Chinese characters have undergone changes for more than 6,000 years, and their evolution process is:
Oracle bone script → Bronze script → Xiaozhuan → Official script → Regular script → Running script
(Shang) ( Zhou) (Qin) (Han) (Wei and Jin) Cursive Script
The above seven fonts of "Jiajin Seal, Li, Cao Kaixing" are called "Seven Chinese Characters"
Chinese characters ——The emergence of Chinese characters is well-documented in the late Yin and Shang Dynasties around the 14th century BC. At this time, the initial stereotyped writing, namely oracle bone inscriptions, was formed. Oracle bone inscriptions are both pictographic characters and phonetic characters, and they are still used in Chinese characters today. Some hieroglyphs, which are the same as pictures, are very vivid.
In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese characters developed into large seal scripts. The development of large seal scripts produced two characteristics: first, linearization. The early lines with uneven thickness became The second is standardization, the glyph structure tends to be neat, and gradually deviates from the original shape of the picture, laying the foundation for square characters.
Later, Li Si, the Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty The large seal script was simplified and simplified, and the small seal script was changed to the 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 basic seal. It is a 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 official script was stretched to both sides to become a flat square. < /p>
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 a way to express the writer's thoughts and feelings. Later, 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 was derived from regular script. It is between regular script and regular script. Between 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.
In the Song Dynasty, with the 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 knife used for lettering had a profound impact on the shape of Chinese characters. It produced a printed font that was thin horizontally and thick vertically, eye-catching and easy to read, which was later called Song font. There were two types of fonts engraved at that time: fat and thin, fat imitating Yan style and Liu style, and thin imitating European style and Yu style. Among them, Yan style Heliu style has tall and tall strokes, and has some characteristics of thin horizontal strokes and thick vertical strokes. During the Longqing and Wanli years of the Ming Dynasty, it evolved from Song style to Ming style, with horizontal thin strokes, thick vertical strokes and square fonts. It turns out that at that time, a popular style among the people The horizontal strokes are very thin and the vertical strokes are particularly thick and the fonts are flat. This font is used for title plaques of official positions, lanterns, notices, private boundary stones, and god cards in ancestral halls. Later, some engravings used this font. In the process of imitating the Hongwu style calligraphy, the workers created a kind of outline that is neither Yan nor European. Especially because the strokes of this font are horizontal and vertical, it is indeed easy to carve. It is similar to the seal script, Li script, Zhen script and Cao script. The font is different and unique, and it reads fresh and pleasing to the eye. Therefore, it is increasingly used and has become the main printing font that has been very popular since the 16th century until today. It is still called Song font, also called lead font.
In Chinese characters, various fonts formed in various historical periods have their own distinct artistic characteristics. For example, seal script is simple and elegant, official script is dynamic and decorative, cursive script is fast and fast, compact in structure, regular script is neat and beautiful, and running script is easy to read. It is easy to read and write, has strong practicality, diverse styles and different personalities.
The evolution of Chinese characters is from pictographic pictures to line symbols, strokes adapted to writing with brushes, and printed fonts that are easy to engrave. The history of evolution provides us with rich inspiration for Chinese font design. In text design, if we can give full play to the characteristics and style of various Chinese fonts, use them skillfully and have unique ideas, we will surely be able to design exquisite works.
Since the unification of Qin Shihuang, Chinese characters have gradually embarked on the path of development. Chinese characters in each era have unique connotations of the nation and folk customs. The history of Chinese characters is deeply engraved with the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation. Wisdom and diligence. However, some people today know very little about their own country's writing, and they are still half-keeded in the languages ????and writing of other countries. Writing is the soul of a country. In order to understand
We chose this topic about the changes of the motherland’s characters, the history of the motherland, and the soul of the motherland.
The development of Chinese characters, after the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty, 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 script, seal script, official script, and regular script. Among them, seal script is divided into large seal script and small seal script; official script is 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).
(Table 1: Chinese character script (evolution)
1 Oracle bone inscriptions
Before the Qin Dynasty unified writing, China’s Chinese characters were still chaotic in terms of fonts and applications. In a broad sense, ancient Chinese characters include large seal scripts. In a narrow sense, it refers to the writing before the large seal script in the history of Chinese writing. The narrow concept of ancient writing is used here. Ancient writing includes oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions; among them, the former is regarded as the earliest stereotyped writing in China.
Oracle bone inscriptions: Written or carved in the late Shang Dynasty, the inscriptions left on tortoise shells and animal bones are mostly "divination inscriptions" and a few are "notes of events". Most of the oracle bone inscriptions conform to the Based on the principle of pictographic and knowing characters, picophonetic characters account for only 20%. Some of the characters are carved with knives, some are filled with cinnabar, and some are directly written with ink and ink. Because the characters are mostly evolved from picture characters, they are highly pictographic. Moreover, one character has multiple characters and strokes are uncertain. This shows that Chinese characters were not yet unified during the Yin and Shang dynasties.
