Chinese characters have undergone changes for more than 6,000 years, and their evolution process is: \x0d\Oracle Bone Script→ Bronze Inscriptions→ Small Seal Script→ Official Script→ Regular Script→ Running Script\x0d\ (Shang) (Zhou) (Qin) (Han) (Wei and Jin Dynasties) Cursive script\x0d\The seven fonts above "Jiajin Seal Script, Li Cao Kai Xing" are called "Seven Chinese Characters" \x0d\The emergence of Chinese characters-Chinese characters, well documented, was around AD In the late Yin and Shang Dynasties of the 14th century BC, the initial stereotyped writing, namely oracle bone inscriptions, was formed. Oracle bone inscriptions are both pictographs and phonetic characters, and there are still some pictographs in Chinese characters that are the same as pictures, which are very vivid. \x0d\In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese characters developed into large seal scripts. The development of large seal script resulted in two characteristics: first, linearization. The uneven thickness of the early lines became even and soft, and the lines they drew with the actual objects were very concise and vivid; second, standardization, the glyph structure tended to be neat, and gradually left the The original form of the picture laid the foundation for the square characters. \x0d\ Later, Prime Minister Li Si of the Qin Dynasty simplified the large seal script and changed it to small seal script. In addition to simplifying the shape of the large seal script, the small seal script also perfected the lines and standardization. It was almost completely separated from the pictorial characters and became a neat, harmonious and very beautiful basically rectangular block font. However, Xiaozhuan also has its own fundamental shortcomings, that is, its lines are very inconvenient to write with a pen, so almost at the same time, the shape of the official script was stretched to both sides to become a flat square. \x0d\By the Han Dynasty, official script had developed to a mature stage, and the legibility and writing speed of Chinese characters had greatly improved. Later, official script evolved into Zhangcao, and then Jincao. In the Tang Dynasty, there was Kuangcao, which expresses the writer's thoughts and expresses his feelings on the pen. Subsequently, regular script (also known as real script), which was a blend of official script and cursive script, became popular in the Tang Dynasty. The printing style we use today evolved from regular script. Between regular script and cursive script is running script, which is smooth in writing and flexible in use. It is said to have been made by Liu Desheng in the Han Dynasty. It has been passed down to this day and is still the font we are accustomed to using in daily writing. \x0d\In the Song Dynasty, with the development of printing, block printing was widely used, and Chinese characters were further improved and developed, resulting in a new type of calligraphy - Song Dynasty printing font. After the invention of printing, the engraving knives used for lettering had a profound impact on the shape of Chinese characters, resulting in a printing font that was thin horizontally and thick vertically, eye-catching and easy to read, which was later called Song Dynasty. There were two types of fonts carved at that time: fat and thin, the fat ones imitating Yan style and Liu style, and the thin ones imitating European style and Yu style. Among them, Yan style and Liu style have tall and tall strokes, which already have some characteristics of thin horizontal and thick vertical lines. During the Longqing and Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty, it evolved from the Song style to the Ming style with thin horizontal strokes and thick vertical strokes and square fonts. It turns out that at that time, a kind of Hongwu style with very thin horizontal strokes and particularly thick vertical strokes and flat fonts was popular among the people. This style was used for official title plaques, lanterns, notices, private boundary stones, and the gods and master plaques in ancestral halls. font. Later, some engravers imitated the Hongwu calligraphy process and created a skin outline that was neither beautiful nor European. Especially because the strokes of this font are horizontal and vertical, it is indeed easy to carve. It is different from the four styles of seal script, Li, Zhen and Cao. It is unique and fresh and pleasing to the eye, so it is increasingly used. It has become the main printing font that has been very popular since the 16th century and is still called Song font, also called lead font. \x0d\In Chinese characters, various fonts formed in various historical periods have their own distinctive artistic characteristics. For example, seal script is simple and elegant, official script is dynamic and decorative in its quietness, cursive script is fast-moving and compact in structure, regular script is neat and beautiful, running script is easy to read and write, has strong practicality, diverse styles and different personalities. \x0d\The evolution of Chinese characters is from pictographic pictures to line symbols and strokes adapted to brush writing and printed fonts that are easy to engrave. Its evolutionary history provides us with rich inspiration for Chinese font design. In text design, if you can give full play to the characteristics and style of various Chinese character fonts, use them skillfully and have unique ideas, you will surely be able to design exquisite works. \x0d\Since the unification of Qin Shihuang, Chinese characters have gradually embarked on the path of development. Chinese characters in each era have unique national and folk connotations. The history of Chinese characters is deeply engraved with the values ????of the Chinese people. Wisdom and hard work. However, some people today know very little about their own languages, and they are still half-hearted about the languages ????and languages ??of other countries. Writing is the soul of the country. In order to understand the changes of the motherland’s writing, the history of the motherland, and the soul of the motherland, we chose this topic. \x0d\The development of Chinese characters, after Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, continued to simplify and organize Chinese characters, making Chinese characters gradually standardized. The development of Chinese characters can be roughly divided into four stages of evolution: ancient Chinese, seal script, official script, and regular script. Among them, seal script can be divided into large seal script and small seal script; official script can be divided into Qin Li and Han Li. It can be seen from this that any new font in history was gradually formed after a long period of evolution. Generally speaking, after the formation of regular script, Chinese characters have basically been finalized (Table 1). \x0d\ (Table 1: The evolution of Chinese character calligraphy) \x0d\1 Oracle \x0d\ Before the Qin Dynasty unified writing, Chinese Chinese characters were still confusing in terms of fonts and applications. In a broad sense, ancient Chinese writing refers to the writing before the small seal script including the big seal script; in a narrow sense, it refers to the writing before the big seal script in the history of Chinese writing. The concept of classical Chinese in a narrow sense is adopted here.
