When pronounced as yíng, the meaning of xing is related to water, which usually refers to the clear and bright appearance of water. In some words, xing can also be used to describe picking and collecting.
For example, there is a poem in the Book of Songs that describes the beauty of Xingze: picking ears, not making baskets. I miss my lover, and the food basket was abandoned on the road. Xing here can be understood as the clear and bright appearance of water. In addition, in the idiom Xingyang School, Xingyang refers to the place name, namely Xingyang City.
Xing is an ancient place name in Xingyang, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. There is also a story related to Xingyang: In the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong led Weichi Gong and others to crusade against Koguryo, and when he passed Xingyang, he left many commemorative poems and monuments. Up to now, there are still many historical sites and poems related to Li Shimin and Weichi Gong in Xingyang.
Evolution of Chinese characters:
The evolution of Chinese characters can be traced back to Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen in Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, and it is one of the oldest characters in the world. With the passage of time, Chinese characters have undergone many times of evolution and simplification, and gradually formed the form of modern Chinese characters.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty is the earliest known Chinese character, carved on tortoise shells and animal bones to record divination and sacrificial activities. These words are primitive and have not been systematically sorted out, so they look messy. But we can see the relationship between them from the glyphs, such as the words sun, moon, water and fire.
Later bronze inscriptions are another important stage in the evolution of Chinese characters. Bronze inscriptions mainly appear on bronzes, and their glyphs are more regular and beautiful than those of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Over time, bronze inscriptions have evolved and gradually approached the form of modern Chinese characters.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, vassal states formed their own local languages. These characters are called Six-country Characters, which have an important influence on the evolution of Chinese characters. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he carried out the policy of the same language, systematically sorted and standardized Chinese characters, and formed Xiao Zhuan.
With the development and popularization of Chinese characters, several other fonts appeared one after another, such as official script, regular script and cursive script, which were popular in Han Dynasty. These fonts have their own characteristics, but they all maintain the basic structure and characteristics of Chinese characters.