Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, seal script, official script, cursive script, regular script and running script are called "seven Chinese characters". Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest and most complete ancient script discovered by China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to the Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, also known as "Yin Ruins Characters" and "Yin Qi", written on the bones of tortoise shells and beasts in Shang Dynasty.
Chinese characters have a historical process of development and evolution for thousands of years, which is roughly as follows: before the Shang Dynasty, it was the history of origin, and the Oracle bone inscriptions in the Yin Dynasty were mature. Since then, a series of changes have taken place, especially in the Han Dynasty, when official script replaced Xiao Zhuan as the main font, and the development history of China characters broke away from the ancient writing stage and entered the official script stage; Regular script was basically shaped from the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and it was artistically changed into Song style in the Song Dynasty, and then there was imitation Song style, which is roughly the font we use today.
Characteristics of each stage of Chinese character evolution
Oracle Bone Inscriptions: Oracle Bone Inscriptions is both pictographic and phonetic. Most of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's characters conform to the principles of pictographic characters and knowing characters, with pictophonetic characters accounting for only 20%. Shang and Zhou bronze inscriptions, also known as Zhong Dingwen; Bronze inscriptions have thick and wide strokes and round and muddy stippling. Jinwen is more standardized than Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Dazhuan: In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, bronze inscriptions tended to be straight and the strokes were neat and symmetrical. Xiao Zhuan: Li Si arranged and simplified Chinese characters according to the writing norms of Qin State, and promoted them throughout the country. This new font is called Xiao Zhuan.
Official script: the stroke of seal script turns, and the symbolism is obviously greatly strengthened. Small seal script is standard in writing, but inconvenient in writing. A simpler font is called official script, which is very popular among the people. Regular script: At the end of Han Dynasty, official script evolved into regular script. The twists and turns have not changed, and writing is easier. Cursive script: Cursive script is characterized by many strokes, simple structure and thick font. Running script: Running script is a font between regular script and cursive script, which is simpler and easier to identify than regular script.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Evolution of Characters