Image bronze inscriptions of the Yin Dynasty: Pre-Qin Dynasty called copper gold, so the characters engraved on bronze vessels were called gold Inscriptions are also called bell and tripod inscriptions and Yi ware inscriptions. Compared with oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions are more pictographic, showing an older writing style. The full writing style of bronze inscriptions makes the image vivid, lifelike, rich and natural.
< p>Oracle bone inscriptions were written in the secular style in the Shang Dynasty, while bronze inscriptions were the orthodox style, which shows the imprint of the complexity of the orthodox style and the simplification of the secular style (see Table 2).(Table 2: Comparison of oracle bone and bronze inscriptions Table)
Oracle bone inscriptions are mostly carved on tortoise shells and animal bones with knives, so the characters have hard brushwork (as shown in Figure 3). This kind of knife-carved brushwork is also used in modern flat surfaces. In terms of design (as shown in Figure 4).
2 Large Seal Scripts
In the history of Chinese writing, the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, in terms of their contribution to philology, Shi Zhen is the most important. Finally, Shi Zhou was the historian of King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty. He created new styles to make it simpler. The big seal script is also known as Zhou Wen, Zhou Zhuan, Zhou Shu and Shi Shu. Because it was written by Shi Zhou, it is called "Zhou Wen" in the world. They are 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.
3 Xiaozhuan
The Xiaozhuan is also known as Qin Seal script is a standard font compiled by Li Si, the prime minister of the Qin Dynasty, and others. It is simplified from the large seal script. It is also called jade-shaped seal script because it has the meaning of strong writing power. The small seal script has a regular and coordinated shape, with even and neat strokes and radicals. It has also been changed and merged. Compared with the large seal script, it has no pictographic character. The change of writing from large seal script to small seal script is of great significance in the history of Chinese writing
4 Official script
From small seal script to small seal script The first step in the evolution of official script, the most significant change is the change from graceful money bars to straight strokes, and from no angles to angles.
Most people think Official script refers to the official script with ripples and a long tail like a carving knife. This is just one of them. There are mainly Qin Li and Han Li. Qin Li is the early form of official script; Han Li is the early form of official script; Li Ze is the mature font of the official script. Usually the official script refers to the "eight points" in the Han Li (Figure 6). The "eight points" gradually developed after the Qin Li. The official script developed to the eight points. , is already mature in appearance. Because the characters in official script are relatively square and thick, it has a sense of uprightness and seriousness (Figure 7). Although Figure 8 is an English letter, its font has rhombus and angles, giving it the "flavor" of official script. .
5 Regular script
"Kaishu" is also known as Zhenshu, Zhengshu, and modern official script. For example, the characters of Ouyang Xun, Liu Gongquan, etc. on stele and inscriptions belong to it. It includes the squareness, straightness, and straightness of ancient official script. The beauty of eight points and the simplicity of chapter cursive, etc. This font has been used to this day and is regarded as a standard font and is loved by the world. Regular script has a sense of stability and tranquility; characters vary depending on personal writing methods and personalities. , but there are different styles of the same font (Figures 9 and 10). Figure 11 also uses thin lines to outline the text as Song Huizong’s thin gold font, but because the turning points are expressed in a smooth way, it presents a different
The thin gold script has a completely different visual sense.
6 Running Script
"Running script" is a kind of calligraphy (character) style between regular script and cursive script, which can be used freely. Running script is different from official and regular script in that its fluidity can be used freely by the writer. Running script shows a romantic and aesthetic atmosphere (Figure 12).
(Figure 12)
7 Cursive Script< /p>
"Cursive script", also known as Pocao and Jincao, is composed of seal script, Bafen and Zhangcao, and follows a variety of ancient scripts. Cursive script is based on Zhangcao, and Zhangcao has a strong flavor of official script. It is named because it is mostly used for memorials. Zhangcao was further developed and became "Jincao", which is commonly known as "one stroke script". Most of Jincao is simpler than Zhangcao and running script. Cursive script gives the viewer a bold and uninhibited feeling. , a sense of smoothness (as shown in Figures 13, 14, and 15).
8 Printing fonts
After the invention of printing, in order to meet the needs of printing, especially book and periodical printing, text gradually became Suitable for the development of printing, the horizontal, vertical, and square printing fonts - Song style - appeared. It originated in the Song Dynasty, the golden age of woodblock printing, and was finalized in the Ming Dynasty, so the Japanese called it "Ming Dynasty style". Because Song fonts are suitable for printing and engraving, and are also suitable for people's visual requirements when reading. They are the main fonts used in publishing and printing.
