From the perspective of calligraphy, Oracle Bone Inscriptions already has three basic elements of calligraphy, namely, using a pen, creating characters and composing a composition. Judging from the characters on Oracle bones, they already have the three elements of China's calligraphy, namely, writing, writing and composition. His brushwork lines are neat and thin, straight and thick, and his strokes are multi-folded, which has an influence on the pen and knife of seal cutting in later generations.
From the perspective of structural fonts, the characters not only have changes, although they vary in size, they are relatively balanced and symmetrical, and also present a stable pattern. Therefore, from the perspective of composition, although influenced by the size and shape of bone chips, it still shows the carving skills and artistic characteristics of words. "oracle calligraphy" became popular among some calligraphers and calligraphy lovers, which proved its charm.
Judging from the pen, Oracle Bone Inscriptions used a knife to carve on the hard tortoise shell or animal bone, so he used a straight line when carving, and the curve was also carved with a short straight line. The stroke thickness is also uniform; Because the knife is straight up and down, most lines are slightly thick in the middle and slightly thin at both ends, thin and strong, straight and smooth, and full of three-dimensional sense.
As far as structure writing is concerned, Oracle Bone Inscriptions's appearance is mostly rectangular or several squares, which has the beauty of symmetry or change. Moreover, Oracle Bone Inscriptions also has the structural form of combining Fiona Fang and Kai Zi Ji, and some characters have more or less pictographic traces, which are naive and vivid in the initial development stage of characters.
Look from the composition, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is clear as a whole, and the text size is patchy. Each line is up, down, left and right. Although there are density changes, the whole article can be full of vitality, size dependence, left and right correspondence, and echo before and after. Moreover, the number of words is compact, giving people a dense feeling, while the number of words is sparse and ethereal. In a word, they all present a quaint and romantic interest.
2. Jinwen
The content of inscriptions on bronze is a record of activities or events such as offering sacrifices, giving orders, imperial edicts, campaigns, hunting and covenants. All these reflect the social life at that time. The inscriptions on bronze inscriptions are neat and elegant, simple and heavy. Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, they are more colorful. Bronze inscriptions are basically printed.
3. Xiao zhuan
Rectangular, with a half-letter square as the degree, a word as a straight body and a half-letter as a vertical foot, the approximate ratio is about 3:2. The strokes are horizontal and vertical, round and even, and the thickness is basically the same. All horizontal and vertical paintings are equidistant and parallel, and all strokes are mainly round, and the circle is round and square, which makes the circle lively and interesting.
Balance and symmetry, spatial division, balance and symmetry are the unique charm of seal script. Symmetry exists not only in left-right symmetry and up-down symmetry, but also in local symmetry of characters and left-right oblique symmetry of circular strokes. Tight and loose, most of the characters in Biography are in the upper part, and the lower part is telescopic and vertical. Of course, there are also characters with no feet below. The main strokes are in the lower part, and the upper strokes can be raised.
4. Official script
Seal script is developed from seal script, which changes complexity into simplicity, turns circle into square and turns arc into straight. The shape is flat and unfolded left and right. The silkworm head picks up the pen dovetail, turns the circle into a square arc into a straight one, turns the painting into a point, turns the connection into a disconnection, and strengthens the change of thickness.
5. Regular script
The figures are square and the strokes are straight, which can be used as a model. Regular script is characterized by neat rules and is a model in fonts, so it is called regular script and has been used until modern times.
6, cursive script
The early cursive script broke the strict rules of official script and was a hasty writing. It's called Cao Zhang. Cao Zhang is an elegant cursive style, which combines early cursive and Han Li. Its waves are distinct, the strokes are connected in waves, the characters are independent, the glyphs are all over the square, and the strokes are horizontal. Cao Zhang was the most popular in the Han and Wei Dynasties, but it was revived in the Yuan Dynasty and transformed into the Ming Dynasty.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, Cao Zhang was further "grassed" and the strokes of Lishu were removed. The upper and lower characters and strokes are connected, and the radicals are simplified and borrowed, which is called "modern grass". Jincao evolved from Cao Zhang, and its calligraphy style has been popular since Wei and Jin Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, this kind of grass was described as "wild grass", also known as "big grass", with continuous strokes and changeable glyphs.
According to certain rules, the characters are connected, and the structure is simple and short, which is not arbitrary. One of the main features of cursive symbols is the linking of strokes, including up-and-down linking and left-and-right linking.
7. Running script
Big and small. That is, each word presents a different size, and there is a pen-to-pen connection of a word. The connection between words is both true and intentional, and there is a connection between them.
The combination of recovery and release. Generally short-term collection, long-term release; Back and front, side and front; Most of them are left hand, right hand, upper right hand and lower left hand, but they can also be converted to each other. Left-handed and right-handed, top-handed and bottom-handed are not excluded.
Dense and decent. Generally, it is dense on the top and sparse on the bottom, dense on the left and sparse on the right, and dense on the inside and sparse on the outside. The middle palace is compact, the white space in the box is as small as possible, and the white space of the circled strokes is as small as possible. On the layout, the word spacing is tight, the line spacing is wide, vigorous and powerful, and the colors are bright.
Light and shade blend together. Running script writing should be easy, lively and fast, and master the combination of illness and stagnation, movement and static. The ink color arrangement should be strong at the beginning and dry at the end. The lines are long and thin, short and thick, moderate in thickness and alternating in depth. It's similar to cursive, but it's not so grassy.
Extended data
Oracle Bone Inscriptions recorded and reflected the political and economic situation of Shang Dynasty, which mainly refers to the words carved on tortoise shells or animal bones by the royal family in China in the late Shang Dynasty (14 ~ 1 1 century), and their contents are generally the things asked or the results obtained by divination. After the demise of the Shang Dynasty and the rise of the Zhou Dynasty, Oracle Bone Inscriptions still used it for a period of time, which is an important material for studying the social history of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions's physical structure has been independent and tends to fit, and a large number of pictophonetic characters have appeared. It inherits the original carving symbols, enlightens the bronze inscriptions, and is the key form of the development of Chinese characters, which is called "the earliest Chinese characters".
The earliest Oracle Bone Inscriptions disappeared with Yin's death and was replaced by bronze inscriptions, which became the mainstream of calligraphy in the Zhou Dynasty. Because it is engraved on the Zhong Ding, it is sometimes called Zhong Dingwen. According to the investigation, the bronze wares of Shang Dynasty were engraved with inscriptions similar to pictures, and then continued to evolve. The inscriptions at the end of Shang Dynasty were also consistent with those of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This bronze inscription reached its peak in the Zhou Dynasty and lasted until the Qin and Han Dynasties. However, there were few artifacts and inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty, and the Qin and Han Dynasties reached the end, which should be regarded as the mainstream of the Zhou Dynasty.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Oracle Bone Inscriptions
Baidu Encyclopedia-Jinwen
Baidu Encyclopedia-Xiaozhuan
Baidu Encyclopedia-Lishu
Baidu encyclopedia-regular script
Baidu encyclopedia-cursive script
Baidu encyclopedia-running script