The evolution of Chinese characters (1); the shape of Chinese characters, that is, the font, refers to the writing style of Chinese characters; 1. Oracle bone inscriptions; oracle bone inscriptions are words carved on turtle shells and animal bones (mainly ox shoulder blades) ; 1. Produced; This place was once the site of the capital of the Yin and Shang dynasties, which was moved from Pan Geng to the Yin region; these records are oracle bone inscriptions, and since most of them are divination records, the content is very limited; the discovery of the oracles was completely accidental; From the time of discovery, after 80 years of continuous collection, sorting, and excavation, to the present; 3. Characteristics; a thin and slender style; bronze inscriptions are cast on bronzes
The evolution of Chinese characters (1)
The shape of Chinese characters, that is, the font, refers to the writing style of Chinese characters. From its creation to the present, although Chinese characters have not jumped out of the circle of ideograms, the shape of the characters has always developed and evolved according to the law from 雳 to simplification. Eight types of fonts appeared: oracle bone inscriptions - bronze inscriptions - large seal scripts - small seal scripts - official script - cursive script - running script.
1. Oracle bone inscriptions are engraved on. The writing on turtle shells and animal bones (mainly on the ox shoulder blades) is the most complete system of Chinese characters we can see today. This kind of writing was written in Anyang, Henan, during the Guangxu period of the late Qing Dynasty (AD 1889). Found north of Xiaotun Village on Wuli Road northwest of the county and south of Huan River
1. Origin
This place was once the site of the capital of the Yin and Shang dynasties, which was moved from Pan Geng. To Yin (i.e., Anyang Xiaotun). It was the capital during the reign of King Zhou. Therefore, we know that oracle bone inscriptions were written in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, with a history of about 3,000 years, and the science and culture of the Yin and Shang Dynasties was very underdeveloped. , people cannot explain various natural phenomena and believe that ghosts and gods control the changes in nature, and the souls of dead ancestors can predict future events and determine people's fate. Therefore, the rulers of the Yin Dynasty were very superstitious and worshiped them very much. Gods, from national events to daily life, such as sacrifices, battles, hunting, weather, safety and illness, male and female fertility, etc., must be divined in advance, and the gods must be asked to know the good or bad, and then decide the method of divination. First, use the tortoise shell or animal. The bones were cut open, and then small oval grooves or holes were drilled on the back, and then the oracle bone pieces were heated and various stripes appeared on the front. After the divination, the fortune teller would carve the divination date, the person, the divination content, the omen, indicating good or bad luck, and the subsequent fulfillment of the divination as a file.
These records are oracle bone inscriptions. Since most of them are records of divination, they are called "divination inscriptions" in terms of content. They are also called "deeds" because they were carved with sharp objects, and because they were in the ruins of the ancient capital of the Yin and Shang Dynasties. The discovery of the inscriptions was also called "Yinxu characters". 2. Discovery
The discovery of the inscriptions was completely accidental at the same time in 1898 and at the turn of 1899. When farmers were plowing their fields, they often found engraved pictures and texts. The farmers did not know the origin of these oracle bones, but they thought they were old and could cure diseases, so they collected them and sold them to pharmacists, calling them "dragon bones". It is said that in 1899, Wang Yirong, then the president of Peking University and an epigraphy expert, took medicine for illness and first discovered that the oracle bones were engraved with ancient characters, and he began to collect them.
After 80 years of continuous collection, sorting and excavation since the discovery, 160,000 to 70,000 pieces have been discovered so far. Judging from the oracle bone records, the rulers at that time were doing divination almost every day. Based on the names of the emperors and soothsayers mentioned above, combined with the engraved text content. We know that these oracle bones contain the major and minor events of 12 emperors from Pan Geng to King Zhou for 273 years. According to statistics, the total number of Oracle characters is around 4,500, but less than 1/3 have been recognized. Most of the things I don’t recognize are clan names, personal names, place names and other special characters. The discovery of a large number of oracle bone fragments is precious historical material for studying the development of Chinese characters and ancient Chinese character culture.