9 Computer fonts
With the development of cultural undertakings, technology With the development of fonts, under the influence of Western fonts, various new fonts such as boldface and art fonts have appeared, such as poster (POP) fonts, variety fonts, Kantingliu, girl fonts, etc., and more variations of Song fonts, such as Imitating the Song Dynasty, flat Song Dynasty, etc. and computerizing various types of Chinese characters, the scope of application is wider.
As shown below (from left to right, they are: overlapping round style, variety style, ancient seal style, Kantingliu and poster style)
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 older than the ancient Egyptian oracle bones. Both the writing and the Sumerian writing in the Mesopotamia are nearly 2,000 years old. So far, more than 5,000 oracle bones have been discovered, of which about 1,700 are recognizable. To a certain extent, as one of the four ancient civilizations, There is no reason why China, as one of the most powerful countries in the world, lags behind others! While thinking about it, we found that the earliest oracle bone inscriptions already had a certain degree of knowing and pictophonetic elements. In these oracle bone inscriptions, less than 80% of the "knowing words" were pictophonetic. Chinese characters account for more than 20%. This is very different from other early hieroglyphics such as the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians.
Some people think that the level of science and technology in ancient China was far inferior to that of ancient Egypt and ancient Greek civilization. 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, China could only Rough scratches are carved on animal bones or tortoise shells. But looking at the abstraction of Chinese oracle bone inscriptions, they are much higher than the concrete graphics of ancient Egypt. It seems that Chinese characters directly jumped over the early stages of early hieroglyphics and entered directly. 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 are 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 still only had the Great Wall of rammed earth and pottery tombs from the Qin and Han Dynasties. Terracotta Warriors and Horses, but the small seal script of the Qin Dynasty is already 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 symbols of Chinese characters The system can be said to be a miracle.
In the early days of writing, hieroglyphics could work well. However, with the continuous enrichment of languages, some languages ????can no longer be expressed in images. The ancient Egyptians and Su The Merles began to create some symbols that only represented pronunciation to record these languages. The Chinese chose another solution:
Knowing words, such as "Sun + Moon = Ming, Woman + Son = Good ";
Phonetic characters, such as "Ah", have no meaning and only represent one syllable;
Tongji characters, such as "Shuo-Yue", began to appear in Chinese characters. < /p>
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 most creative one, not to mention that it takes a lot of energy to learn a "foreign language" well. Ancient Rome People do not switch to Greek because they envy Greek civilization - even though the two languages ????are very close. Arabs also need to translate Latin and Greek into Arabic instead of switching to Latin or Greek. Similarly, literature and art During the Renaissance, Europeans did not switch to Arabic themselves, but translated Arabic into Latin. During the Enlightenment period, they further translated into their own languages ??and popularized them.
Good for foreign languages For an individual, 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. In the end, The extreme case is that - like those peoples in history who lost their own language and writing, they disappeared completely. The best option is to use a small number of people who are good at languages ??to carry out a large number of people like the Arabs or the Europeans during the Renaissance. After the translation work, use the native language and characters for dissemination and popularization. Only in this way can more people of the nation use their mother tongue to think and innovate efficiently.
The problems that Chinese now faces in front of English The dilemma is: the civilization based on this language is at its peak - not like the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations faced by the Arabs, which are in a lost and static civilization; nor like what the Europeans faced during the Renaissance. It is an Islamic civilization that is in decline. Nowadays, a large number of new scientific and technological achievements, new knowledge, and new ideas are still produced in the English-speaking world. English, as the de facto international social language in today's world, its success is unprecedented. From the perspective of the people who use it In terms of population, the number of native speakers of English ranks second in the world after Chinese, with approximately more than 400 million people. However, the number of people who use English as a second language, or use English to a certain extent, is far greater than this Much more, it can be said that they are distributed in every corner of the world and in every nationality. Therefore, it is not simply because learning English consumes a lot of students' time that they should not learn English. It is not enough to have good English, and it is not enough for all the people to learn English. You can improve your quality without showing it, but you can't go to the other extreme.
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 have started from the Opium War, It has been more than 160 years since Lin Zexu translated Western books and newspapers; even from the May 4th New Culture Movement, it has been nearly a hundred years. Contemporary China should be in the process of transitioning from the "Renaissance" to the "Enlightenment" " is a turning point. Today's China should pay equal attention to learning English and translating; the most important thing is to start thinking and innovating in the mother tongue. Improving the English level of practitioners in scientific research, journalism and other industries, and popularizing basic education and advanced science Pay equal attention to culture and thought. English in China should not be turned into an "aristocratic language" like Latin in the European Middle Ages or the Renaissance.
Writing is a trace of the history of a nation and a country, and the history of Chinese writing The evolution 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.
