The earliest carved symbols were more than 8000 years ago.
In recent decades, Chinese archaeologists have published a series of unearthed materials about the origin of Chinese characters earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Anyang Yin Ruins. These materials mainly refer to the carved or painted symbols that appeared on pottery in the late primitive society and early historical society, and also include a few symbols engraved on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, jade and stone tools. It can be said that they provide a new basis for explaining the origin of Chinese characters.
Wang, a doctoral supervisor of Zhengzhou University, made a systematic investigation and comparison of the carving symbols on pottery pieces unearthed from more than 100 archaeological sites in China, and thought that the earliest carving symbols in China appeared in Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan Province, with a history of more than 8,000 years.
As a professional worker, he tried to comprehensively sort out these original materials by comprehensively using scientific methods such as archaeology, ancient Chinese character configuration, comparative philology, scientific archaeology and high-tech means, so as to compare some clues about the occurrence and development of Chinese characters before Shang Dynasty.
However, the situation is not so simple. In addition to the existing small-scale data of Zhengzhou Shangcheng site and Xiaoshuangqiao site (in recent years, more than 10 cases of Zhu Shutao's early characters of Shang Dynasty have been found), other symbols before Shang Dynasty are scattered and lack of contact with each other, and most of them are out of touch with Shang Dynasty characters. There are also some symbols with heavy regional colors and complex backgrounds.
The 500 most commonly used Chinese characters
One is that when we want people, we can't be a great country. We can use them when we are born and when we go out. We can work in pairs. We can also work together every year. We can study law after hard work. People have to go through 13 years of equal education, and the electricity is as high as water, which increases the reality of small things. We should make full use of it. We should open it up. It is also because of other reasons that social justice is the same as the previous four days. However, this change in mass and gas direction has not been solved. For people who have no military ties, building a moon is the most important thing. They want to make a phone call and ask questions directly. The five fruit images of the party exhibition have been put in place, and the total defective products have been set up and managed. The long-term demand for capital and low-grade roads has been compared with the understanding of mountain systems. On the root of her hand, she means to forcibly release the ninth district to the west, fight well first, and then go back to the government. That is to say, the North will accept the right to license, change to the United States, and then adopt a more simple style. It is really necessary to achieve every goal. It is difficult to get close to the mine. Just like a history of the Millennium Committee of Qinghai Province.
The Chinese character system was formally formed in the Central Plains.
Wang believes that the formal formation of the Chinese character system should be in the Central Plains. Chinese characters are a writing system of independent origin, independent of any foreign language. However, its origin is not single. After many times and long-term running-in, probably in the early summer, our ancestors creatively invented the writing symbol system of recording language on the basis of extensively absorbing and using early symbols. At that time, the Chinese character system matured rapidly.
According to reports, according to the written materials unearthed from archaeological excavations, China had a formal written language at least in the Xia Dynasty. For example, in recent years, archaeologists found the word "Wen" for writing brush and bamboo calligraphy on a flat pottery jar unearthed from Taosi site in Xiangfen, Shanxi. These symbols belong to the basic configuration of the early writing system, but unfortunately such unearthed writing materials are still rare.
Characters first matured in Shang Dynasty.
As far as the written materials of Yin Shang Dynasty are known and seen at present, there are many kinds of written carriers. At that time, in addition to writing on simplified Chinese characters with a brush, other main writing methods were carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, and pottery, jade and Tao Zhu were carved on bronzes. Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze ritual vessels used in Yin Ruins are the earliest mature written materials found in China.
The Shang dynasty characters reflected in Yin Ruins are not only reflected in the large number of characters and rich materials, but also in the way of creating characters that has formed its own characteristics and laws. The structural characteristics of basic characters in Shang Dynasty can be divided into four categories: based on the physical characteristics of human body and a certain part of human body; Based on labor creation and labor object; Taking the images of animals and livestock as the basis of word formation; Taking natural images as the basis of word formation. Judging from the cultural connotation of the configuration, the objects selected by these early mature hieroglyphs are quite close to the social life of our ancestors and have strong realistic characteristics. At the same time, the content described by these hieroglyphs involves all levels of people and nature, so it also has the characteristics of extensive sources of configuration.
1. Oracle Bone Inscriptions
Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a written language in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, which was only used by a few divination historians. Mainly carved on the tortoise shell bone with a knife. Because the tortoise shell bone is hard, the strokes are mainly straight and rarely round. Because Oracle Bone Inscriptions was carved with a sharp knife, the lines were thin and even. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest Chinese character, which has the characteristics of early Chinese characters: strong imagery, no stereotyped writing, different sizes and great randomness.
Guess what the six ancient characters in the picture below are:
Answer:
Zhenxiyu
(knowledge) (pictograph) (pictograph)
Today's disease
(Know) (Pictograph) (Know)
2. Jinwen
Bronze inscriptions, also known as Zhong Dingwen, prevailed in the Western Zhou Dynasty. This is a kind of writing carved on bronze wares. The shape and structure of bronze inscriptions are similar to those of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Because the inscriptions on bronzes are carved on a mold and then cast, it is easier to write. Therefore, its strokes are characterized by rounded shape and uniform size. Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the pictograph is lower, and the stereotyped characters are improved, but there are more variants.
3. seal script
There are two kinds of seal script: big seal script and small seal script. Dazhuan is a kind of writing in Zhou Xuanwang in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, also known as Wen Shu. During the Warring States Period, Shi Guwen and Zhou Xuanwang used a literacy textbook, Literacy Articles. The physical features are generally consistent with the inscriptions on bronze, with the characteristics of many strokes. Xiao Zhuan is a unified font issued when the same writing policy was implemented in Qin Dynasty. Li Si and others revised the font after finishing the text. Because it is a unified font issued by the government, after finishing and simplifying, the variant characters are greatly reduced, and the font is rectangular, which lays the foundation for the "square characters" of Chinese characters. Xiao Zhuan's strokes are more symmetrical and neat, the lines are even in thickness, more rounded, more symbolic, and the meaning of the picture disappears greatly. Because Xiao Zhuan is simplified on the basis of Da Zhuan, it is generally said that Xiao Zhuan is a simplification of Da Zhuan.
Xiao Zhuan calligraphy: The pine beside the wild crane's nest is the oldest, and the rain, rivers and mountains are dry. In the palm of the giant's hand, thousands of feet has broken the shore.
4. Official script
Lishu originated in the Qin Dynasty and prevailed in the Han Dynasty. The parallel of official script and seal script in Qin dynasty is a convenient font for official document copying by official script. Small seal script is difficult to write, which can't meet the needs of official documents in Qin Dynasty. Often used in more formal occasions. In order to write conveniently and quickly, Li Shu changed the circle of Xiao Zhuan into a straight stroke with square folds. Change the vertical cohesion structure style of Biography to horizontal extension; At this time, the official script has become a Chinese character symbol that is no longer pictographic. Official script has greatly changed the font of Chinese characters, so "official script change" has become the boundary between ancient and modern Chinese characters. The Chinese characters before Xiao Zhuan are ancient Chinese characters. Their similarity is characterized by strong pictograph and poor rigidity. Chinese characters are composed of lines, without any word-formation element-strokes. The Chinese characters after Lishu are modern Chinese characters. Nowadays, Chinese characters are characterized by strong symbolism and stereotypes, and the characters are composed of limited types of strokes. The official script of Han Dynasty replaced Xiao Zhuan as a formal writing form, also known as "Han Li". Han Li's writing styles are diverse. First, Fang Bi is the main one, such as Zhang Qianbei; One is mainly round pens, such as Cao Quanbei.