Ancient writing includes oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions; among them, the former is regarded as the earliest stereotyped writing in China. \x0d\Oracle bone writing: It was written or carved in the late Shang Dynasty. The writing left on tortoise shells and animal bones was mostly "divination", and a few were "notes". Most of the oracle bone inscriptions conform to the principles of pictographic and meaning-making characters, with picophonetic characters accounting for only 20%. Some of the characters are carved with knives, some are filled with cinnabar, and some are written directly with vermilion and ink. Because the characters are mostly evolved from pictorial characters, they are highly pictographic, with multiple characters per character and uncertain strokes. This shows that Chinese characters were not yet unified during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. \x0d\Image bronze inscriptions of the Yin Dynasty: In the pre-Qin Dynasty, copper was called gold, so the characters cast and engraved on bronze vessels were called bronze inscriptions, also called bells and tripods, and Yi ware inscriptions. Compared with oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions are more pictographic and show an older writing style. The writing method of filling in the gold inscriptions makes the image vivid, lifelike, rich and natural. \x0d\Oracle bone inscriptions were written in the secular style of the Shang Dynasty, while bronze inscriptions were the formal style, which shows the imprint of the complexity of the formal style and the simplicity of the popular style (see Table 2). \x0d\ (Table 2: Comparison table of oracle bones and bronze inscriptions) \x0d\Oracle bone inscriptions are mostly carved on tortoise shells and animal bones with knives, so the characters have hard writing techniques (Figure 3). This kind of knife-carving brushwork is also used in modern graphic design (Figure 4). \x0d\2大篆\x0d\In the history of Chinese writing, among the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, Shi Zhen was the most important in terms of its contribution to philology. Shi Zhou was the historian of King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty. He created new styles for simplicity. Dazhuan is also known as Zhouwen, Zhouzhuan, Zhoushu, and history books. Because it was written by Shi Zhou, it was later called "Zhou Wen". The large seal script can be found scattered in "Shuowen Jiezi" and various bells, tripods and Yi vessels collected by later generations. Among them, the stone drum inscriptions written during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty are the most famous. \x0d\3 Xiaozhuan \x0d\ Xiaozhuan, also known as Qin Zhuan, is a standard font compiled by the Prime Minister Li Si and others of the Qin Dynasty. It is simplified from the big seal script. It is also known as jade tendon seal script because it has the meaning of strong and vigorous writing. The shape and structure of Xiaozhuan are regular and coordinated, the strokes are round and neat, and the radicals are also changed and merged. Compared with large seal script, it has no pictographic character. The transformation of characters from Dazhuan to Xiaozhuan is of great significance in the history of Chinese writing\x0d\4 Official Script\x0d\ The first step in the evolution from Xiaozhuan to Official Script, the most significant change is from the euphemistic money bar to the plain one Straight strokes, from angular to angular. Most people think that official script refers to official script that has ripples and a long tail like a carving knife. This is just one of them. There are mainly Qin Li and Han Li in official script. Qin Li is the early form of official script; Han Li is the mature font of official script. The official script usually refers to the "eight points" in the Han official script (Figure 6). "Eight points" gradually developed after the Qin Dynasty. When the official script has developed to eight points, it is already mature. Because the characters in official script are relatively square and thick, they have a sense of uprightness and seriousness (Figure 7). Although Figure 8 shows English letters, it has rhombus and angular fonts, giving it a "flavor" of official script. \x0d\5 Regular script \x0d\ "Kaishu" is also known as Zhenshu, Zhengshu, and Jinli. Such as Ouyang Xun, Liu Gongquan and other inscriptions on the inscriptions belong to this type. It includes the squareness of ancient official script, the elegance of eight points, and the simplicity of Zhang Cao. This font is still in use today and is considered a standard font and is loved by the world. Regular script has a sense