The term "Liu Shu" comes from "Book of Rites of the Zhou Dynasty": "The Bao family is responsible for admonishing the king's evil, and raising the country's sons with the Tao. They teach six skills: the first is the five rituals; the second is the six music; the third is the five shooting; the fourth is the five control; the fifth is the six books; the sixth is the six arts. "Nine numbers". However, "Zhou Li" only records the term "Six Books" without explaining it.
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 Guo Zi. He first taught the six books. The first one is referring to things: referring to things can be recognized by sight and visible by inspection. The words 'upper' and 'lower' are also called. The second one is pictograms: Pictographs are used to draw objects and follow them, such as 'sun' and 'moon'. The third is pictographic sound: pictograms are named after things and use examples to complement each other, such as 'jiang' and 'he'. The fourth one is "knowing one's mind": The one who understands one's meaning is to compare the analogy with the friendship, so as to see the meaning. "Wu" and "Xin" are also the same. The fifth one is to transfer the annotation: The one who transfers the annotation is to build a similar poem and agree to accept each other, "Kao" and "Lao" That’s right. The sixth chapter is about borrowing under false pretenses: Those who borrow under false pretenses have no actual words, so they rely on the words ‘Ling’ and ‘Chang’.”
Xu Shen’s explanation is the first time in history that the Six Books The official record of the definition. Later interpretations of the Six Books still centered on Xu Yi.
[Edit] Explanation of the Six Structural Regulations
[Edit] Pictograms
< p>It belongs to the "single 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 the shape of a crescent moon, and the character "turtle" is like the shape of a turtle. In terms of side shape, the character "马" means a horse with a mane and four legs, "鱼" means a swimming fish with a head, body and tail, and "艸" (the original character for grass) means two In Sokcho, 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, which is very similar to the shape we see when looking directly at the sun.
< p>[edit] ShishiBelongs to the "single character creation method". The main difference from pictograms is that the word "shi" contains more abstract things in painting. For example, the word "blade" is in " "Knife" is marked with a dot on the sharp edge; the word "fierce" is marked with a cross mark at the trap; the words "upper" and "lower" are marked above or below the main body "one" symbol; "三" is represented by three horizontal lines. The outlines of these characters have more abstract parts.
[Edit] Pictophonetic
Belongs to the "combined character creation method" ". Pictophonetic characters are composed of two parts: the phonogram (also called "meaning symbol") and the phonogram (also called "note"). The phonogram indicates the meaning or category of the character, and the phonogram indicates the same or similar character. Similar pronunciations. For example, the word "ying" has "木" 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"; next to the shape of "basket" is "bamboo" , indicating that it is an item made of bamboo, and the sound side is "supervised", indicating that its pronunciation is similar to the word "supervised"; the lower part of the word "teeth" is the shape next to it, which draws the shape of the teeth, and the upper part of the word "zhi" is the sound Next to it, it indicates the similar pronunciation of this character.
[Edit] Huiyi
It belongs to the "combined character-making method". The character "Huiyi" is composed of two or more single characters, so The composed glyphs or meanings are combined to express the meaning of the word. For example, the word "wine" is combined with the "you" of the wine bottle and the liquid "water" to express the meaning of the word; the dissected meaning of the word "jie" is It is expressed by using "knife" to separate "ox" and "horn"; "ming" refers to the sound of birds, so it is composed of "mouth" and "bird".
[edit] Note
Belongs to "word usage". Different regions have different names for the same thing due to different pronunciations and geographical barriers. When these two words are used to express the same thing When things have the same meaning, they will have the same radical or part. For example, the two characters "kao" and "lao" have the original meaning of elder; the two characters "dian" and "ding" have the original meaning of the top of the head; "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 to the sound transfer.
[edit] The use of six books
Actually, the ancients did not create Chinese characters after the Six Books. Because Chinese characters had developed quite systematically during the Shang Dynasty, and there were no records about the Six Books at that time. The Six Books came later. It is a system that people analyzed and summarized Chinese characters. However, after the "Liu Shu" system came into being, when people created new characters, they always used this system as a basis. It seems that "軚" and "逿" are pictophonetic characters, and " "Concave", "convex" and "卼" refer to the characters for things, and "瑑" and "奀" are characters for understanding.
In oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, pictographic characters account for the majority. This is because the characters drawn Things are the most direct way to create characters. However, as writing continues to develop, more and more things need to be carefully divided. For example, things such as "carp", "dace", "鲲", and "雳" are all fish. It is difficult to use pictographic word-making methods to carefully draw their characteristics and differences. Therefore, pictophonetic characters have become the most convenient method. Just use "fish" next to the shape to explain their categories, and then use similar words. These characters are distinguished by the phonetic diaphragms of their pronunciation. In modern times, 80% of Chinese characters are pictophonetic characters