One kind is abstract square symbols, represented by carvings on painted pottery at Dadiwan site in Gansu Province; The second is the symbol of Xiao Sheng, represented by Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the site of Jiahu in Henan. The former evolved into a series of carved symbols on Jiangzhai Village in Lintong, Xi 'an Banpo. The latter developed into images on Dawenkou pottery. By the end of Longshan culture, the patriarchal society was basically established, and groups of inscriptions appeared on jade articles of Liangzhu culture during this period. Some of these inscriptions are the same as or similar to Dawenkou pottery images, and some are similar to those in Xi 'an and other places. These inscriptions may be one of the most basic pre-Chinese character systems at that time. It is worth noting that Liangzhu culture is on the eve of the birth of a centralized slave country in China, and the Xia Dynasty should be the most critical period for the formation of a formal Chinese character system. Then, the question comes: Why did Chinese characters appear so late? According to the research of archaeology and genetics, language was born hundreds of thousands of years ago, but the real Chinese character system was not formed until about 5000 years ago.
Edit this paragraph trend
Many changes have taken place in Chinese characters since Oracle Bone Inscriptions. According to historical facts, these changes can be roughly divided into two categories: reform and natural evolution. The reform of Chinese characters refers to the process of people consciously and actively managing Chinese characters, and the natural evolution of Chinese characters refers to the natural change process of Chinese characters. The reform of Chinese characters is generally discontinuous, intense and completed in a short time; The natural evolution of Chinese characters is continuous, slow and long-term. The natural evolution of Chinese characters has both time and geographical factors, which makes the form, sound and meaning of Chinese characters diversified, leading to more and more variant characters, different pronunciations and changes in meaning, leading to disunity and nonstandard Chinese characters. Therefore, after a period of natural evolution, people must reform Chinese characters to make them standardized and unified. In addition, Chinese characters cannot be perfect as soon as they are produced, and can meet the needs of the development of productive forces in various periods. Therefore, with the progress of the times, people will actively transform Chinese characters to meet the needs of the continuous development of productive forces. When the reform measures were popularized, Chinese characters began a new round of natural evolution. Chinese characters
The change of Chinese characters is like the change of roads. The road is made by people; After the road comes out, people have to repair it every once in a while; After the repair, the road gradually changes, such as widening, straightening, damage, or new branches, which need to be repaired again. In addition, with the development of the times, the previous roads can no longer meet the needs of the development of the times, and new roads need to be built, such as railways and highways. Road construction is equivalent to the reform of Chinese characters, and the road is gradually widened, straightened, damaged and naturally branched, which is equivalent to the natural evolution of Chinese characters. These two changes have different properties, trends, laws and functions, so in the past, we generally discussed the historical evolution of Chinese characters together and drew some conclusions, such as "the development trend of Chinese characters is from complexity to simplicity", which is inevitably ambiguous and specious!
Edit this ancient Chinese character into a seal script.
In this book, ancient characters refer to the characters before Xiao Zhuan, including Da Zhuan, including Jinwen, Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Da Zhuan. Chinese characters
Ancient bronze inscriptions
In ancient times, copper was called gold, so the words carved on bronzes were called inscriptions, also known as Zhong Dingwen and inscriptions. Bronze inscriptions were first discovered in Erligang of Shang Dynasty, but only a few bronzes were found in Erligang of Shang Dynasty. There are many bronze inscriptions unearthed in Yin Ruins. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, inscriptions on bronzes became more common. Most of the inscriptions on bronze in Shang Dynasty are hieroglyphs and interchangeable characters synthesized from hieroglyphs. These words are picturesque, vivid, vigorous and natural, while others are ups and downs.
oracle bone script
In ancient times, written or carved words were left on tortoise shells and animal bones. At present, the earliest discovered Oracle Bone Inscriptions is Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Pan Geng period of Shang Dynasty, and most of its contents are "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" and a few are "notes". Oracle bone inscriptions are mostly pictographs or knowing characters, and pictographs only account for about 20%. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has a high pictographic degree, multi-body characters and uncertain strokes. This shows that China's writing was not unified in the Yin and Shang Dynasties.
big seal character
According to legend, it was created by the history of Shu in the Zhou Dynasty, so it is also called Wen Shu, Shu Chuan and Shu Shu. Shicheng is a historian in Zhou Xuanwang. Dazhuan can be found in Shuowen Jiezi and various Zhong Ding artworks collected by later generations, among which Shi Guwen by Zhou Xuanwang is the most famous. Dazhuan is a kind of Chinese character font that changes from ancient Chinese characters to Xiaozhuan.
Small/small seal characters
Small seal script is simplified from big seal script. Compared with the big seal, the small seal has a simple, regular and harmonious body structure, even and neat strokes, and the radicals have also changed and merged to some extent. Compared with the big seal script, the image of the small seal script is greatly weakened, and the structure of each word is relatively fixed. Legend has it that Biography was compiled by Li Si, Prime Minister of Qin State during the Warring States Period. If Xiao Zhuan was really sorted out in a short time, Qin must have a reform process of actively advocating Xiao Zhuan and actively rejecting ancient Chinese characters including Da Zhuan.
Six-country script
The scripts used by countries outside Qin are collectively referred to as "six-country scripts". Six-country characters belong to the category of ancient Chinese characters, which are graphic, uncertain in shape and difficult to identify. In 22 1 year BC, the king of Qin attacked Linzi, the capital of Qi State, and died. At this point, Qin unified the six countries. Ying Zheng, King of Qin, became the first emperor in the history of feudal society in China, calling himself "the first emperor". Qin Shihuang carried out a series of major reforms in politics, economy, society and culture in order to strengthen and promote the rule of the landlord class he represented over the whole country. Text reform is one of them. In 22 1 BC, Qin Shihuang ordered the implementation of Xiao Zhuan as a unified character throughout the country, "prohibiting all kinds of characters that are not in harmony with the Qin language." In order to popularize Biography, Qin Shihuang ordered Li Si, Zhao Gao and others to compile books and articles such as Cang Xie, Ji Li and erudition as standard text models. Due to the emperor's great attention and the great influence of imperial power, Xiao Zhuan was quickly popularized throughout the country, and the complicated "six-country characters" immediately withdrew from the historical stage.
Edit this paragraph from seal script to official script.
Shortly after the popularity of Biography, folks created a new book style that was simpler and more stereotyped than Biography. This is the official script. At the beginning of official script, it was a kind of irregular seal script. By the time Qin Shihuang unified the characters, the official script had formed a fixed and standardized font. Li Shu changed the lines of seal script into square strokes, which complied with the social demand for convenient and standardized writing. Chinese characters
According to legend, a prisoner named Cheng Miao compiled a popular official script of 3,000 words in prison and passed it on to Qin Shihuang. Qin Shihuang greatly appreciated this, made an exception and promoted Cheng Miao to the position of censor, and allowed his words to be used among the people in early Lebanon. Since then, official script has not only been widely popular among the people in Qin Dynasty, but also government official documents are generally written in official script, but important imperial edicts are still written in small seal script, so official script is also called "auxiliary script" in Qin Dynasty. The appearance of official script is an important milestone in the development history of Chinese characters. Before the official script, Chinese characters were written with lines, but after the official script, Chinese characters were composed of left and right strokes. After the appearance of Lishu, the structure of Chinese characters was basically fixed, and there was basically no big change until the founding of New China. With the collapse of the Qin Dynasty, Xiao Zhuan quickly withdrew from the historical stage, and Lishu became the primary writing method and calligraphy model in society. Shortly thereafter, a more standardized regular script font appeared. After the Han Dynasty, regular script occupied an orthodox position.