Oracle Bone Inscriptions → bronze inscription → seal script → official script → regular script → running script.
(Shang) (Zhou) (Qin) (Han) (Wei and Jin Dynasties) cursive script
The seven fonts of the above-mentioned "Jin Jia seal, Cao Li and Xing Kai" are called "seven-body Chinese characters"
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 both a hieroglyph and a phonography. Until now, there are still some pictographs in Chinese characters, which are very vivid.
In the late Western Zhou Dynasty, Chinese characters developed into Da Zhuan. The development of seal script has produced two characteristics: first, the lines with uneven thickness in the early days became even and soft, and the lines they drew with utensils were very concise and vivid; Second, standardization, the glyph structure tends to be neat, and gradually deviates from the original shape of the picture, laying the foundation for the square characters.
Later, Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty, simplified Da Zhuan and changed it to 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.
By the Han Dynasty, the official script had developed to a mature stage, and the readability and writing speed of Chinese characters had been greatly improved. After Li Shu, it evolved into Cao Zhang, and now it is grass. In the Tang dynasty, there was Weeds, which expressed the writer's thoughts and feelings with a pen. Subsequently, regular script (also known as original script), a combination of official script and cursive script, became popular in the Tang Dynasty. The print we use today evolved from regular 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.
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 printing font. 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 printing font with fine horizontal and thick vertical, which is eye-catching and easy to read, and later called Song Style. There are two kinds of fonts for the moment: fat imitation face, Liu style, thin imitation European style and dangerous style. Among them, the strokes of Yan and Liu are towering, with some characteristics of horizontal, thin and vertical. In the Ming Dynasty, between Qin Long and Wanli, it changed from Song style to Ming style, with fine strokes and square fonts. It turned out that at that time, a kind of Hongwu style was popular among the people, which was used in official posts, lanterns, notices, private stones, and the main cards of ancestral temples. Later, some book carvers created a non-face and non-European skin silhouette in the process of imitating Hongwu's style. Especially because the strokes of this font are horizontal and vertical, it is really easy to engrave. It is different from seal script, official script, original script and cursive script, unique, fresh and pleasing to the eye. Therefore, it has been widely used since16th century and has become a very popular main printing font. It's also called Song Style, and it's also called lead font.
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. Its evolution provides rich inspiration for China's font design. In character design, if we can give full play to the characteristics and elegant demeanor of various fonts of Chinese characters, we will certainly be able to design exquisite works with ingenious application and unique conception.
Since the unification of Qin Shihuang, China characters have gradually embarked on the road of development. China characters in different times have distinct and unique national and folk customs, and the history of China's characters is deeply engraved with the wisdom and hard work of China people. However, now some people know little about their own language, but their enthusiasm for other languages is still half-toned. Words are the soul of a country. In order to understand the changes, history and soul of the motherland, we chose this topic.
With the development of Chinese characters, after China was unified by Qin Dynasty, Chinese characters were constantly simplified and sorted out, which made them gradually standardized. The development of Chinese characters can be roughly divided into four stages: ancient prose, seal script, official script and regular script. Among them, seal script is divided into big seal script and small seal script; Lishu is different from Qin Lishu and Lishu. It can be seen that any new font in history has been gradually formed through long-term evolution. Generally speaking, after the formation of regular script, China characters have been basically finalized (table 1).
(Table 1: Evolution of Chinese Characters)
1 Oracle Bone Inscriptions
Before the Qin Dynasty unified Chinese characters, China's Chinese characters were still confused in font and application. In a broad sense, ancient Chinese includes the characters before Xiao Zhuan, and also includes Da Zhuan. In a narrow sense, it refers to the characters before Dazhuan in the history of China characters. Here, the narrow concept of ancient prose is adopted. Ancient prose includes Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions on bronze; Among them, the former is considered as the earliest stereotyped writing in China.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions: Most of the characters left on tortoise shells and animal bones by writing or carving in the late Shang Dynasty are "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" and a few are "notes". Most of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's characters conform to the principles of pictographic characters and knowing characters, with pictophonetic characters accounting for only 20%. Its characters are carved with a knife, some filled with cinnabar, and some written directly in ink. Because characters are mostly evolved from pictures and characters, they are pictographic, multi-character, and the strokes are uncertain. This shows that China's writing was not unified in the Yin and Shang Dynasties.
