Oracle bone inscriptions - bronze inscriptions - small seal script - official script - regular script - cursive script - running script
Ancient and modern officials built thatched cottages
The evolution of Chinese characters:
< p>Oracle Bone Inscriptions - Bronze Inscriptions - Small Seal Script - Official Script - Regular Script - Cursive Script - Running ScriptOracle Bone Script: It is a text from the Shang Dynasty (1400 BC). These characters are called oracle bone inscriptions because they are carved on animal bones or tortoise shells. The characters are carved with a contract knife, so they are also called "deeds" and "deeds". The content of the text, except for a few records, is mostly records of the princes asking for divination at that time, so it is also called "divination" or "divination text".
Bronze inscriptions:
In ancient times, copper was called gold, so people called the inscriptions on bronze vessels gold inscriptions. Bronze first appeared in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, forming a splendid bronze culture in the history of our country. Bronze vessels can be roughly divided into more than ten categories, mainly including food vessels, wine vessels, water vessels, etc.
From the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, chimes of varying sizes appeared in bronze vessels, which were the main ritual vessels for sacrifices and banquets. The tripod among the bronze vessels was mostly used as a sacrificial vessel for cooking animals to offer sacrifices to heaven and ancestors. Later, the tripod also became a symbol of national power. Since bells and tripods are important ritual vessels among bronzes, the bronze inscriptions are also called bell and tripod inscriptions.
Xiaozhuan: "Zhuan" is originally the collective name of Xiaozhuan and Dazhuan. Because it is customary to call Zhuanwen Dazhuan, later generations often refer to "Zhuanwen" specifically as Xiaozhuan. Small seal script, also known as Qin seal script, is a font that was changed from the omission of large seal script. It was produced in the Qin state in the late Warring States period and was popular in the Qin Dynasty and the early Western Han Dynasty. During the Warring States Period, various countries were divided, and the characters of each country were not unified and the fonts were quite complex. Therefore, Qin Shihuang used the seal script of the Qin State and implemented the "Shu Tongwen" to unify the world's characters and abolished various forms of the Six Kingdoms characters that were different from the Qin characters. , and omitted and modified the unique seal script form of the Qin State, and at the same time absorbed some simplified and vulgar fonts in folk writing, and standardized them to form a new font - Xiaozhuan.
Official script: Although Xiaozhuan is a neat rectangle with a structure composed of evenly rounded lines, it is quite inconvenient to write and the glyphs are complicated. Due to various shortcomings, it quickly appeared among the people. A new font was developed, in which the dignified, neat, rounded and curved lines of Xiaozhuan were written with square folds. This font was said to be popular among lower-class officials, craftsmen, and slaves at that time, so it was called "official script". In the Han Dynasty, official script replaced Xiaozhuan as the main font, and the development history of Chinese characters moved away from the ancient writing stage and entered the official regular script stage. After the Han Dynasty, Xiaozhuan became the ancient font mainly used for engraving seals and inscribing gold inscriptions. The formation of official script changed characters from characters tracing the shape of objects to simple characters composed of some straight strokes. This change greatly increased the speed of writing.
Regular script:
Regular script is similar to official script in terms of font structure, but regular script changes the writing method of official script strokes, and changes from flat official script to basically square regular script. The so-called "square characters". Regular script is also called Zhengshu or Zhenshu, which shows that regular script is a formal script for people to learn and use. The earliest regular script calligrapher was Zhong Yao at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The writing style of official script still remains to some extent in his works handed down. Regular script went through many changes during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was basically finalized after the Sui and Tang Dynasties. After the finalization, the strokes and structure of regular script were quite exquisite and rigorous. For example, the works of Ouyang Xun, a famous calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, are one of the models.