First of all, when we study Chinese characters, we must understand two concepts - calligraphy and Chinese characters.
The former (calligraphy style) is a concept in calligraphy, which refers to the writing style formed by different handwritings for the same Chinese character.
The latter (Chinese characters) is a philological concept, which refers to characters that have their own independent pronunciation, glyph shape (mainly based on word-forming components and their layout), and glyph meaning, and are different from other characters.
To put it simply, Chinese characters are an abstract title that expresses words composed of word-forming parts with independent sound, shape, and meaning; while calligraphy is the specific expression of Chinese character glyphs. The same Chinese character It can be written in different calligraphy styles but still recognized as the same character (in a philological sense).
(Quoted from Simplified Chinese Characters - Zhihu Column)
As shown in the picture above, what is listed here are all different calligraphy styles of the word "please", but it means It's all about the word "please".
Friend Boski said:
We can even think that "Shuo", "Shuo" and "Shuo" are the same character written in different calligraphy styles. Three different writing styles are three different glyph styles of the same word; but from the perspective of glyphs and word structure, they are the same word.
It is quite true.
Make a simple analogy:
Chinese characters? Water (abstract material concept)
Book style? Water (concrete forms of existence, such as water vapor, liquid water , Bing, etc.)
The reason why the author emphasizes the difference between calligraphy and Chinese characters here is mainly for the convenience of subsequent description.
Because "the printed word "yan" and "戸" (household, household) start with a horizontal stroke, why do the strokes in the inscriptions still have a dot stroke?" This question is within the scope of the calligraphy style. The words used are exactly the same (not at the Chinese character level, where there should be discussions about whether to use "men" or "household", whether to use "yan" or "口").
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Then the text (yes, it was just a wedge).
We know that Chinese characters have entered the modern writing stage since the Han and Wei dynasties (represented by official script and regular script, which are different from ancient scripts such as Jiajinwen and Xiaozhuan), and no new evolution has occurred so far.
But the calligraphy style of Chinese characters has been changing. From the running script of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, to the regular script of the Tang Dynasty, to the engraving style of the Song Dynasty, and finally to the current computer fonts, the style of Chinese calligraphy has undergone major changes.
("Calligraphy Chronology" (Part): Calligraphy Chronology Wenyue Font (formerly TypeLand))
One of the main reasons for this change is writing The carrier has undergone tremendous changes.
Judging from the current archaeological data, Chinese characters have had many carrier forms in history, such as slips, animal bones and tortoise shells, tripods, pottery, currency, seals, stone tablets, etc.
The corresponding characters are bamboo slip characters, oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, pottery inscriptions, currency characters, seal characters (seal script), and stone inscriptions.
We need to pay attention here. The above words are only different in the carrier. There is no order in time, and it cannot be said who produced whom. For example, oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions were written in almost the same period, and bronze inscriptions were used in formal occasions such as inscribing tripods, and their glyphs were more formal than the oracle bone inscriptions used for divination at the same time.
Of course, most of the current bronze inscriptions are from the Zhou Dynasty, while the oracle bone inscriptions are famous for the oracle bones from the Yin Ruins. Therefore, people generally believe that there is a sequence between oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. In fact, there are also bronze inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty (such as the most famous Stepmother Wu Ding/Simu Wu Ding, which was a sacrificial vessel made by King Zu Geng or Zu Jia of the Shang Dynasty to worship his mother Wu. The text on it is the bronze inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty), and there are also oracle bone inscriptions unearthed in the Zhou Dynasty. (Such as Zhouyuan Oracle Bones).
Chinese characters of the same period are expressed on different carriers, and their calligraphy styles will be different.
For example, the character "日" in bronze inscriptions is generally round, which more faithfully reflects the shape of the sun.
In the earlier Yin and Shang oracle bone inscriptions, the character "日" is square, but not so pictographic.
Why? The writing medium is different.
Because the inscriptions on the tripod are actually processed on the pottery, and then poured into the tripod, the inscriptions on it can be unrestricted (closer to the actual writing shapes of people at that time).
Because of the limitations of materials, oracle bone inscriptions are very difficult to inscribe, so most of them are straight strokes. Therefore, it is not necessary to wait until thousands of years later to "turn the curve into a straight line" in official script. As early as in the oracle bone inscriptions of the ancestors of the Yin and Shang Dynasties, "日" was written in a square and square shape.