3. Characteristics
a Thin and slender style. Because this kind of writing is limited by the writing tools, the strokes are straight, sometimes the same as round. Therefore, the font shape is long and thin, the lines are thin and hard, thin and straight, showing a straight, thin and strong style. The b-shaped body structure has not yet been completely finalized. How to write a character has not yet been completely fixed, and it retains a strong color of describing objects. For example, the font shape can be square or round, the strokes can be more or less, the direction can be positive or negative, the writing can be horizontal or vertical, the radical can be left or right, there are many variations, and there are also combined writing methods.
Bronze inscriptions are characters engraved on bronze vessels. The so-called bronze ware is a vessel made of copper and tin alloy. This alloy is stronger and is called bronze because of its bluish color. There are mainly musical instruments "bell", food utensils "Yi, Zun, Jue", washing utensils "pan", weapons "ge, halberd", etc.
1. Production
Bronze ware existed at the end of the Yin Dynasty, but after all, there were very few. The Zhou Dynasty was the peak period for the use of bronze vessels. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, bronze vessels were mainly vessels for the royal family. The princes do not have the power to cast. By the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the feudal lords were ruling the dynasty and bronzes were cast at will. But a large number of relics from the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period have been discovered. Therefore, bronze inscriptions generally refer to writings from the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The content of the bronze inscriptions was originally engraved with some symbols representing the names of clans and countries. Later, they basically recorded their achievements, received awards, and carved them to pass on to future generations to show their glory. Because ancient people used bells and tripods as a general term for bronze wares.
The predecessors once called this kind of writing "Zhongdingwen", and because the words are mostly for the purpose of "not forgetting and forever commemorating", it is also called "inscription". None of these names can summarize its characteristics. Therefore, later generations renamed it bronze inscriptions, which freed the text from the pictorial nature. This is the first milestone in the development of Chinese characters.
2. Discovery
Bronze inscriptions were unearthed earlier, already in the Eastern Han Dynasty. "Shuowen Jiezi·Preface": "Countries often obtain tripods from mountains and rivers, and their inscriptions are similar to the ancient inscriptions of previous generations." However, when later generations found this kind of epigraphic inscriptions, they considered it an ominous sign and failed to do so. Pay attention to. It was not until the Song Dynasty that more and more unearthed artifacts were unearthed, and research began. With the advent of the Jinshi family, the practice of tomb robbing also emerged. By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, due to the sudden increase in the number of bronze inscriptions unearthed, the study of bronze inscriptions reached its peak. So far, 8,000 pieces have been unearthed, with 3,093 single characters, of which 1,894 have been examined and released. The "Maogong Ding" from the reign of King Yi of the Western Zhou Dynasty, unearthed in Shanqi County, Shaanxi Province in the late Qing Dynasty, is an outstanding representative of the tripod type of artifacts. Now stored in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. This tripod has an inscription of 23 lines and 497 characters, which can be called a long and rare inscription in the world.
3. Features
① Round and simple style. Bronze inscriptions are the direct inheritance of oracle bone inscriptions and belong to the Yin and Shang writing system. But because most of them are cast in molds, they are first inscribed on the molds. If the engraving is not good, it can still be modified. Therefore, the lines are thicker than oracle bone inscriptions, not slender. There are more curved pens and more round pens at the corners. Therefore, the shape of the characters is long and round, the lines are thick and natural, and the posture is graceful. The structure becomes increasingly square, uniform in size, and simple and strong in style.
② The body structure is still undefined. The strokes can be more or less, the writing style can be horizontal or vertical, the direction can be positive or negative, and the radicals can be left or right, while still retaining a strong color of describing objects. However, bronze inscriptions are still a step forward compared to oracle bone inscriptions. The lines are generally simpler, the variant characters are relatively fewer, and the combined inscriptions are greatly reduced.
