First, the origin of writing

Before writing appeared, people used various methods to remember, exchange ideas and transmit information. The most primitive methods are: knotting banknotes and engraving banknotes.

Knot a rope

Whether knotting with one rope or crossing with multiple ropes, in the final analysis, it is just a way to express and record numbers or other directions.

Some simple concepts. Like memorabilia, little things. The number of acne also represents the number of things. It can only help people remember certain things, but it can't exchange ideas. Therefore, it is impossible to produce words, but it can only be said that it is the gestation stage before the words are produced. Figure 1

Carving notes

People use lettering to mark numbers with certain lines and engrave them on wood chips or bamboo chips as a contract between the two parties. Later, people separated the deed from the middle and divided it into two halves, each holding half. Take the coincidence of the two as evidence. The figures engraved on the ancient deed are mainly suitable for making debt certificates. Figure 2.

The use of hieroglyphics

Due to the shortage of knotted banknotes and lettering banknotes. People have to use other methods, such as painting, to help them remember and express their thoughts, and use lines or strokes of words to outline the shape characteristics of the objects to be expressed, thus producing words. Figure 3

"The generation of characters is natural. Paleolithic humans had good paintings tens of thousands of years ago. These paintings are mostly animals and portraits, and they are the predecessors of characters. " However, only after language is widely used can pictures play the role of words and be transformed into words.

For example, if you draw an elephant, you will call it "elephant" when you see it. Over time, people are used to using a picture similar to "elephant", which is between pictures and words.

As time goes on, there are more and more such pictures, and the paintings are not so realistic. Such a picture gradually shifts to the direction of words. Finally, the text is separated from the picture. In this way, the picture is divided into the original realistic picture and the picture text that has become a text symbol. Words are no longer pictures, but words. Writing techniques do not need realistic description, as long as the characteristics are written out, they are generally good and can be understood by people. "This is the original.

oracle bone script

It is well documented that China script, Chinese characters, came into being in the late Shang Dynasty, about14th century BC, when a preliminary stereotyped script, namely Oracle Bone Inscriptions, was formed. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is written or engraved on tortoise shells or animal bones, which is mainly used for divination and taking notes. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is both pictographic and phonetic, because the characters at this time are mostly evolved from pictures, so its pictographic degree is relatively high, because it is carved on animal bones, so the strokes are relatively thin and there are more straight strokes.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions (male): The word is "male", with "Tian" on the left and "Li" on the right. "Force" is the shape of an ancient agricultural tool "plow". Working in the fields was the main duty of ancient men, so the symbol "male" was used to represent men.

Oracle bone inscription, broom (female): The word "broom" looks like a broom made of plants. The upper part is the broom seedling, the lower part is the broom handle, and a part of it is tied with a rope in the middle, as shown in Oracle Bone Inscriptions Figure (2). Sometimes the broom seedling direction faces left, and sometimes the broom seedling direction faces right. Up to now, brooms made of sorghum and millet straw are still used in northern China, which is very imaginative. The traditional Chinese character for "Fu" is "Fu" because women used to do housework at home.

This is the "car" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Look, is it like an ancient car you saw in a museum or a history book?

This is the zodiac, isn't it a bit like a stick figure?

At this time, it can be seen that people can divide characters into pictographs, pictographs and pictographs, that is, pictographs, pictographs and pictographs have appeared.

If you look at pictographs, "the sun" is a round of the sun, "the moon" is a curved moon, "the water" faces a stream, and "the cow" protrudes from two corners.

The word "Ming" means the light "Dan" brought by "Sun" and "Moon", which means the sun rises from the horizon.

Students are familiar with pictophonetic characters. For example, "Dad" is a combination of the phonetic word "Ba" and the pictographic word "Dad". The word "Ba" is a combination of "Ba" and "++".

Ancient bronze inscriptions

In the late Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty, people cast characters on bronzes, which led to inscriptions on bronzes (because the ritual vessels of bronzes were represented by ding and musical instruments by bell). Zhong and Ding are synonymous with bronze wares, so they are also called). and

Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions are more pictographic, and tend to be linear and linear: the brush strokes of bronze inscriptions are fat and thick, and there are many curved pens. Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jinwen's writing style is more vivid and lifelike. Figure 4

The continuous evolution of Chinese characters

Big seal script:

In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese characters developed into Da Zhuan. Seal script has two characteristics: first, it is linear, the lines with uneven thickness in the early days become uniform and soft, and the lines they draw with real objects are very concise and vivid; The second is standardization, and the font structure tends to be neat, gradually deviating from the original shape of the picture, laying the foundation for the square characters. The disadvantage is that the font is complex and writing is inconvenient.

