The history of Chinese characters
Legend has it that Cang Xie created Chinese characters. Cang Xie inspired, classified, collected, arranged and utilized the footprints of birds and animals recorded in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, which played an important role in the creation of Chinese characters and was known as the "sage of word creation".
Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the earliest known mature Chinese character, appeared in Shang Dynasty, and Zhong Dingwen appeared later. Although the number of words increased, it did not change much.
Due to the vast territory of the Zhou Dynasty and the long-term separatist regime, Chinese characters obviously showed abnormal characters among vassal States at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, especially during the Warring States Period. In order to consolidate the rule after the unification of Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang ordered Prime Ministers Lisi, CZ Zhao Gao and Taishi Hu Wujing to sort out the characters, and based on the big seal script of Qin State, made the small seal script as the national standard font. Later, according to the popular fonts at that time, a simpler font official script was compiled, which was widely circulated throughout the country as a daily word.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, regular script appeared and the evolution of Chinese characters was perfect. Not only that, the first calligraphy monograph "cursive script" appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
It used to be said that Chinese characters began in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty, but in fact, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is already a mature writing. Before this, Chinese characters should have a development process from generation to maturity, so some people advocate pushing it to the end of summer; Others think that we have our own opinions before promoting Zhixia. Guo Moruo pointed out in Dialectical Development of Ancient Chinese Characters: "When did Chinese characters originate? I think this can be seen from the age of Xi' an banpo village site. " "Banpo site is about 6000 years old." "Banpo site is a typical Yangshao culture in Neolithic age", "Banpo painted pottery often has some simple descriptions with similar words, which are quite different from the patterns on the utensils." "Although the meaning of the description is not clear, it is undoubtedly a literal symbol." "Absolutely can be said to be the origin of China characters, or the Jie legacy of China's original characters. "On this basis, China civilization should be nearly 6000 years. When did China's writing begin? When did the oldest writing appear? What do they mean? No agreement has been reached so far, and a lot of materials are needed to explain it.
The evolution of Chinese characters
The later evolution of Chinese characters has gone through thousands of years, including Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script, running script and so on. Regular script is still widely used, but it has not been fully finalized.
Chinese characters were written in ancient times, before the Han Dynasty. More vivid.
Warring States Period text: "The princes are in power, not unified with the monarch, and evil rituals and music harm themselves, all of which go to their classics." "Different fields, different car paintings, different methods, different clothes and different words." It has a strong regional character. Qin characters are the mainstream of the development of Chinese characters. There are great regional differences in the characters of the six countries, which do not reflect the development track of Chinese characters and are tributaries.
oracle bone script
Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, which was written by the royal family on tortoise shells and animal bones in the late Shang Dynasty in China (14 ~ 1 1 century).
About 654.38+05,000 pieces of Oracle bones were found, with more than 4500 words. These Oracle Bone Inscriptions records are extremely rich in content, involving many aspects of social life in Shang Dynasty, including not only politics, military affairs, culture and social customs, but also astronomy, calendars, medicine and other science and technology. Judging from about 1500 characters identified in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the methods of "pictographic, comprehending, pictophonetic, referring to things, transferring notes and borrowing words" have been developed, which shows the unique charm of China characters. Documents based on tortoise shells and animal bones in Shang Dynasty and early Western Zhou Dynasty in China (about 16 BC-0/0 BC).
Ancient bronze inscriptions
Bronze inscriptions refer to characters cast on bronze wares of Yin and Zhou Dynasties, also known as Zhong Dingwen. Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the bronze age, with the tripod as the representative ritual vessel and the bell as the representative musical instrument. "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronze ware. Therefore, Zhong Dingwen or inscriptions on bronze refers to inscriptions cast or carved on bronzes.
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. China entered the Bronze Age in the Xia Dynasty, and the smelting of copper and the manufacture of bronzes were very developed. Because copper was also called gold a week ago, the inscriptions on bronzes were called "bronze inscriptions" or "auspicious words"; This bronze ware was called "Zhong Dingwen" in the past because it had the largest number of characters on Zhong Ding.