1. The emergence of large seal script is related to the later small seal script. The broad seal script includes small seal script, the former oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions and Six Kingdoms scripts. The big seal here refers to the Qin characters that were popular during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Because King Ping of Zhou moved east to Luoyang, Qin occupied the old place of the Western Zhou Dynasty and also inherited the writing of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which was developed from the inheritance of bronze inscriptions. Because of their regional nature, some are difficult to identify.
Big seal script, also known as zhòu (zhòu). It was named after it was recorded in the calligraphy book "Shi Zhou Pian". "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi": "In the fifteen chapters of "Shi Zhou", Zhou Dynasty Wang Taishi Zhou wrote the big seal script."
⒉, handwriting
"Shuowen" retains Zhou There are 225 articles, which Xu Shen collected based on the nine chapters of "Shi Zhou" he had seen. They are the main data for our study of seal script today.
The authentic seal script is generally considered to be the "Shiguwen". In the early Tang Dynasty, ten drum-like stone dunzi were unearthed in Nanzhichouyuan, Chencang County, Tianxing County (today's Baoming, Shaanxi Province), about three feet in diameter, small at the top and large at the bottom, with round tops and flat bottoms like steamed buns. Engraved on it are ten four-character poems written by Qin Xiangong in the eleventh year. They are the earliest stone-engraved characters in our country. They have been lost and found again, and lost again. There were more than 700 words in the original engraving, and more than 300 words are now available. These ten stones are now in the Forbidden City. Because the content records hunting events, it was named "Liejie or Yongyi Carved Stone". Tang poet Wei Yingwu thought that the shape of the stone resembled a drum, so he renamed it "Shigu Wen" and it is now the representative of large seal script.
3. Characteristics
Shigu inscriptions have a strong and solemn style. The font structure is neat, the strokes are evenly rounded, there are horizontal and vertical strokes, and the shape tends to be square. The large seal script retains the writing style of the late Western Zhou Dynasty to a considerable extent, with only slight changes, and the strokes are more neat and symmetrical. The strokes are rounded. The lines are more even than the inscriptions on the inscriptions, and the lines are completely finished, with no obvious uneven thickness. The physical structure is neater than that of bronze inscriptions, and it begins to get rid of the constraints of pictograms, laying the foundation for square Chinese characters. There are almost no different characters on the same object. The font is complicated and the radicals often overlap, making it difficult to write.
4. Xiaozhuan
1. Production
Xiaozhuan is the first standardized font for Chinese characters. The "alien text" during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. After Qin Shihuang unified the country, he adopted the opinions of Prime Minister Li Si and implemented the reform of "scripts with the same characters" to unify the characters. This is the first major writing reform in the history of our country.
① "Those who do not harmonize with the Qin script" (i.e., the regional script popular in the East during the Warring States Period - the Six Kingdoms script)
② "Taking the large seal script from Shi Zang may be quite provincial." "Change." This means that the small seal script is based on the big seal script, simplifying the physical structure of the big seal script, changing the stacking structure of the big seal script, and gradually making the complex writing uniform and stable, such as "Shang: (big) (small)"
③ Unify the original radicals with no fixed form, so that one radical has only one fixed way of writing, such as
" (心), (衣) , (water)" and determined the position of each radical in the Chinese character shape. It cannot be reversed or reversed at will. The number of writing strokes for each character is basically fixed. This makes the font basically finalized and unified.
2. Handwriting
"Shuowen" preserves Xiaozhuan 9353 fonts. The original Xiaozhuan script is composed of seven kinds of stone carvings written by Li Si, an important calligrapher of the Qin Dynasty: "Taishan Carving Stone", "Yishan Carving Stone", "Langya Carving Stone", "Zhifu Carving Stone", "Dongguan Carving Stone" and "Jieshi Carving Stone" "Kuaiji Carving
Stone". After Qin Shihuang unified China, he was very ambitious and went hunting everywhere. He set up stones to commemorate his achievements and praised his merits in unifying China.
These characters recorded on the stele are all Li Si's small seal script.
