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The origin of Chinese characters
The earliest carved symbols
Characters first matured in Shang Dynasty.
The story of the origin of Chinese characters
knot theory
Gossip theory
Hetullo theory
Cang Xie's Word-building Theory
Image theory
Evolution 1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions
2. Jinwen
3. Big seal script
4. Xiao zhuan
5, cursive script
6. Running script
7. Official script
8. Regular script
Function 1, Pinyin characters
2. Advantages
Step 3 limit
Step 4 communicate
amount
structure
Phonetic glyph
transfer
Words and phrases
thorough
vocabulary
folk custom
Reports and arguments
Expand overview
The origin of Chinese characters
The earliest carved symbols
Characters first matured in Shang Dynasty.
The story of the origin of Chinese characters
knot theory
Gossip theory
Hetullo theory
Cang Xie's Word-building Theory
Image theory
Evolution 1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions
2. Jinwen
3. Big seal script
4. Xiao zhuan
5, cursive script
6. Running script
7. Official script
8. Regular script
Function 1, Pinyin characters
2. Advantages
Step 3 limit
Step 4 communicate
amount
structure
Phonetic glyph
transfer
Words and phrases
thorough
vocabulary
folk custom
Reports and arguments
Edit this paragraph to outline the history of Chinese characters. According to the archaeological findings recorded and confirmed in the existing ancient documents, Dawenkou culture has a history of at least 5,000 years in Wen Tao, and the history of the origin of Chinese characters is the historical beginning of ancient civilization in China, so we usually say that the Han nationality has a history of 5,000 years.
Archaeological and documentary records show that Chinese characters originated in Yangshao culture period of Neolithic Age, entered the stage of character accumulation in about 4000 BC and 2000 BC, and formed a fairly systematic writing system in Shang Dynasty.
The names of Chinese characters, named after the Han nationality and the Han dynasty, are the most widely used characters in the world today, and they are also the most widely circulated.
During the evolution of Chinese characters for thousands of years, there have been many differences. After the founding of New China, in the 1950s, specialized institutions were organized to standardize the form, sound and meaning of Chinese characters, commonly known as "simplified characters" (Chinese characters before the 1950s were commonly known as "traditional characters"), and they were popularized with reference books such as Xinhua Dictionary and Modern Chinese Dictionary, and simplified characters were juxtaposed with traditional characters. Chinese mainland, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian regions use simplified Chinese characters, while Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions still use "traditional Chinese characters".
Chinese characters are non-pinyin characters, which are obviously different from pinyin characters in writing. Even in neighboring countries of China, great changes have taken place. Take "Chinese characters" as an example:
Simplified Chinese characters: Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese characters: Chinese characters
Pinyin: Chinese z √.
English: Chinese characters
Japanese: Chinese characters (かんじ)
Korean (Korean): Han Jia
Vietnamese: Trung Qu Ta nhan v Xuan
German: Chinese
Russian: китакскиниерогли
French: caractère chinois
Polish: Chinsky Znak
Danish: kinesisk tegn
Filipino: Intsik karakter
Portuguese: caractere chinês
Greek: κ ν ν ν α ρ α ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ ρ
Italian: Carattere Cinese
Indonesian: Cina· Karakot
Hungarian: kínai karakter
Finnish: Kiinalainen merkki
Edit the five sources of Chinese characters in this paragraph.
With language, human beings can accumulate knowledge and form culture. With words, you can record languages and exchange information. Language distinguishes people from animals, and writing distinguishes the primitive stage of human society from the civilized stage. Writing breaks the limitation of language in time and space, spreads language to distant places and expands the communicative function of language.
There are many theories about the origin of Chinese characters, including knot theory, gossip theory, Hutuluo theory, Cangjie word theory, picture theory and so on.
The origin of Chinese characters
From the ancient legend of Cangjie's word-making to the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions more than 65,438,000 years ago, China scholars have been trying to uncover the mystery of the origin of Chinese characters.
On the origin of Chinese characters, there are many sayings in China ancient literature, such as "knot rope theory", "gossip theory", "picture theory" and "calligraphy contract theory". Ancient books also generally recorded the legend of Cang Xie, the historian of the Yellow Emperor who created Chinese characters. Modern scholars believe that systematic writing tools cannot be completely created by one person. If Cang Xie really exists, he should be a text organizer or publisher.
The earliest carved symbols
The earliest carved symbols were more than 8000 years ago.
In recent decades, Chinese archaeologists have published a series of unearthed materials about the origin of Chinese characters earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins. These materials mainly refer to the carved or painted symbols that appeared on pottery in the late primitive society and early historical society, and also include a few symbols engraved on Oracle Bone Inscriptions, jade and stone tools. It can be said that they provide a new basis for explaining the origin of Chinese characters.
Wang, a doctoral supervisor of Zhengzhou University, made a systematic investigation and comparison of the carving symbols on pottery pieces unearthed from more than 100 archaeological sites in China, and thought that the earliest carving symbols in China appeared in Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan Province, with a history of more than 8,000 years. [ 1]
Characters first matured in Shang Dynasty.