The application time of bronze inscriptions is about 1200 years, from the early Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty's destruction of the Six Kingdoms. According to Rong Geng's Jin Wen Bian, there are 3,722 inscriptions, of which 2,420 can be identified.
There are different words in the inscriptions on bronzes. The content of memory is also very different. Its main content is mostly to praise the achievements of ancestors and princes, but also to record major historical events. For example, the famous Mao has 497 words, covering a wide range, reflecting the social life at that time.
big seal character
Dazhuan originated in the late Western Zhou Dynasty and traveled in Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The fonts are similar to those of Qin Zhuan, but the configurations of glyphs overlap. Representing the present Shi Guwen, it was named after a book written by Tai Shihuan of Zhou Xuanwang. On the basis of the original text, he transformed it and got his name because it was engraved on the stone drum. It is the earliest stone carving text that has been circulated so far, and it is the ancestor of stone carving.
Small/small seal characters
Qin Shihuang was the first emperor in the world ... but he was not in harmony with Qin Wen. Reese wrote Cang Xie, Zhongchefu ordered Zhao Gao to write a love calendar, and a surname ordered Hu Wujing to write a scholarship. "They all take the stone script, or they are quite changed. The so-called small seal script is also." Today, there are remnants of "Engraving Stones in Langyatai" and "Engraving Stones in Taishan", which are the representative works of Xiao Zhuan. It is said that after Qin Shihuang unified China, Reese carried out the policy of "writing with the same language, cars with the same track" and was responsible for unified measurement. On the basis of the original seal script used by Qin, Li Si simplified it, canceled the variant characters of other six countries and created a unified writing form of Chinese characters. It was popular in China until the end of the Western Han Dynasty, and was gradually replaced by official script. But because of its beautiful font, it has always been favored by calligraphers. Because of its complex strokes and simple form, it is possible to add twists and turns and seal cutting at will, especially the official seal that needs anti-counterfeiting. Seal script was always used until the collapse of feudal dynasty and the emergence of modern new anti-counterfeiting technology. All the words in Kangxi Dictionary are also marked with seal script writing.
official script
Official script is basically evolved from seal script, mainly changing the round strokes of seal script into square folds, which makes writing faster, and it is difficult to draw round strokes when writing with pigments on wooden slips.
Official script is also called "official character" and "ancient book". On the basis of seal script, in order to meet the needs of convenient writing, the font of seal script is simplified, and the flat and round lines of seal script are changed into straight strokes, which is convenient for writing. It is divided into Li Qin (Guli) and Han Li (Jinli). The appearance of official script is a great change in ancient writing and calligraphy. Official script is a common solemn font in Chinese characters, with a slightly flat writing effect, long horizontal drawing and short straight drawing, and pays attention to "swallow tail of silkworm head" and "twists and turns". It originated in the Qin Dynasty and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Calligraphy is known as "Han Li Tang Kai". It is also said that official script originated in the Warring States period.
Official script is relative to seal script, and its name originated from the Eastern Han Dynasty. The appearance of official script is another great change of China characters, which brings China's calligraphy art into a new realm, is a turning point in the development history of Chinese characters, and lays the foundation for regular script. Official script is flat, neat and exquisite. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, stippling such as skimming was beautified as upward provocation, with different degrees of severity and artistic beauty of calligraphy. Styles also tend to be diversified, which is of great artistic appreciation value.
According to legend, the official script was compiled by Cheng Miao who was not in the prison of Qin Dynasty. By eliminating complexity and simplifying, the font becomes round and square, and the strokes become straight. Changing "Lian Bi" into "broken pen" and changing lines into strokes makes writing more convenient. "Li Ben" is not a prisoner, but a petty official, that is, a small official in charge of documents, so in ancient times, official script was called "Zuo Shu". Lishu prevailed in Han Dynasty and became the main style of calligraphy. As a start-up Qin Li, seal script has many meanings, and it has been continuously developed and processed. It broke the writing tradition since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties and gradually laid the foundation for regular script. Under the unification of the thought of "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", the official script of the Han Dynasty gradually developed into the dominant script, and at the same time, cursive script, regular script and running script were derived, laying the foundation for art.