3. Characteristics
Twisting style. The small seal script is processed on the basis of the round shape of the large seal script. The starting and ending strokes are mostly round. There are arcs at the corners, and the twists and turns lead to length and uniformity, making the lines more symmetrical and rounded. The characters are long and round, and the body is strong and linear. Observe the beauty of Yi's curves, the lines are smooth and smooth, soft yet strong. It has always been regarded as the authentic seal script. Because the strokes are as round and plump as chopsticks, they were called "Yu Jin Zhuan" in ancient times. Later generations of seal calligraphers, such as "Tangshan Carving Stone", can use their pens smoothly and freely, and their handwriting is lively and vigorous. The strings are all based on Li Si's style.
Lines are used instead of graphics. Xiaozhuan is a standard font and is more neatly styled than large seal. Lines are used to replace complex graphics, which basically breaks away from pictures and confirms the symbolic nature of Chinese characters. Variant characters have also been basically abolished. But it still retains some of the pictographic and realistic characteristics of the seal script.
In addition, evenly rounded lines and arc-shaped continuous strokes have unclear beginnings and endings, making it difficult to write. The name "Seal Script" did not exist at that time. It was not until the appearance of "official script" in the Han Dynasty that this kind of writing was called "seal script". Therefore, seal script is relative to official script. Xiaozhuan has not been officially in use for a long time. It was no longer commonly used in the Han Dynasty, but for more than two thousand years, seals have been carved with small seals. Seal cutting is one of my country's traditional arts.
5. Official script
There were two writing reforms in the Qin Dynasty. One was to unify the script, changing from large seal script to small seal script; the second was to use official script with smaller seal script and less scruffy. This is the second milestone - the development of writing gets rid of iconicity.
1. Origin
Official script was born out of Xiaozhuan. It began in the Qin Dynasty, and after 231 years of evolution in the Han Dynasty (206-25 BC), it reached maturity in the Han Dynasty. Official script was the main popular calligraphy style in the Han Dynasty. In this way, the official script can be divided into two development stages: Qin Li and Han Li, also known as ancient Li and modern Li.
The early Qin Li was actually an auxiliary font for Xiaozhuan. It was an emergency font produced after the unification of the Qin Dynasty due to the busy government affairs and "there were many things to do, and it was difficult to complete the seal script". It was unified with the different folk characters. The vulgar style of becoming an elegant person. The official calligraphy style of the Qin Dynasty was Xiaozhuan. Qin Li is actually a cursive seal script with smaller lines, which simply change from arcs to straight lines, from circles to squares, with certain changes in thickness. This makes it much easier to write. It is said that the first people to write in this font were documents dealing with matters related to apprenticeship.
Wei Huan of the Jin Dynasty's "Four Styles of Calligraphy" "The Qin Dynasty used equal proportions and had many things to do, so it was difficult to write seal characters, so it even ordered the official script writers to assist the script, which was called the official script, and the Han Dynasty followed it... The official script writers , the seal script is the best."
The Tang Dynasty Zhang Huai's "Ten Style Scripts" "The Qin Dynasty made official scripts for use in court cases and prisons, and Yu Shang used small seal scripts to write." "This name has always been explained in different ways. Some people say that this style of calligraphy first became popular among Tu Li (minor officials in charge of prison litigation) who were responsible for ordinary documents in the government at that time, so it was called official script, and they named Cheng Miao (originally a prisoner, because of his knowledge of writing). It can only be said that it was made by the person who collected and organized official scripts.
Judging from the original meaning of the word "Li", "Shuowen" says "Li, attached"; "Book of the Later Han Feng Yi Zhuan" teaches "belonging", which still has this meaning today, and has the word "subordinate". word. "Jin Shu·Wei Heng Zhuan", "Shuowen·Qi" and Yin Annotations all state that Li is "impossible for Sasuke Seal". Therefore, official script is an auxiliary font for small seal script. Because it is easy and fast to write, it can assist seal script, and is also called "zuo (zuo) script".
