1: The carrier and main content of Chinese characters during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period
During the more than 500 years of war and chaos in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the development of Chinese characters was also subject to turmoil. As a result, the situation of heterogeneous characters and diverse calligraphy styles has become increasingly common. The diversification of the development of calligraphy is not without its advantages. But after all, language is a tool for people to exchange ideas and conduct social communication. "Speech with different sounds" and "characters with different shapes" are inconvenient for people's exchange of ideas and social communication. Therefore, when Qin Shihuang unified China and established the Qin Dynasty, he adopted Prime Minister Li Si's suggestion and unified the national script on the basis of the Qin script that followed the Western Zhou script. Xiaozhuan is used as an enlightenment literacy textbook for schoolchildren and serves as a model for popularization and application. From then on, Xiaozhuan, which was the opposite of Dazhuan, became the popular calligraphy style in the Qin Dynasty. Compared with the previous generation of writing, this kind of calligraphy has the characteristics of rounded writing lines, uniform and stereotyped structure, and vertical and rectangular fonts. In terms of the development of Chinese characters, this is undoubtedly a great progress. But Qin Dynasty calligraphy is not the only one. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty said: "The eight styles of Qin Shu: the first is called large seal script, the second is called small seal script, the third is called engraved symbols, the fourth is called insect script, the fifth is called copy seal, the sixth is called signed script, the seventh is called script, and the eighth is called official script." This shows that at that time, in parallel with the small seal script, there were the large seal script and official script (called ancient official script or Qin official script). "Insect script" is also called bird insect script or bird seal script. It is an artistic calligraphy in seal script that starts with the head of a bird and insect and uses the curve of the insect's body as a line. It is the continuation of calligraphy styles such as the inscriptions of Gou Jian, King of Yue in the State of Zhao; the "engraved symbol" is a small seal script; the "copy seal" is a small seal script with a square structure, which is the first seal script of the Han Dynasty; and the "signature script" is used for inscriptions on door lists and seal slips. , the "#书" engraved on weapons are just changes in the scope of application of large seal script, small seal script or official script. The "eight styles of Qin script" mentioned by Xu Shen, based on the shape of Chinese characters, include the three styles of large seal script, small seal script and official script.
2: What are the materials on bamboo slips and silk unearthed underground after the founding of New China?
Ink marks on bamboo slips and silk silk
The most important thing in the art of calligraphy is authenticity, but calligraphy before the Qin and Han Dynasties The authentic works among them can generally only be seen in bamboo slips and silk alliance books. Ancient bamboo slips were mainly made of bamboo, and the ropes for compilation were made of beef tendon, silk thread, and hemp rope. The earliest ink traces on bamboo slips and silks discovered by archeology include the Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng, Hubei, the Warring States alliance script unearthed in Houma, Shanxi (the alliance letter is the text written on stone or jade), and the Warring States silk scroll unearthed in Mawangdui, Changsha. Chinese calligraphy is based on oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the separation of princes, writing since the Yin and Shang Dynasties has embarked on different development paths in the princely countries. During this period, the form and technique of calligraphy also showed a kind of contention among a hundred schools of thought. situation. For example, the "tadpole script" of the Jin Dynasty in the north and the "bird script" of Wu, Yue, Chu, Cai and other countries have many twists and turns and long tails. The bronze inscriptions of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are no longer as dense as those of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Instead, they have a slender body, showing a kind of roundness and beauty, such as "Fuchi Jian of the King of Wu". A large number of ink marks remain from this period, including slips, silks, alliance letters, etc.