It can be said that each writing medium has its own uniqueness and has had different influences on the calligraphy style of Chinese characters.
Engraving printing and movable type printing, which became the mainstream carrier forms in the Song Dynasty, were the fundamental reasons for the emergence of the new calligraphy style of printed script (Song style/Ming Dynasty style) [1]. It not only determines the overall style of printing, but also affects the stroke characteristics of printing.
Different from writing on paper with a brush, when people write on a wooden board, they are affected by the hardness and texture of the board and the sharpness of the lettering tools, making it more difficult to achieve regular script strokes. Therefore, under the influence of new writing carriers, new calligraphy (printed) gradually differentiated from calligraphy, forming a unique calligraphy style. The overall style of this kind of calligraphy is: horizontally and vertically, slightly longer vertically, and thin and hard strokes. The engraved calligraphy is straight horizontally and vertically, which looks more regular; it is slightly longer vertically, which is in harmony with the vertical rows; the strokes are thin and hard, which better reflects the strength of the blade.
We can compare the printed glyphs and handwritten glyphs of the Song and Ming Dynasties in the same period, and summarize the following characteristics: In terms of stroke types, the difficulty of engraving in descending order is: straight painting (horizontal painting) , vertical), folding painting (including horizontal hooks, vertical hooks), oblique painting (skimming, pressing, lifting), and stipple painting.
1. Straight drawing
Straight drawing is the easiest to write, because it is best to use force in the vertical direction when carving, and it follows the grain of the wood board. Both horizontal and vertical paintings can be made vertical by rotating the printing plate.
The font shape of this pure straight drawing is like the word "Shen" in the picture above.
2. Folding
Folding is completed with two strokes when carving. In this way, it can be completed in two strokes: straight painting + straight painting (or diagonal painting), and the difficulty is reduced.
For example, the vertical hook in the lower left corner of the word "food" is divided into two strokes: vertical + lifting. This is the main stylistic feature of printing.
The second vertical fold of "mountain" should have been completed in one stroke when written by hand, but it was also split into two vertical and horizontal strokes during carving.
The strokes of the "庺" family characters are the most striking feature of printed characters. Note that the folding pen of "庺" was processed into a left + point during carving.
3. Oblique painting
Oblique painting is more difficult because it cannot be placed in a vertical direction for carving, nor can it be carved along the grain of the board. Therefore, carvers generally reduce the use of oblique paintings and process some oblique paintings into straight paintings.
For example, the first stroke of "夭" under the character "Laugh" was originally "丿", but it was processed into a horizontal stroke here.
Another example is that the first stroke of "tongue" to the left of "sweet" was originally "丿", but it was processed into a horizontal stroke here.
4. Stipple painting
The difficulty of stipple painting is the highest. In addition to being difficult to draw at an angle because it is placed at an angle, the lower part is also round, so use a knife to Very difficult to deal with. (Because the knife carving is relatively sharp, it is more suitable for long and narrow strokes.) Therefore, pointillism is generally processed into short horizontal or short vertical strokes.
The dot above "high" is made short and vertical.
The middle point of "Dan" is made short and vertical.
The four points inside the "Rain" head of "Thunder" are all short and horizontal.
There are also "household" and "yan" mentioned in the problem description, which also start with a short horizontal stroke.
Their regular script of the same period should be written like this.
To sum up, print style (Song style/Ming Dynasty style) is a new calligraphy style that was produced in the Song Dynasty due to woodblock printing and was carried forward in the Ming Dynasty. The style characteristics of its stroke details are similar to those of the woodblock printing style. , tools are closely related. Therefore, the difference in stroke details between printed script and handwritten script of the same period is quite large (just like the example of the word "日" in oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions I gave at the beginning). But we still think they are the same character (why? Different calligraphy styles of the same Chinese character still represent the same Chinese character).
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[1]: It should be noted here that when it comes to printed fonts, people always think of Song fonts, regular scripts, imitation Song fonts, etc. .
During and before the Qing Dynasty, the name "printed style" specifically referred to Song/Ming Dynasty or its variants, that is, the fonts used for printing, because they were the only fonts that truly originated from printing. Regular script, official script, etc. are imitations of calligraphy. The style of calligraphy has not undergone essential changes and still belongs to the category of calligraphy (handwriting).