As far as the written materials of Yin and Shang dynasties are concerned, there are many kinds of written carriers. At that time, in addition to writing on simplified Chinese characters with a brush, other main writing methods were carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, and pottery, jade and Tao Zhu were carved on bronzes. Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze ritual vessels used in Yin Ruins are the earliest mature written materials found in China. [ 1]
The story of the origin of Chinese characters
"Bei" is a pictophonetic word and a knowing word. From the perspective of pictophonetic characters, the word "clothes" on the left of the word "quilt" means that the quilt belongs to the category of clothes, and the word "skin" on the right is similar to the word "quilt" in the word-making era, indicating the pronunciation of this word, but with the passage of time, the pronunciation of "skin" and "quilt" becomes different and gradually loses its function of expressing pronunciation. From the perspective of understanding characters, clothes made of leather are "quilts". The original meaning of quilt refers to a small quilt. In later generations, the meaning of "suffering" was extended on the basis of the original meaning of quilt.
knot theory
"The History of the Northern Wei Dynasty" said: The ancestors of the Northern Wei Dynasty "hunted for a career, and simplicity was a custom, and simplicity was a change; Not for words, but for wood carving. " It records tribes in primitive society or some ethnic minorities in China. Before the writing appeared, it recorded large and small events such as war, hunting, alliance, election, celebration, marriage, childbirth, disease and disaster by knotting notes.
In the past, according to the Book of Changes, some scholars said, "The ancient rule of law was based on knotting ropes, and the later sages used calligraphy easily, and the rule of hundreds of officials was observed by all the people." Infer that "words originated from knots".
Gossip theory
Kong Anguo's Preface to Shangshu (this is a fake, but it is a long time ago) said: "The ancients loved the king of the Xi family and began to draw gossip and make a book contract instead of tying the rope, so literary books came into being."
"Yi Gan Wei's Letters" holds that: Gangua is Tian Zi's ancient prose; Kungua, ancient Chinese characters; Deviating from divination, the ancient Chinese character of fire in China; Kangua, an ancient water character in China; Sea melon, ancient prose with wind characters; China ancient divination and thunder writing; Gengua, ancient mountain words; Dugua, Zezi's ancient prose.
Hetullo theory
The Book of Changes: the river is drawn, Luo is written, and the sage is written.
"Jade Edition of River Map": Cang Xie was the emperor, making his maiden voyage to the south, making the mountain in the Yang Que, facing the water for the first time, Gui Ling wrote the book, and Jia Danwen was clear, so as to teach it.
"Picture" and "book" are from Heluo, how mysterious! Mysticism is the main feature of this theory. In vain, it can be understood as books, but in fact, it can be understood as I ching and history books.
Under the article "Book of River Map" in Ci Hai, it is said that in Fu, Yi Long appeared from the Yellow River with a horse carrying "River Map"; A turtle appeared from Luoshui, carrying "Luoshu". Fuxi painted eight diagrams based on this "picture" and "book", which was the source of the later Zhouyi. Yu said that he was in charge of the flood, and the Emperor of Heaven gave him a nine-domain Hong Fan (Shang Shu Hong Fan). Liu Xin thought that Hong Fan was a lost book.
Unveiling the mystery of this theory, it is not difficult to find that its real core is arithmetic, which can be compared with the "Jiugong" algorithm. The so-called "Nine Palaces", for Chen Weijia, is the Eight Diagrams plus the Central Committee, and it becomes nine ("Five" is located in the Central Committee and can also be associated with the Five Elements); In the eyes of astrologers, the horizontal, vertical, oblique and additive numbers are always 15. [2]
Hutuluo's Theory of Calligraphy (4 pieces) Cang Xie's Theory of Word-making
"Cang Xie's Theory of Word Creation" was popular in the Warring States Period. "Lv Chunqiu JUNSHOU" said: "Cang Xie is a book and Hou Ji is a crop." Xunzi and Han Feizi also recorded it. "Huai Nan Zi Xiu Wu Xun" said in an essay: Cang Xie "was born knowing books". In the Qin and Han Dynasties, this legend became more popular. Xu Shen [3] "Shuo Wen Jie Zi Xu" [2]: "Cang Xie's early book, Gai Yi is an pictograph."
Who the hell is Cang Xie? Legend has it that he is a historian of the Yellow Emperor, who was the leader of the tribal alliance in ancient Central Plains. With the society entering the stage of large-scale tribal alliances, the external affairs between alliances are becoming more and more frequent, and it is urgent to establish a set of communication symbols enjoyed by all alliances, so the work of collecting and sorting out * * * was handed over to historian Cang Xie.
During the period of Chunhua in Song Dynasty, there was a famous calligraphy collection, Chunhua Pavilion Post, which contained five volumes of 28-word ancient seal script, and the legend was written by Cang Xie.
The established Chinese character system is a long-term trial and error and gradually improved by the people, and will never be created by one person.
Image theory
Modern scholars believe that Chinese characters really originated from the original picture. Some figures carved on unearthed cultural relics are probably related to words.
Around 4000 BC, it was unearthed in the site of Huaxian Village, Shaanxi Province, on the painted pottery basin of Yangshao culture in the Neolithic Age (the nature should be the emblem of the primitive clan here, when it was in the clan society stage of transition from matriarchal system to paternal system). There are four bird-shaped patterns, which are very similar to "bird" (rising) and "guard" (falling) in ancient Chinese characters. Shuowen said that "Wei" is a general term for short-tailed birds.
Painted pottery pots of Yangshao culture unearthed from Anbanpo site in Xi 'an and fish-shaped patterns on bronzes in the late Shang Dynasty are vivid. Comparing them with some "fish" in ancient Chinese characters, the similarity is enough to make people believe that Chinese characters evolved from the original picture.
The evolution of Chinese characters in this editing section has gone through thousands of years, including Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, seal script, official script, regular script, cursive script and running script. Regular script has been widely used so far, but it has not been completely 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.
The mainstream of the development of Qin characters and 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.
1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions