Since ancient times, China has said that "calligraphy and painting are of the same origin", because the earliest source of words is pictures, and calligraphy and painting are brothers, born from the same root, and have many internal relations. The origin of Chinese characters is the original painting, and primitive people express themselves in the form of "painting" in their lives. Slowly changed from the original picture to "ideographic symbol"
About BC14th century, late Yin and Shang dynasties. "Ideographic symbol" evolved into a relatively stereotyped "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". This is considered to be the first form of Chinese characters. The characters carved on the tortoise shell of animal bones and found in Yin ruins are considered as the direct ancestors of "modern Chinese characters", which can prove the continuation of Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, Middle Easterners have been unable to read the hieroglyphics of their ancestors. Only modern people in China can understand some "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" in Shang Dynasty. The words on these tortoise shells were originally used to predict good luck or bad luck. Ancient people thought that the cracks caused by carving some problems about diseases, dreams, hunting and weather on tortoise shells and then baking tortoise shells and animal bones with fire could be judged by fortune tellers according to the shapes and directions of these cracks. This is the ancestor of the modern Chinese character "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". Up to now, there are more than 5,000 species of "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". And there are more than 1000 kinds that can be interpreted.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, bronzes were widely used, and the inscription on bronze Zhong Ding and stone drum was "Da Zhuan". Also known as Zhong Dingwen and Shi Guwen. Legend has it that it was written by Taishi Gong of Zhou Xuanwang. At present, the Palace Museum has ten Zhou Dynasty stone drums with ten four-character poems engraved on them. Because the feudal regime was fragmented, the words were different. Until the Qin dynasty. Qin Shihuang unified China. To unify the text. During the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang unified writing and measurement. His outstanding achievement was Li Si, the prime minister at that time. 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 hieroglyphs in the text.
The writing of Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty was too standard and slow, so many simple fonts appeared among the people. This font is characterized by changing the original square of "Xiao Zhuan". The tune of Xiao Zhuan was straightened and some radical parts were separated, which was called Qin Li. Official script was very popular in Han Dynasty. Qin Li didn't completely get rid of the structural characteristics of Xiao Zhuan, but it was basically square, while Han Li gave full play to the role of a writing brush, with a zigzag swallow-tailed silkworm head, which was convenient for writing. This kind of official script was popular in the Western Han Dynasty. Call it "Han Li".
When Han Li was popular in the Han Dynasty, regular script was still in its infancy. It was very popular in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Wang Xizhi and Wang Xian in Jin Dynasty were the real founders of regular script. At the same time, they absorbed the round strokes of seal script, retained the square straightness of official script, and removed the "dovetail". The structure of Chinese characters is generally fixed. At that time, it was called "true calligraphy", and later generations renamed it "orthodox calligraphy" because it was used as a model for learning calligraphy.
In the Tang Dynasty, "regular script" was particularly popular. Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Ou Yangxun and other calligraphers were outstanding at that time, and their calligraphy works are still studied as models.
Due to the neatness of regular script, the need of writing quickly, and the writer's creation of expressing his thoughts and feelings at the end of the pen, a smooth, rhythmic and artistic font-"cursive script" has been produced.
Between regular script and cursive script is "running script". Running script is not as standard and serious as regular script, nor as bold and unrestrained as cursive script, but it is elegant and cheerful, and the font is flexible. It is also the most popular and commonly used font. Before I knew the font, I was asked to practice running script when I was a child. In Song Dynasty, engraving printing and movable type printing, one of the four great inventions in China, were invented, and "Song typeface" should also be produced. First produced in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was changed from regular script. There are fat and thin, but regardless of fat and thin, they are horizontal, thin, vertical and square. Looks quaint and dignified.
"Imitation of Song Dynasty" is also a font that imitates Song Dynasty. This font has only appeared for 70 or 80 years, but it has developed very rapidly. It is the standard font that people like to use most, and it has been widely used in printed matter and various occasions. At the same time, the "black body" was born. This font is striking and generous, the handwriting is the same thickness, the structure is striking and compact, the strokes are strong and powerful, and the strokes are not sharp, which makes people read easily. Because of its striking characteristics, it is often used in titles, introductions, signs and so on. It enriches the expression forms of Chinese characters.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, various fonts were born, such as comprehensive art, whole block, floating clouds, variants and so on. This is the concrete manifestation of the cultural prosperity of the motherland and the inevitable result of the development of Chinese characters.