1 Oracle Bone Inscriptions
Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, which was carved (or written) on tortoise shells and animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty (14th to 11th centuries before) in China. It is the earliest and relatively complete ancient script found in China.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions is an ancient script in China, which is regarded as an early form of modern Chinese characters, sometimes regarded as one of the scripts of Chinese characters, and also the oldest mature script in China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is also called Qiwen, Tortoise Shell or Tortoise Shell Animal Bone. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a very important material of ancient Chinese characters. Most of Oracle Bone Inscriptions was found in Yin Ruins. Yin Ruins is a famous site of the Yin and Shang Dynasties, located in Xiaotun Village, Huayuanzhuang and Houjiazhuang in the northwest of Anyang City, Henan Province. It used to be the seat of the capital of the central dynasty in the late Shang Dynasty, so it was called Yin Ruins. These Oracle bones are basically divination records of Shang rulers. Shang rulers were superstitious, such as whether there would be disaster in ten days, whether it would rain, whether there would be a good harvest of crops, whether there would be victory in the war, and what sacrifices should be made to ghosts and gods, so that things such as fertility, illness and dreaming should be divined to understand the will of ghosts and gods and the good and bad things. The materials used in divination are mainly tortoise's abdominal shell, carapace and shoulder blade of cattle. Usually, some small pits are dug or drilled on the back of the Oracle bones to be used for divination. This kind of small pit is called "drilling" by Oracle experts. Heating these small pits during divination causes cracks on the surface of Oracle bones. This kind of crack is called "omen". The word "divination" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like a sign. People engaged in divination judge good or bad luck according to the various shapes of divination. According to Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Shang Dynasty, Chinese characters at that time had developed into a complete writing system in Chinese. In the discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, the number of words has reached about 4,. Among them, there are a large number of signifiers, pictographs, knowing characters, and many pictographs. These characters are very different from the characters we use now in appearance. However, judging from the word formation method, the two are basically the same.
At present, there are about 15, pieces of Oracle bones and more than 4,5 words. The contents recorded by these Oracle Bone Inscriptions are extremely rich, involving many aspects of social life in Shang Dynasty, including not only politics, military affairs, culture and social customs, but also science and technology such as astronomy, calendar and medicine. Judging from the 1,5 words recognized by Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it has possessed the methods of "pictographic, comprehending, pictophonetic, referring to things, transferring notes and borrowing words", showing the unique charm of China characters. China Shang Dynasty and early Western Zhou Dynasty (about 16th century BC-1th century BC) used tortoise shells and animal bones as carriers. It is the earliest form of known Chinese documents. The characters carved on Oracle bones were previously called Qiwen, Oracle inscriptions, Oracle inscriptions, tortoise version, Yin Ruins, etc. Now they are commonly called Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Due to superstitions, Shang and Zhou emperors used tortoise shells (common in tortoise shell) or animal bones (common in cattle scapula) for divination, and then carved the related matters of divination (such as divination time, diviner, content of divination, divination results, verification, etc.) on Oracle bones, and kept them as archival materials by royal historians (see archives on bones or tortoise shells). In addition to divination inscriptions, there are also a few memorable inscriptions in Oracle Bone Inscriptions's offerings. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's contribution covers astronomy, calendar, meteorology, geography, country, lineage, family, personage, official, conquest, prison, agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, transportation, religion, sacrifice, disease, birth, disaster, etc. It is extremely precious first-hand information to study the social history, culture and language of ancient China, especially the Shang Dynasty.
2 inscriptions on bronze
inscriptions on bronze refer to the characters carved on bronze wares of Yin and Zhou Dynasties, also called Zhong Dingwen. Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the era of bronzes, in which ding was the representative of the ritual vessels and bell was the representative of the musical instruments, and "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronzes. Therefore, Zhong Dingwen or inscriptions on bronze refers to inscriptions cast or engraved on bronzes.
the so-called bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. China entered the Bronze Age in the Xia Dynasty, and the smelting of copper and the manufacture of bronze ware were very developed. Because copper was also called gold a week ago, the inscription on the bronze ware was called "bronze inscription" or "auspicious writing"; Because this kind of bronze ware has the largest number of words on Zhong Ding, it used to be called "Zhong Dingwen".
The application of inscriptions on bronze was about 12 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 inscriptions on bronze, of which 2,42 can be recognized.
The inscriptions on bronze wares vary in number of words. The content of the memory is also very different. Its main content is mostly to praise the achievements of ancestors and princes, but also to record major historical events. For example, the famous Mao Gongding has 497 words, which covers a wide range, reflecting the social life at that time.
The Great Seal
represents Shi Guwen, which is preserved today, and is named after the book written by Taishihuan in Zhou Xuanwen's time. He reformed on the basis of the original characters, and got his name because he was engraved on the stone drum. It is the earliest stone carving character that has been circulated so far and is the ancestor of stone carving.
It started in the later years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and traveled in Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Fonts are similar to those of Qin Zhuan, but the configurations of glyphs overlap.
4 Xiao Zhuan
is also called "Qin Zhuan". Passed in the Qin dynasty. The shape is long, even and neat, and it evolved from Da Zhuan. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xu Shen's "Narration of Explaining Words" said: "Qin Shihuang was the first emperor of the world, ... but he was not in harmony with Qin Wen. (Li) Si wrote "Cang Xie", Zhongche Mansion ordered Zhao Gao to write "Love Calendar", and Taishi ordered Hu Wujing to write "Bo Xue", all of which were based on the great seal of history, or were quite saved, and the so-called small seal was also. "
5 official script
official script is basically evolved from seal script, which mainly changes the round strokes of seal script into square folds, making writing faster, and it is difficult to draw round strokes when writing with paint on wooden slips.
official scripts are also called "official characters" and "ancient books". On the basis of seal script, it is a font produced to meet the needs of convenient writing. The seal script is simplified, and the even and round lines of seal script are turned into straight and square strokes, which is convenient for writing. Divided into "Qin Li" (also called "Guli") and "han li" (also called "Jinli"), the appearance of Lishu is a great change in ancient writing and calligraphy.