The Han Li system was in the process of evolution during the 200 years of the Western Han Dynasty. It basically followed the Qin Li system and has not yet been finalized. It was not until the late Western Han Dynasty that the characters in the bamboo slips appeared in the official script, which often had obvious characteristics of "silkworm heads and swallow tails". It was not until the Eastern Han Dynasty that the official script finally matured. Its obvious feature is that a long stroke is taken in the horizontal painting to form the characteristic of "silkworm head and swallow tail".
2. Handwriting
It is difficult to say what Qin Li looks like. Because Qin's bamboo and wooden slips have not yet been discovered. Compared with the "Taishan Carved Stones" and other inscriptions on Qin's weights and measures and some weapons that have been handed down today, they are undoubtedly cursive seals that were written in a hasty manner and did not have the tendency of pointing and pitching.
The Eastern Han Dynasty inscription "Yi Ying Stele" is graceful and elegant. The horizontally drawn swallow tail and the foot-pressing wave tail are clearly explained, and it has the obvious characteristics of mature official script. "The Stele of Ritual Vessels" is quiet, gentle and elegant. The whole painting is thin, strong and straight. The details of the painting are not thin, and the thick parts are not too bulky.
3. Characteristics
a. Dots and drawings to transfer lines
Han Li used dots, horizontal strokes, vertical strokes and other strokes to transcribe the twists and turns of small seal script. The entire font has sharp edges and corners, is square and straight, and the font shape changes from oblong to oblate. This change is called "subordinate change". This greatly got rid of the shackles of lines, broke the pictographic system of ancient characters, basically disappeared the pictographic appearance of Chinese characters, laid the foundation for current characters, and turned them into purely symbolic characters.
b., The writing style flies into waves
The "silkworm head and swallow tail" is the main feature of official script. "Silkworm head" means that the beginning of the pen is heavy and bald, with a square shape; "Swallow tail" means that the end of the pen is light and upturned, with a twist-like tail. If there are any horizontal strokes or horizontal strokes, they should be lifted up and made into a wave shape. However, in the official script, it is emphasized that "Yan is a double fly", that is, in the structure of a character, only the main strokes are allowed to be sharp and pick out the "swallow tail" shape, and all other strokes are left bare, with the main square being the main stroke, and they are closed as soon as they are drawn.
Bottoms and pinches should also be picked up to form a tendency of flying left and right.
Make a slow bend with the handle, with a tapered tail, and push the corner of the handle upward to form a wave.
In this way, the entire font tightens up and down and stretches left and right, with the main stroke "Silkworm Head Swallowtail" running through the word. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Han Li was also called "eight points", which refers to the wave of the strokes, separated to the left and right, like the shape of the character "eight", scattered left and right.
Official script, whether it is flat or flying, because the fonts are flatter, they always look more stable than books of equal proportions. The emergence of official script was a major reform in the development of Chinese characters and a turning point in the history of Chinese character development. It ended the era of ancient characters and created a new era of modern characters, which has epoch-making significance.
6. Regular script
Regular script is also called "real script" or "formal script". Kai means regular, neat, and model, which means that this font can be used as a standard, model, or standard font.
1. Origin
Regular script evolved from official script. It flourished in the late Han Dynasty and flourished in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. To this day, it is still the standard font for Chinese characters and has a history of nearly 2,000 years.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhong Yao, a calligrapher in the Wei Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms, wrote "He Jie Biao" in small regular script, although it has not yet got rid of the official script style. But it is the earliest regular script I have seen today, and it is a typical work transitioning from official to regular script. Its main horizontal painting has lost the characteristics of "silkworm head and swallow tail", and the elimination has become a sharp trend, but there is still a legacy of official script. Some paintings are even floating and making waves. Still flying to the left and right.
Wang Xizhi, who was known as the "Sage of Calligraphy" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, still had his small regular script works "Huang Tingjian" and "Le Yi Lun" after Zhong Yao changed the Han Dynasty to regular script.