regular script
Regular script, also known as official script, or original script, began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Its characteristics are: square shape, straight strokes, can be used as a model, hence the name. There are many famous calligraphers who have created many representative fonts, such as Ou Ti (Tang), Yu Ti (Tang Yu Shinan), Yan Ti (Tang Yan Zhen Qing), Liu Ti (Liu Tang Gong Quan) and Zhao Ti (Song Yuan Zhao Mengfu). At the beginning, there were not many official scripts left in regular script, which were slightly wider in structure, longer in horizontal drawing and shorter in straight drawing. In the Wei and Jin dynasties handed down from ancient times, such as Zhong You's Epiphany Table, Ji Zhi Table, Wang Xizhi's Le Yi Lun and Huang Ting Jing, they can all be regarded as representative works. Look at its characteristics, as Weng Fanggang said: "Change the wave painting of official script, pick it up, and still keep the vertical of official script."
After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the north and the south were divided, and calligraphy was also divided into two factions. The calligraphy style of the Northern School has inherited the legacy of Han Li. Its brushwork is simple and rigorous, but its style is simple and rigorous, so it is called "Weibei". Southern calligraphy is more sparse and beautiful than letters. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, because of regional differences, personal habits and book styles were very different. The books in the North are strong and the books in the South are rich, each of which is wonderful and inseparable, while Bao and Kang Youwei highly admire the books of the two dynasties, especially the epitaphs of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Kang cited ten beauties to emphasize the advantages of Weibei.
Regular script in the Tang Dynasty, like the prosperity of the national situation in the Tang Dynasty, is really unprecedented. Calligraphy style is mature, and calligraphers come forth in large numbers. In terms of regular script, Yu Shinan, Ou Yangxun, Chu Suiliang in the early Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing in the middle Tang Dynasty and Liu Gongquan in the late Tang Dynasty all regarded his regular script works as models of calligraphy. Regular script is a common standard in modern times.
cursive script
The cursive script was formed in the Han Dynasty, and it evolved from the official script for simplicity. There are Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Crazy Grass. Cursive script is a font produced for the convenience of writing. It began in the early Han Dynasty. At that time, it was "Cao Li", that is, scribbled official script, which gradually developed into a kind of "Cao Zhang" with artistic value. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhi changed "Cao Zhang" to "modern grass", and the character style was formed in one fell swoop. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xu and Huai Su developed into "weeds", with continuous strokes and changeable glyphs. Cursive script is commonly used by calligraphers.
Cao Zhang's rescue rod has rules to follow. Representative works, such as the Songjiang version of Urgent Chapter by Emperor Dongwu in the Three Kingdoms Period.
This grass is informal and the brushwork is smooth. Representative works such as "The First Moon" and "Getting Time" by Wang Xizhi in Jin Dynasty.
Mad grass appeared in the Tang Dynasty, represented by Zhang Xu and Huai Su, and became an artistic creation completely divorced from practicality. Since then, cursive script has only been copied by calligraphers. Representative works include Zhang Xu's epigastric post and Huai Su's autobiographical post.
Semi-cursive/running/calligraphy (China's calligraphy)
Running script came into being in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which is a font between regular script and cursive script. It can be said to be cursive script or cursive script. It is to make up for the shortcomings of slow writing in regular script and illegible cursive script. The brushwork is not as sloppy as cursive script, and it is not required to be as correct as regular script. There are more methods of mold opening than cursive writing, which is called "mold opening". Cursive calligraphy is more than modular method, which is called "cursive calligraphy". Representative figures: "Two Kings": Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi.
A riddle about a word/word
The moon covered the clouds (one word)-answer: county
Cursive script (type a word)-answer: Ming.
It's bound to change a little (type)-answer: throw it.
At the end of summer, the Japanese lay very high (type)-answer: complicated.
Get rich in advance (type a word)-answer: dial
Big official Reese wants to go to the moon (type a word)-answer: Wan.
It's better to say it early than late-answer: Xu
Parrots parrot (type a word)-Answer: Say.