What is the origin of Chinese characters?

The earliest existing Chinese character is Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty, about 1300 BC. Later, bronze inscriptions appeared, which evolved into the seal script of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then unified the six languages in the seal script of the Qin Dynasty. Official script appeared at the end of Qin Dynasty, cursive script appeared in Western Han Dynasty, and regular script and running script appeared in Eastern Han Dynasty. The strokes of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jinwen and Zhuanshu are tactfully continuous. When the strokes of Lishu become horizontal and vertical, they become pure square characters, which are convenient for writing and become the dividing line between ancient and modern Chinese characters.

With a history of 6,000 years, Chinese characters are the longest-used, fault-free characters in the world, and the only characters that have been inherited and preserved by the ancients. The derivatives of Chinese characters, such as Vietnamese, Xixia, Jurchen and Khitan, have died out, while Japanese, Korean/Korean only partially retain Chinese characters. Modern Chinese characters are divided into traditional characters and simplified characters.

Oracle writing function:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is written on tortoise shells and animal bones. It was unearthed in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province, because it was once the capital of Shang King Pan Geng to Di Xin in the late Shang Dynasty, which was called "Yin" in history. The Shang Dynasty destroyed the country and became a ruin. Later generations named it "Yin Ruins". Therefore, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is also called "Yin Ruins".

Most of its contents are the words of royal divination, so it is also called "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" or "Zhenbu". This kind of handwriting is basically carved by Qi, also known as "Wen Qi" or "Yin Qi".

Oracle Bone Inscriptions has a history of over 3000 years. It is not only the earliest and most systematic data for studying the origin of Chinese characters, but also an important wealth for studying oracle calligraphy. From the perspective of calligraphy, Oracle Bone Inscriptions already has three basic elements of calligraphy, namely, using a pen, creating characters and composing a composition.