At present, the most widely known hieroglyph in the world is the hieroglyph of ancient Egypt-the holy book. About 5000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians invented a graphic writing called hieroglyphics. This kind of writing is slow and difficult to understand, so about 3400 years ago, the Egyptians evolved a faster and easier font. In addition, Dongba script and Shuishu script adopted by Naxi people in southwest China are the only hieroglyphic systems still in use. As time went on, even the Egyptians themselves finally forgot how to explain the early hieroglyphics. If it weren't for the discovery of French ancient philologists when Napoleon invaded Egypt, it is very likely that archaeologists can't recognize this kind of writing so far.
About 5000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians created a hieroglyph-the holy book. Comparatively speaking, the sacred books are far less mature than those in Wen Tao, the ancient cultural sites such as Anbanpo in Xi 'an, Jiangzhai in Lintong and Yangjiawan in Yichang about 6,000 years ago. But its special significance lies in that Sumerians (races) originally distributed in the Ili Valley of China were forced to move westward to the Mediterranean coast because of the Dayue family (an ancient family in China). In the 5th century BC, one of them used this hieroglyph to create the first letter in history, with 22 * * *, only consonants and no vowels. This is the famous Phoenician letter. Phoenician letters were introduced into Greece earlier, and evolved into Greek letters, giving birth to Latin letters and Slavic letters, which became the same origin of various letters in Europe. Phoenician alphabet evolved into Aramaic alphabet in West Asia, which became the basis of many Asian scripts, such as Arabic, Inca and Jewish alphabet. After the 4th century AD, Arabic characters were widely circulated in Asia.
Humans had hieroglyphs about 6000 years ago, and later Babylonians and Sumerians invented cuneiform. Both of these characters and symbols are displayed on pottery or other artifacts of Banpo culture (a branch of Yangshao culture). Phoenician script appeared in the Mediterranean about 4000 years ago. Now all alphabets, such as Arabic, Greek, Latin, Hebrew and English, can be said to have developed directly or indirectly from Phoenician characters. Developed to about 5000 ~ 4000 BC, with Egyptian characters, their hieroglyphs also came from natural forms. Like Chinese characters, they are symbols used to represent objects, ideas and sounds (their writing can express pronunciation methods). This symbol was later regarded as the origin of sound symbols. Egyptian hieroglyphics are more vivid than ancient hieroglyphics in China. From 1500 BC to 1000 BC, the Phoenicians with Homo erectus on the east coast of the Mediterranean traded with the Egyptians, so learned monks turned simple hieroglyphs into orderly letters, which was of great help to commercial transactions.
Dawenkou culture Dawenkou culture is one of the important remains in the late Neolithic period. It was named after it was first discovered at Dawenkou site in taian county. Its distribution range is near Bohai Sea in the north, Jiangsu and Anhui in the south and Henan in the west. It began in 4300 BC and developed into Longshan culture in Shandong around 2500 BC. Dawenkou culture pottery has obvious characteristics, and adolescent tooth extraction custom prevails among residents, which is the birthplace of ancient ancestors' tooth extraction custom in the southeast coast of China. The social and economic development of Dawenkou culture has reached a higher level. Many carved symbols found are considered as ancient hieroglyphics. At that time, the polarization between the rich and the poor was serious, private ownership gradually formed, and the whole society was close to the threshold of class society.
Judging from the patterns and characters on animal bones, pottery and stone tools unearthed later, hieroglyphics with half an image and half a word appeared in China 10,000 years ago. According to the research of linguists, a large number of "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" unearthed in China in modern times were widely and maturely used in the Shang Dynasty (from 1800 BC to 1200 BC), which obviously evolved over tens of thousands of years. During this period, pottery production, bedroom architecture, mural art, metal use and silk production in China. Various advanced cultures have been invented and used one after another. [Edit this paragraph] It is found that in 1799, these ancient French philologists unearthed a black stone tablet engraved with words. The inscription was written in three languages, namely Greek, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and later Egyptian characters. French archaeologist gene paul champollion studied these characters and tried to explain the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt.
Champollion's method of interpreting ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics is: comparing the words on stone tablets, first trying to pick out the hieroglyphics of Ptolemy, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, and then trying to identify the meanings of other hieroglyphics. Champollion published his findings in 1822.
Rosetta stone recorded the same content in three languages, so it became the key to interpret ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Napoléon Bonaparte, a famous French soldier, fought a great battle in Egypt. In order to study Egyptian culture, historians sent by Napoleon excavated many ancient sites.
It is worth mentioning that China's original characters belong to hieroglyphics. Although Chinese characters still retain the characteristics of pictographs, there are other ways to create characters besides pictographs. After thousands of years of evolution, Chinese characters have been far away from the original image, so they are not hieroglyphics, but ideograms. However, Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions on bronze are also hieroglyphics. In addition, the "head font" and "geometry" of Mayan characters are also. Existing hieroglyphs Dongba hieroglyphics
Dongba hieroglyphics are the characters of Naxi nationality in Lijiang area, belonging to hieroglyphics, including pictographs, meanings, symbols, sounds and other fonts. The total number of characters is about 1600. Lijiang Badong hieroglyphs
Dongba's ideographic method mainly uses one word or several words to express a sentence, from left to right and from top to bottom. This kind of writing was produced about 1 1 century ago. This is a very primitive hieroglyph. Judging from the development of writing form, it is even more primitive than Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and belongs to the early form of writing origin. The earliest symbol images were painted on wood and stone. It was not until the invention of paper that these symbol images were written on paper and became Dongba classics. Dongba is called Dongba because it has mastered this kind of writing.
With the development of Naxi society and the mutual influence of national culture, some Dongba in Lijiang created Gebawen in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Geba means disciple, Gebawen is a character created by Dongbashro descendants, and Gebawen is the transformation and development of Dongba. Naxi people created two ancient Chinese characters, which are still in use today. They are not only precious historical materials to solve the mystery of human writing, but also one of the ideal fonts to enrich and develop China's traditional calligraphy and seal cutting. Dongba characters are known as the only complete "living hieroglyphics" in the world. It is one of the oldest hieroglyphs in the world and a "living fossil" of the origin and development of human social characters.
Shuishu
Ancient characters of Shui nationality and Dongba language of Naxi nationality are the only remaining hieroglyphs in the world. Shuishu is a kind of writing symbol system similar to Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, and it is an ancient book that records the ancient culture of the Shui nationality, such as astronomy, geography, religion and law, and can be described as an "encyclopedia" of the Shui nationality. It has been handed down mainly by handwriting and oral transmission, and is known as the "living fossil" of hieroglyphics. According to experts' research, there are about 800 ancient water script characters found in Shui Shu, and there are 2500 ancient water script characters with variant characters.
The structure of ancient Shuishu characters can be roughly divided into the following three types: first, hieroglyphics, some of which are similar to Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen; The second is imitation of Chinese characters, that is, reverse writing, reverse writing or changing the writing method of Chinese characters, and the third is religious characters, that is, various password symbols representing the primitive religion of the Shui people. The writing form is vertical from right to left, without punctuation. At present, the carriers of ancient Shui characters mainly include oral writing, hand-made paper, embroidery, stone inscription, woodcut, ceramic forging and so on. Because of its pictographic structure, Shui Shu is mainly written and described by natural things such as flowers, birds, insects and fish, as well as some totems such as dragons. It still retains the information of ancient civilization and is still widely used in Shui nationality areas.
Naxi hieroglyphs
Naxi hieroglyphics are a kind of hieroglyphics, *** 1300 characters, with a history of 1000 years. It is a well-preserved hieroglyph in the world at present, and is known as "the living fossil of words".