. For example, in the word "Shen", the first sound of "Shen", "Shen" and "Cen" all have three stresses.

3. About the simplification of Chinese characters.

Chinese characters are evolved from picture characters, and if they are painted in kind, there will be more strokes. Judging from the development history of Chinese characters, the evolution of Chinese characters has always been an obvious trend. 1956 announced the simplification scheme of Chinese characters, and 1964 expanded the scope and quantity of simplified characters, which was the first large-scale Chinese character reform in more than two thousand years. After more than forty years of practice, it has played a great role in popularizing education and writing. On the other hand, simplified characters are not completely without discussion. Such as "Deng", "Huan", "Nan", "Shu", "Xi" and "Dui", its component is "You", which replaces different phonetic symbols such as "Deng". Some cursive scripts are written differently from regular script, and some homophones can replace Chinese characters. However, once the norms of writing are determined, they cannot be achieved overnight, nor can they go their own way and let themselves go. Chinese characters are the carrier of China's excellent culture and an important aspect of China culture. Chinese characters should be treated like traditional culture in China. First of all, we should inherit the tradition, not cut it off. Second, we should transform Chinese characters according to their development laws, so that they can become better communication tools. With the improvement of China's international status and economic development, more and more people are learning Chinese characters. Among the teachers who teach Chinese in various countries, some are from Taiwan Province Province and some are from the mainland. When teaching Chinese characters, there will naturally be two sets of teaching methods: traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters. Whether or not these two sets of teaching methods are unified, or how to unify them, needs to be discussed and solved by relevant people, experts and scholars on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and overseas.

4. Chinese characters can't follow the path of pinyin.

1958, the state announced the scheme of Chinese Pinyin. Its function is as a tool to popularize Putonghua and annotate Chinese characters. The application scope of pinyin scheme can be expanded. For example, primary school students can write in pinyin when they encounter Chinese characters that they cannot write. Pinyin can be added to difficult words in books and periodicals. When quoting foreign place names, some people advocate spelling and translation with pinyin scheme. It can be predicted that this scheme will last as long as Chinese characters. However, some people once thought that all written symbols of human language should be pinyin-oriented, and all words that do not meet this standard are regarded as backward. This is a prejudice without scientific basis.

5. Talking about Chinese character teaching

It is correct to teach Chinese characters according to the Chinese character teaching method. However, the old theory of "six books" (referring to things, pictographs, sounds and shapes, cognition, annotation and excuses) must be reformed. Based on the comparative study of philology, this achievement combined with Mr. Tang Lan's "Three Books" theory, and put forward the "New Three Books" theory of ideographic, loanwords and pictophonetic characters. It contains the reasonable part of "Six Books" and excludes "concentration". Pictographic characters include pictographic characters, ideographic characters and knowing characters in six books. The word "borrowing sound" means borrowing. The reason why it was renamed as a loan word or a phonetic word is because some people think that there is another loan word in the loan word, which is out of nothing and confusing. In Mr. Tang Lan's "Three Books", it is inappropriate to exclude loanwords and divide characters made by pictographic method into pictographs and pictographs. The "new three books" not only absorbed the research results of predecessors, but also corrected their shortcomings. Mastering the classification standard of "New Three Books" can play a great role in Chinese character teaching.

oracle bone script

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest and most complete ancient script discovered by China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to the Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, also known as "Yin Ruins Characters" and "Yin Qi", written on the bones of tortoise shells and beasts in Shang Dynasty. 65438+ was discovered in Yin Ruins in Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan at the end of 2009. It inherited Wen Tao's word-making method and was carved (or written) on tortoise shells and animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty (14-1century) in China. After the demise of Shang Dynasty and the rise of Zhou Dynasty, Oracle Bone Inscriptions continued to be used for some time.

Ancient bronze inscriptions

The bronze inscriptions on Yin and Zhou bronzes are also called Zhong Dingwen. Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the bronze age, with the tripod as the representative ritual vessel and the bell as the representative musical instrument. "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronze ware. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. China entered the Bronze Age in Xia Dynasty, and the technology of copper smelting and bronze ware manufacturing was very developed. Because copper was also called gold a week ago, the inscriptions on bronzes were called "bronze inscriptions" or "auspicious words"; This bronze ware was called "Zhong Dingwen" in the past because it had the largest number of characters on Zhong Ding. The application time of bronze inscriptions is about 1200 years, from the early Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty's destruction of the Six Kingdoms. According to Rong Geng's Jin Wen Bian, there are 3,722 words in Jin Wen, of which 2,420 words can be identified.

big seal character

Dazhuan is a widely used font in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is said that it was created by Boyi in the Xia Dynasty. According to the different writing media, there are differences between bronze inscriptions (or "Zhong Dingwen") and bronze inscriptions.

Small/small seal characters

After Qin Shihuang unified China (22 1 year ago), Xiao Zhuan implemented the policy of "the words are the same, the cars are the same", and unified measurement is responsible. On the basis of the original script of the Qin Dynasty's Da Zhuan, it was simplified, and the variant characters of the other six countries were cancelled, creating a unified writing form of Chinese characters. It was popular in China until the end of the Western Han Dynasty (about 8 AD) and was gradually replaced by official script. But because of its beautiful font, it has always been favored by calligraphers. Because of its complex strokes and simple form, it is possible to add twists and turns and seal cutting at will, especially the official seal that needs anti-counterfeiting. Seal script was always used until the collapse of feudal dynasty and the emergence of modern new anti-counterfeiting technology.

official script

Official script, also called Han Li, is a common solemn font in Chinese characters. Its writing effect is slightly wide and flat, with a long horizontal drawing and a short vertical drawing, which is rectangular and pays attention to "silkworm head and goose tail" and "twists and turns". Lishu originated in the Qin Dynasty, formed by Cheng Miao, and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Calligraphy is known as "Han Li Tang Kai".

cursive script

A Chinese character with simple structure and continuous strokes. Formed in the Han Dynasty, it evolved on the basis of official script for the convenience of writing. There are Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Crazy Grass.

regular script

Regular script, also called regular script, regular script, regular script or original script, is a common font in China's calligraphy. Its glyph is square, unlike the flat one written in official script. Regular script is still the reference standard of modern calligraphy in China, and another kind of calligraphy, pen-and-ink, has also developed.

Semi-cursive/running/calligraphy (China's calligraphy)

Running script is produced on the basis of regular script, which is a font between regular script and cursive script. It came into being to make up for the slow writing speed of regular script and the illegible cursive script. "Go" means "go", so it is not as scribbled as cursive script, nor as straight as regular script. Whether it is cursive or cursive in essence. Those with more patterns than grass patterns are called "running patterns", and those with more grass patterns are called "running grass".