of stability and tranquility; characters have the same font in different styles due to differences in personal writing methods and personalities (Figures 9 and 10). Figure 11 also uses thin lines to outline the text as in Song Huizong's Thin Gold Typeface, but because the turning points are expressed in a smooth way, it presents a completely different visual sense from the Thin Gold Typeface. \x0d\6 Running Script \x0d\ "Running Script" is a calligraphy (font) style between regular script and cursive script, with free hand movement. Running script is different from official script and regular script in that its degree of flow can be freely used by the writer. The running script shows a romantic and aesthetic atmosphere (Figure 12). \x0d\ (Figure 12) \x0d\7 Cursive Script \x0d\ "Cursive Script", also known as Pocao and Jincao, is composed of seal script, bafen, and Zhangcao, and follows the variations of various ancient characters. Cursive script is based on Zhangcao, and Zhangcao has a strong flavor of official script, so it is named after it is mostly used for memorials. Zhangcao further developed into "jincao", which is commonly known as "one stroke of writing". Most of today's cursive scripts tend to be simpler than Zhang cursive scripts and running scripts. Cursive script gives viewers a sense of boldness and smoothness (Figures 13, 14, and 15). \x0d\8 Printing fonts \x0d\ After the invention of printing, in order to meet the needs of printing, especially books and periodicals printing, characters gradually developed in a direction suitable for printing, and the horizontal, vertical, and square printing fonts - Song Dynasty - appeared. It originated in the Song Dynasty, the golden age of woodblock printing, and was finalized in the Ming Dynasty, so the Japanese call it "Ming Dynasty style". Because Song font is suitable for printing and engraving, and also suits people's visual requirements when reading, it is the main font used in publishing and printing. \x0d\9Computer fonts\x0d\With the development of cultural undertakings and science and technology, under the influence of Western fonts, various new fonts such as boldface and art fonts have appeared, such as poster (POP) fonts, variety show fonts, etc. Style, Kanting style, girl style, etc., and more variations of Song style, such as imitation Song style, flat Song style, etc. And all kinds of Chinese characters are computerized, and the scope of application is wider. \x0d\As shown in the picture below (from left to right, they are: overlapping round style, variety style, ancient seal style, Kanting style and poster style) \x0d\The origin of Chinese characters is an unsolved mystery.
Speaking of Chinese characters, we have to mention oracle bone inscriptions. The oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty, which are supported by archaeology, first appeared 3,300 years ago, which is nearly 2,000 years later than the ancient Egyptian writing and the Sumerian writing in the Mesopotamia. So far, *** have discovered more than 5,000 oracle bones characters, of which about 1,700 are recognisable. To a certain extent, China, also one of the four ancient civilizations, has no reason to lag behind others! While thinking about it, we found that the earliest oracle bone inscriptions already had a certain degree of understanding and pictophonetic components. In these oracle bone inscriptions, less than 80% were "ideological characters" and more than 20% were pictophonetic characters. This is very different from other early hieroglyphics such as those of the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians. \x0d\Some people think that the level of science and technology in ancient China was far inferior to the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Greece. While the ancient Egyptians had already used huge stones to build huge pyramids, China only had rammed earth buildings. While the ancient Egyptians had carved exquisite hieroglyphic patterns on hard stones, the Chinese could only carve rough scratches on animal bones or tortoise shells. But looking at the level of abstraction of Chinese oracle bone inscriptions, they are much higher than those of ancient Egyptian concrete figures. It seems that Chinese characters jumped directly over the early stages of early hieroglyphics and entered a more abstract and advanced stage. The pictographic stage of the development of Chinese characters: In the ideographic-phonetic path, there is almost no pictographic stage. The so-called pictographic characters have been highly abstracted in the oracle bone inscription stage. Later, with the evolution of Chinese characters, Chinese characters were no longer purely ideographic. When