Lishu is a common solemn font in Chinese characters, with slightly wide and flat writing effect, long horizontal painting and short straight painting, and paying attention to "swallow-tail of silkworm head" and "twists and turns". It originated in the Qin Dynasty and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The calligraphy circle is known as "han li Tang Kai". It is also said that official script originated in the Warring States period.
official script is relative to seal script. The name of official script originated from the Eastern Han Dynasty. The appearance of official script is another great reform of China characters, which has brought China's calligraphy art into a new realm, a turning point in the evolution history of Chinese characters, and laid the foundation for regular script. The official script is flat, neat and exquisite. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, stippling such as skimming and pressing was beautified as upward provocation, with varying degrees of severity and artistic beauty of calligraphy. Styles also tend to be diversified, which is of great artistic appreciation value.
According to legend, Li Shu was compiled by Cheng Miao, the late Qin Dynasty, in prison. It was simplified by removing the complexity, and the font became round and square, and the strokes were changed to straight. Change "Lian Bi" to "broken pen", from line to stroke, which is more convenient for writing. "Liben" is not a prisoner, but refers to "petty officials", that is, small officials in charge of documents, so in ancient times, Lishu was called "Zuoshu". Lishu prevailed in the Han Dynasty and became the main style of calligraphy. As a start-up Qin Li, there are many meanings of seal characters, which have been continuously developed and processed. Breaking the writing tradition since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, it gradually laid the foundation for regular script. Under the unification of the thought of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", the official script of the Han Dynasty gradually developed into a dominant script, and at the same time, cursive script, open script and running script were derived to lay the foundation for art.
6 regular script
regular script is also called official book, or real book. Its characteristics are: square shape, straight strokes, can be used as a model, hence the name. Began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. There are many famous writers of regular script, such as Ou Ti (Ou Yangxun), Yu Ti (Yu Shinan), Yan Ti (Yan Zhenqing), Liu Ti (Liu Gongquan) and Zhao Ti (attached to Zhao Yu).
in the early days, there were still few official scripts left, and the structure was slightly wider, and the horizontal painting was long and the vertical painting was short. Among the Wei and Jin posts handed down from generation to generation, such as Zhong Yao's Declaration Table (left), Ji Zhi Table, Wang Xizhi's Le Yi Lun and Huang Ting Jing, they can be representative works. Looking at its characteristics, as Weng Fanggang said: "Change the wave painting of the official script, pick it up, and still keep the vertical of the official script."
after the eastern Jin dynasty, the north and the south split, and calligraphy was also divided into two factions. The calligraphy style of the Northern School, with the legacy of han li, is simple and rigorous in brushwork, but simple and strict in style, which is known as Wei Bei. The southern school of calligraphy is more sparse and beautiful, and it is better than the letters. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, because of regional differences, personal habits and book styles were very different. The northern book is strong, and the southern book is rich, each of which is wonderful and inseparable, while Bao Shichen and Kang Youwei strongly admire the books of the two dynasties, especially the stele of the northern Wei Dynasty. Kang cited ten beauties to emphasize the advantages of Wei Bei.
regular script in the Tang dynasty, like the prosperity of the national situation in the Tang dynasty, is really unprecedented. The calligraphy style is mature, and calligraphers come forth in large numbers. In terms of regular script, Yu Shinan, Ou Yangxun, Chu Suiliang in the early Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing in the middle Tang Dynasty, and Liu Gongquan in the late Tang Dynasty all valued their regular script works by later generations and regarded them as models of calligraphy.
7 cursive script
cursive script: a style of Chinese characters. Formed in the Han dynasty, it evolved on the basis of official script for the convenience of writing. There are zhangcao, jincao and kuangcao. There are rules to follow in the changes of Zhangcao strokes, such as the Songjiang version of the Three Kingdoms Wu Huangxiang's Urgent Chapter. Today's grass is informal and smooth, and its representative works are Wang Xizhi's Early Moon and Deshi in Jin Dynasty. Crazy Grass appeared in the Tang Dynasty, represented by Zhang Xu and Huai Su, and its brushwork was wild and uninhibited, which became an artistic creation completely divorced from practicality. Since then, cursive calligraphy has only been a calligrapher's copy of Zhang Cao, Jin Cao and Crazy Grass. Masterpieces such as Zhang Xu's "Abdominal Pain" post and Huai Su's "Autobiographical Post". Cursive script is a font produced for convenient writing. It began in the early Han Dynasty. At that time, it was "Caoli", that is, scribbled official script, which gradually developed and formed a kind of "Zhangcao" with artistic value. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhi changed "Zhangcao" into "Modern Grass", and the style of characters was formed in one stroke. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xu and Huai Su developed into "wild grass" with continuous brushstrokes and varied glyphs.
8-line script
A font between regular script and cursive script, which can be said to be cursive script or cursive script. It is to make up for the slow writing speed of regular script and the illegibility of cursive script. The brushwork is not as sloppy as cursive script, and it is not required to be as correct as regular script. The method of opening a model is more than that of cursive method, which is called "opening a model". The cursive method is more than the modular method, which is called "cursive". Running script was produced around the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.