Before the Shang Dynasty
China had a saying that calligraphy and painting are of the same origin since ancient times. This is because the earliest source of words is pictures, and books and paintings are brothers, born from the same root, and have many internal relations. The origin of Chinese characters is the original picture, which primitive people used to express their "picture" form in their lives. Slowly from the original picture into an "ideographic symbol."
Engraving in Jia Hu
More than 8, years ago, a number of inscriptions were unearthed at the Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan Province (9-78 years ago), which was called Jia Hu Engraving. Some scholars think it's just engraving, while others think it's writing. Tsung i Jao, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has conducted in-depth research on Jia Hu's inscriptions, and proposed that "Jia Hu's inscriptions provide brand-new information on the key issues of the origin of Chinese characters". Ge Yinghui, an archaeologist in Peking University History Department, also thinks that "these symbols should be a kind of writing".
the article "the earnest writing sign use in the seventh Millennium BC at Jiahu, Henan Province, China" written by Zhang Zhongzhu and Professor Li Xueqin has attracted the attention of some domestic and foreign media since it was published in the British Antiquity magazine, and interested foreign scholars have also discussed it on the website of Science. Analysis of Cai Yunzhang and Zhang Juzhong's Brilliant Dawn of Chinese Civilization —— On the Guaxiang Characters Discovered by Jia Hu in Wuyang: Among the 21 engravings in Jiahu, 11 characters that have been recognized belong to Guaxiang Chinese characters that reflect the images of Yi Xue Li Li and Kun.
double pier carving
More than 63 carved symbols were found in the Shuangdun site in Bengbu more than 7, years ago, which are very rare and amazing in terms of cultural remains at home and abroad in the same period. The variety and richness of symbols are incomparable to other sites in the same period. The functions of double pier engraving can be divided into three categories: ideographic, stamping and counting. From October 24 to 25, 29, more than 3 famous experts and scholars from home and abroad gathered in Bengbu to discuss "the symbols carved in the Shuangdun site in Bengbu and the origin of early civilization". Many experts attending the meeting agreed that the carved symbols of Shuangdun reflected the life style of the early ancestors of Shuangdun, and they already possessed the nature of original characters. They were one of the sources of Chinese characters, Banpo pottery symbols. Yu Shengwu thought that "Banpo pottery symbols are some simple characters produced in the origin stage of Chinese characters". Some of them are numbers.
Qingdun Engraving
It belongs to the Qingdun site of Liangzhu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province. It was carved with numbers 5, years ago.
Zhuang Qiao's Tomb Inscription
The inscription on the tomb site in Zhuang Qiao, Zhejiang Province, which belongs to Liangzhu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, was 5, years ago, and some words were connected into sentences.
Bone inscriptions
Bone inscriptions refer to symbols carved on animal bones-hieroglyphics or graphic characters, which are found in Shandong (Chifeng, Guanzhong and other places) and are the earliest recognizable characters in China. In 25, Professor Fengjun Liu, a famous archaeologist and director of the Institute of Fine Arts and Archaeology of Shandong University, discovered and named it "Bone Carving", and determined that the carving tool was agate and other acute-angle gems, which were formed between 26 BC and 13 BC and were popular characters in Longshan culture period. Since the end of 21, Ding Zaixian, a famous scholar and full-time vice president of Shandong Tourism Industry Association, has successfully deciphered the bone inscriptions systematically, and comprehensively discussed the inheritance relationship with Oracle Bone Inscriptions and modern Chinese characters from the aspects of the origin and structure of the characters.
Taosi Zhuwen
The Taosi site in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, according to radioactive carbon dating and correction, dates from about 25 BC to 19 BC. In 1984, archaeologists found a fragment of a flat pot in the ruins of Taosi. The stubble around the fragment was painted red, and there were two characters on the fragment, one of which was "Wen", and the other was interpreted by experts in many ways. Zhu Naicheng, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Information Center, said that Zhu Shuwen was 15 years earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions [4]. Su Bingqi, an archaeologist, once commented: "Taosi culture not only reached a higher stage of the' Fang Guo' era than Hongshan Culture's later society, but also established its central position in Fang Guozhong at that time, which was equivalent to the Yao and Shun era in ancient history, that is, the earliest' China' in the historical records of the pre-Qin period, laying the foundation of China." Yicheng County in the southeast, which is close to Xiangfen County, is the descendant of Tang Yao, a legendary Taotang.
Shuishu in Xia Dynasty
There are 24 Shuishu characters on the pottery unearthed at Erlitou Xia Ruins in Yanshi, Luoyang City, Henan Province
The period of Yin and Shang Dynasties
It was in the 14th century BC, the late period of Yin and Shang Dynasties. "Ideographic symbol" has evolved into a relatively stereotyped "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". This is considered to be the first form of Chinese characters. The characters carved on the bones of animals and tortoise shells, and the characters found in Yin Ruins, are regarded as the direct ancestors of "modern Chinese characters", which can prove the continuity of Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, Middle Easterners have been unable to interpret the hieroglyphics of their ancestors. Only modern people in China can read some "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" in the Shang Dynasty. The characters on these tortoise shells were first used to predict good or bad luck. Ancient people thought that if some questions about diseases, dreams, hunting, weather and so on were engraved on the tortoise shells, and then the tortoise shells and animal bones were burned with fire, the resulting cracks could be judged by the diviner according to the shape and direction of these cracks. This is the ancestor of modern Chinese characters of "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". There are more than 5, kinds of "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" discovered so far. And there are more than a thousand that can be interpreted.
in the western Zhou dynasty
because of the extensive use of bronzes, the words carved on bronze Zhong Ding and stone drums were "inscriptions on bronze". Also known as Zhong Dingwen and Shi Guwen. According to legend, it was written by Taishi in Zhou Xuanwang period. Up to now, there are ten stone drums of the Zhou Dynasty in the Palace Museum, on which ten four-character poems are engraved. Because of the feudal regime, it was fragmented and fragmented, and the words were not the same. Until the Qin dynasty. Qin Shihuang unified China. To unify the words.
during the Qin dynasty
Qin Shihuang unified writing and measurement. His outstanding achievement was the prime minister at that time-Li Si. After Li Si collected and sorted out the characters at that time, and then simplified and beautified them, the unified characters were called "Xiao Zhuan", also known as "Qin Zhuan". At this time, there are almost no hieroglyphics in the text.
The writing of "Xiao Zhuan" in the Qin Dynasty was too standard and the writing speed was very slow, so many simple fonts appeared among the people. This font is characterized by changing the circle of "Xiao Zhuan" into a square. The song of "Xiao Zhuan" was changed to be straight, and some radical parts were divided, which were called "Qin Li".
During the Han Dynasty,
official script was very popular, and ""didn't completely get rid of the structural characteristics of "Xiao Zhuan", which was basically square, while "han li" fully developed the characteristics of a brush, with the twists and turns of "silkworm head and goose tail", which made it easy to write. This kind of official script was popular in the Western Han Dynasty. Call it-"han li".
While han li was popular in the Han Dynasty, regular script was in its infancy. It was very popular in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi in Jin Dynasty were the real founders of regular script, and at the same time, they absorbed the round strokes of seal script, kept the square and straight of official script, and removed the "swallow tail", which basically fixed the structure of Chinese characters. At that time, it was called "true calligraphy", and later generations renamed it "regular calligraphy" because it was used as a model for learning calligraphy.