the Greeks built the exquisite sculptures of the Parthenon and the Romans built the huge dome of the Pantheon, China only had rammed earth from the Qin and Han Dynasties. The Great Wall, and the ceramic terracotta warriors and horses, but the Xiaozhuan of the Qin Dynasty has become a unified standard script across the country, and the official script of the Han Dynasty is very close to today's Chinese characters. Whether it is the leaping forward writing culture or the huge and complex language and symbol system of Chinese characters, it can be said to be a miracle. \x0d\In the early days of writing, hieroglyphs worked fine. However, with the continuous enrichment of languages, some languages ????can no longer be expressed in images. The ancient Egyptians and Sumerians began to create symbols that simply represented sounds to record these languages. The Chinese have chosen another solution: \x0d\Meaning words, such as "Sun + Moon = Ming, Woman + Son = Good"; \x0d\ Phonetic words, such as "A", have no meaning and only mean one Syllables; \x0d\tongjiazi, such as "Shuo-Yue"; began to appear in Chinese characters. \x0d\When mentioning Chinese, people will inevitably think of English, which also accounts for a large part of cultural courses. At the same time, we also thought a lot. The highest state of learning a language is to think in this language, just like thinking in your mother tongue. However, the mother tongue is the one that can best unleash the creativity of one's thoughts, not to mention that it takes a lot of energy to learn a "foreign language" well. The ancient Romans did not switch to Greek because they envied Greek civilization - even though the two languages ??were very close. Arabs also have to translate Latin and Greek into Arabic instead of switching to Latin or Greek. Similarly, Europeans during the Renaissance did not switch to Arabic themselves, but translated Arabic into Latin. During the Enlightenment period, it was further translated into the native language and popularized. \x0d\For individuals who are good at foreign languages, it is not difficult to read the original foreign text directly. But for him to translate it, the efficiency will be much lower. But for the entire society, if everyone spends a lot of energy learning foreign languages, the efficiency will be very low. The most extreme case is that - like those nations in history that lost their own spoken and written languages, they disappeared completely. The best option is to do like the Arabs or the Europeans during the Renaissance, where a small number of people who are good at the language will do a lot of translation work, and then spread and popularize it in the native language. Only in this way can more people of this nation think and innovate efficiently in their mother tongue. \x0d\The dilemma that Chinese faces now in front of English is that the civilization based on this language is at its peak - it is not a static civilization that has been lost like the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations faced by Arabs; nor Europeans during the Renaissance were faced with an Islamic civilization that was in decline. Today, a large number of new scientific and technological achievements, new knowledge, and new ideas are still being produced in the English-speaking world. As the de facto international social language in today's world, English's success is unprecedented. In terms of the population that uses it, the number of native speakers of English ranks second in the world after Chinese, with about 400 million people. However, the number of people who use English as a second language, or use English to a certain extent, is much more than this. It can be said that they are distributed in every corner of the world and from all ethnic groups. Therefore, it does not mean that students should not learn English simply because it consumes a lot of time. It is not enough to be good at English. Learning English for all people does not mean that it will improve the quality, but it cannot go to the other extreme. \x0d\ If we count from the time Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi spread Western Renaissance ideas to China, it has been hundreds of years; if we count from the Opium War and Lin Zexu's translation of Western books and newspapers, it has been more than 160 years; even from the May Fourth Movement It has been nearly a hundred years since the New Culture Movement. Contemporary China should be at the turning point from the "Renaissance" to the "Enlightenment". In China today, learning English should be as important as translation; the most important thing is to start thinking and innovating in the mother tongue.
Improving the English proficiency of practitioners in scientific research, journalism and other industries should be equally important as popularizing basic education and popularizing advanced scientific and cultural ideas. English should not be turned into an "aristocratic language" in China like Latin in the European Middle Ages or Renaissance. \x0d\Writing is a trace of the history of a nation and a country. The evolution of Chinese characters is leaping, gorgeous, and thought-provoking, just like the history of China. The Chinese created Chinese characters, and Chinese characters also guide the Chinese people forward. \x0d\The term "Liu Shu" comes from the "Liu Shu": "The Bao clan admonishes the king for his evil deeds, and raises the sons of the country with the Tao. He teaches the six skills: the first is called Five Rites; the second is called Six Music; the third is called Five Shooting; the fourth is called Wu Yu; Wu Yue Liu Shu; Six Yue Jiu Shu;". However, "Zhou Li" only records the term "Six Books" without explaining it. \x0d\Xu Shen, a scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty in China, recorded in "Shuowen Jiezi": "Zhou Li entered primary school at the age of eight, and Bao Shi taught Guozi, first with six books. One is to refer to things: those who refer to things can be recognized by sight. , it can be seen that 'up' and 'down' are the same. The second is pictographic: the pictographic is drawn into the object, and the words 'sun' and 'moon' are the same. The third is pictographic: the pictographic is used. Things are named by analogies, so are 'jiang' and 'he'. The fourth one is "Huiyi": "Huiyi" is an analogy to combine friendship, so as to show the meaning. The fifth one is "Wu" and "Xin". Those who transfer notes, build a similar poem, and agree to accept each other, "kao" and "老" are also used. Sixthly, borrowing under false pretenses: There is no original word for borrowing, so "Ling" and "长" are used. " Xu Shen's explanation is the first official record of the definition of the Six Books in history. Later interpretations of the Six Books still centered on Xu Yi. \x0d\[edit] Explanation of the six structural regulations \x0d\[edit] Pictogram \x0d\ Belongs to the "single-type character creation method". Use lines or strokes of words to specifically outline the appearance characteristics of the object to be expressed. For example, the character "月" is like a curved moon, the character "turtle" is like the side shape of a turtle, the character "马" is a horse with a mane and four legs, and the character "鱼" is a tail with a fish head. A swimming fish with a body and tail, "_" (the original character for grass) is two bunches of grass, and the character "men" is the shape of the two doors on the left and right. The character "日" is like a circle with a point in the middle, much like the shape we see when looking directly at the sun. \x0d\[edit] Refers to \x0d\ which belongs to the "single character creation method". The main difference from pictography is that the word "shi" contains something more abstract in painting. For example, the word "blade" is marked with a dot on the sharp edge of the "knife"; the word "fierce" is marked with a cross mark at the trap; Draw marking symbols above or below ""; "three" is represented by three horizontal lines. The outlines of these characters all have abstract parts. \x0d\[edit]Phonetic and phonetic \x0d\belongs to the "combined character creation method". Pictophonetic characters are composed of two parts: the phonogram (also called "meaning symbol") and the phonetic character (also called "note"). The form part indicates the meaning or category of the word, and the phonetic part indicates the same or similar pronunciation of the word. For example, the word "cherry" has "wood" next to the shape, indicating that it is a kind of tree, and "ying" next to the sound means that its pronunciation is the same as the word "ying"; "bamboo" next to the shape of "basket" means that it is a tree. It is an object made of bamboo, and the phonetic part is "jian", indicating that its pronunciation is similar to the word "jian"; the lower part of the word " tooth " is the shape participle, which depicts the shape of the teeth, and the upper part of the word "Zhi" is the phonetic participle, which means Similar pronunciation of this word. \x0d\[Edit] Understanding \x0d\Belongs to the "combined character creation method". An ideographic character is composed of two or more unique characters. The glyphs or meanings of the characters are combined to express the meaning of the character. For example, the word "wine" combines the word "you" for the wine bottle and the liquid "water" to express the meaning of the word; the meaning of the word "jie" is to use the "knife" to separate the "ox" and "horn" Zida; "Ming" refers to the sound of birds, so it is composed of "口" and "鸟". \x0d\[edit] Note \x0d\ belongs to "word usage". Different regions have different names for the same things due to different pronunciations and geographical barriers. When these two words are used to express the same thing and have the same meaning, they will have the same radical or component. For example, the two characters "kao" and "lao" have the original meaning of elder; the two characters "ding" and "ding" have the original meaning of the top of the head; the two characters "qiao" and "empty" have the original meaning of hole. These characters have the same radical (or component) and analysis, and their pronunciation is also related by phonetic changes. \x0d\[Edit] The use of the Six Books \x0d\In fact, the ancients did not create Chinese characters after having the Six Books. Because Chinese characters had developed quite systematically during the Shang Dynasty, there were no records of the Six Books at that time. Liushu is a system that later generations summarized by analyzing Chinese characters. However, after the "Six Books" system was established, people used this system as the basis when they created new characters. It seems that "_" and "锰" are pictophonetic characters, "concave", "convex" and "_" refer to things, and "_" and "_" are knowing characters. \x0d\In oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, pictographic characters account for the majority. This is because drawing things is the most direct way to create words. However, as writing continues to develop, there are more and more things that require careful division of labor. For example, things like "carp", "dace", "carp", "loach", etc. are all fish, and it is difficult to use pictographic methods to create characters. Draw their characteristics and differences. Therefore, pictophonetic characters became the most convenient method. Just use the phonetic character "fish" to explain their genus, and then use the phonetic characters with similar pronunciations to distinguish these characters.
In modern times, 80% of Chinese characters are pictophonetic characters