Small seal script:

Later, Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty, simplified Da Zhuan and changed it to Xiao Zhuan. Because of its beautiful font, it has always been admired by calligraphers, and because of its complicated strokes, eccentric behavior and arbitrary twists and turns, some seals have always been engraved with Xiao Zhuan.

Small seal script not only simplifies the shape of big seal script, but also achieves the perfection of lineation and standardization, almost completely divorced from pictures and characters, and has become a neat, harmonious and very beautiful square font which is basically rectangular. However, Xiao Zhuan also has its own fundamental shortcoming, that is, its lines are very inconvenient to write with a pen, so almost at the same time, a kind of official script with flat sides was produced.

Official script:

In the Han Dynasty, the official script developed to a mature stage, and the readability and writing speed of Chinese characters were greatly improved. Li Shu changed the curve of Xiao Zhuan to straight strokes, which further simplified the font and made writing easier, but at the same time greatly reduced the pictographic degree of ancient Chinese characters and made them flat and regular.

Cursive script:

After the official script, it evolved into Cao Zhang (named after it was used to commemorate the accession to the throne), and Cao Zhang developed into a modern grass. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a kind of wild grass, which was lyrical and sentimental. Cursive script originated in Cao Zhang. What is the paper: What is the imperial edict? A: The opinions put forward by ancient courtiers to the emperor.

In italics:

Subsequently, the official script and cursive script were softened, and the self-contained regular script (also known as the original) became popular in the Tang Dynasty. It has been used until now. Its font is square and neat, its strokes are straight and it is easier to write. Figure 9 The print we use today is evolved from regular script.

Run the script:

Between regular script and cursive script is a running script, which is fluent in writing and flexible in using a pen. It is said that it was invented by Liu Desheng in Han Dynasty, and it is still the font used in our daily writing today.

Song dynasty:

In the Song Dynasty, with the development of printing, block printing was widely used, and Chinese characters were further improved and developed, resulting in a new type of calligraphy-Songti printed characters. After the invention of printing, the carving knife used for lettering had a far-reaching influence on the glyph of Chinese characters, resulting in a kind of horizontal fine vertical thick printing font, which was eye-catching and easy to read, and later became Song Style.

Let me show you the evolution of several words.

In Chinese characters, all kinds of fonts formed in different historical periods have their own distinctive artistic characteristics. For example, seal script is simple and elegant, official script is static and dynamic, rich in decoration, fast in cursive script, compact in structure, neat and beautiful in regular script, easy to read and write, practical, diverse in style and different in personality. The evolution of Chinese characters is from pictographic pictures to linear symbols, strokes adapted to brush writing and printed fonts convenient for carving.

Generally speaking, the development of Chinese characters in China has changed for more than 6000 years, and its evolution process is as follows:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions → bronze inscription → seal script → official script → regular script → running script.

(Shang) (Zhou) (Qin) (Han) (Wei and Jin Dynasties) cursive script

The above seven fonts of "Jin Jia seal seal, Cao Li Xing Kai" are called "seven-body Chinese characters". It can be seen that any new font in history has been gradually formed through long-term evolution.

Babies can understand words. 1. The upper part of the bronze inscription is "shell" and the lower part is "female", indicating the ornaments made of shells around women's necks.

2. It is the shape of Xiao Zhuan, with two shells in the upper part, which means the same meaning.

This is a traditional Chinese character.

4. Simplified Chinese characters.

The word "baby" originally meant a necklace made of shells. It means "around" and "around". For example, the ancients Lu Ji once said: "The world network baby me." The world network is a metaphor of the world. That is to say: the world has entangled me.

The word "baby" decorated with necklaces is baby. Extended to the meaning of baby.

The hieroglyphics of "Jue". 1. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's figure, like the shape of an ancient wine vessel, has enough feet below.

2. The figure of bronze inscription is more like the shape of a wine vessel, with a hand in the right hand.

3. The shape of Xiao Zhuan.

This is written in regular script.

"Pregnancy" means knowing words. 1. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, outside is a man standing on the left, with a "child" in his belly, which really looks like "pregnancy in October, one delivery".

2. The small seal script with the word "Nai" on it has no shape, and the "Zi" below is still there.

3. The writing method of regular script is evolved from Xiao Zhuan.