The historical sequence of the evolution of writing: oracle bone inscriptions - bronze inscriptions - seal script - official script - regular script - cursive script - running script.
1. Oracle bone inscriptions
Oracle bone inscriptions are also called "deeds" and "Yinxu characters". According to archaeological discoveries, oracle bone inscriptions are the earliest systematic ancient Chinese writing and were first unearthed in Yinxu, Anyang City, Henan Province. Oracle bone inscriptions are characters engraved or written on tortoise shells and animal bones.
Due to the lack of understanding of natural science, whenever people encountered something, they needed divination, so they engraved text on oracle bones. And because the ancients attached great importance to divination, the oracle bone inscriptions In this way, it was slowly passed down, and it continued to improve in the development of history, and finally slowly evolved into the later Chinese characters.
2. Bronze Inscriptions
Bronze Inscriptions refers to the name of a calligraphy style of Chinese characters, referring to the inscriptions cast on bronzes of the Yin, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, also called bells and tripods. The Shang and Zhou dynasties were the age of bronzes. The ritual vessels of bronzes were represented by tripods, and the musical instruments were represented by bells. "Zhongding" is synonymous with bronzes. Bronze inscriptions were used for about eight hundred years, from the end of the Shang Dynasty to the destruction of the six kingdoms by the Qin Dynasty.
Bronze inscriptions courses are roughly divided into four types, namely Shang Dynasty bronze inscriptions (the longest text has only more than 40 characters), Western Zhou Dynasty bronze inscriptions (bronze inscriptions gradually became more prosperous, and most of the affairs of the emperor were recorded ), Eastern Zhou Dynasty bronze inscriptions (mostly recorded the great achievements of princes, the heyday), Qin and Han bronze inscriptions (inscriptions gradually declined).
3. Seal script
Seal script is the collective name for large seal script and small seal script. Dazhuan refers to bronze inscriptions, Zhou inscriptions and Six Kingdoms inscriptions, which preserve the obvious characteristics of ancient hieroglyphs. Small seal script, also known as "Qin seal script", is the common script of the Qin Dynasty. It is a simplified font of large seal script. It is characterized by a uniform and neat shape and an easier to write font.
4. Official script
Official script is a common solemn font in Chinese characters. The writing effect is slightly wide and flat, with long horizontal strokes and short straight strokes. It pays attention to "silkworm head and swallow tail", "Twists and turns." It originated in the Qin Dynasty and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is known as "Han Li Tang Kai" in the calligraphy circle. It is also said that official script originated during the Warring States Period.
5. Regular script
Although our country’s regular script has sprouted in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the real literati-oriented regular script appeared in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Regular script evolved from a folk rudiment to calligraphy orthodoxy. , as a fashion, it was learned by the literati at that time. This is also our most widely used Chinese character.
6. Cursive script
Cursive script is a font of Chinese characters. Regardless of the age, any scrawled characters are considered cursive script. Cursive script began in the Han Dynasty. It evolved on the basis of official script to make writing easier. It can be divided into Zhangcao, Jincao and Kuangcao. The characteristics of cursive writing are the ups and downs of writing, the movement of dragons and snakes, and the completion of writing in one go.
7. Running script
There are two types of running script: running regular script and running script. It was developed on the basis of regular script and is a font between regular script and cursive script. It was created to make up for the slow writing speed of regular script and the difficulty of identifying cursive script. The writing style is not as sloppy as cursive script, nor is it required to be as straight as regular script. It appeared around the late Western Han Dynasty and the early Eastern Han Dynasty.