Image Inscription in the Yin Dynasty: In the pre-Qin period, copper was called gold, so the words cast on bronze ware were called inscriptions, also known as Zhong Dingwen and Qi Yi. Compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions are more pictographic, showing ancient characters. The bronze inscription has a solid brushwork and vivid and natural image.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a vulgar style in Shang Dynasty, and the bronze inscription is an orthodox style, which shows that the orthodox style is complex and the vulgar style is simplified (see Table 2).
(Table 2: Comparison Table of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen)
Oracle Bone Inscriptions's brushwork is very difficult, because most of them are carved on tortoise shells with knives. This knife method has also been applied to modern graphic design.
2 major seal scripts
In the history of China, Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties made the most important contribution to philology. Shicheng is a historian in Zhou Xuanwang, and should not innovate for simplicity. Biography is also called Wen Shu, Biography of Shu, Shushu and History Book. Because it was written by Ishikawa, it is called "Wen Chuan". Dazhuan can be found in Shuowen Jiezi and various Zhong Ding Yi wares collected by later generations. Among them, Shi Guwen in Zhou Xuanwang is the most famous.
3 biographies
Xiao Zhuan, also known as Qin Zhuan, is a standard font compiled by Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty. It was simplified by Da Zhuan. Also known as Yujin Seal, because it has the meaning of vigorous brushwork. Xiao Zhuan's body structure is harmonious, the strokes are even and neat, and the radicals have also been changed and merged. Compared with Dazhuan, it has no pictographs. The change of characters from Dazhuan to Xiaozhuan is of great significance in the history of China characters.
4 official script
The first step in the evolution from Xiao Zhuan to Li Shu, the most remarkable change is from graceful money bar to straight strokes, from angular to angular. Generally speaking, official script refers to a kind of official script with wavy tail like a meat cleaver, which is just one of them. There are mainly Qin Li and Han Li in official script, and Qin Li is the early form of official script. Han Li is a mature official script font. Official script usually refers to Han Li's "eight points" (Figure 6). "Eight points" was gradually formed after Qin tune. Official script has developed to eight points, which is very mature. The official script is thick and has a serious sense of wholeness (Figure 7). Although Figure 8 is an English letter, it has a diamond font, which smells like official script.
5 regular script
"Regular script" is also called original script, official script and regular script. Such as Ou Yangxun and Liu Gongquan. It includes the founder of ancient Li, the beauty of eight points and the simplicity. This font has been used to this day and is regarded as a standard font, which is deeply loved by the world. Regular script has a sense of stability and tranquility; Because of different personal writing styles and personalities, the same font also has different styles (Figure 9, 10). Figure 1 1, the thin gold body in Hui Zong, Song Like, uses thin lines to outline characters, but because of the smooth performance at the turning point, it presents a completely different visual sense from the thin gold body.
Six-line script
"Running script" is a calligraphy style between regular script and cursive script, and it is free to write. Running script is different from official script and official script, and its fluidity can be freely used by writers. Running script presents a romantic and aesthetic atmosphere.
7 cursive script
"Cursive script", also known as "broken grass" and "modern grass", is a variety of ancient characters such as seal script, eight points and Zhang Cao. The cursive script originated in Cao Zhang, and Cao Zhang has a strong taste of official script, so it is named because it is mostly used for memorials. Cao Zhang has further developed into a "modern grass", also known as a "book". Today's cursive script is mostly simpler than Cao Zhang's and running script. The cursive script gives the viewer a feeling of freedom and fluency (as shown in figures 13, 14, 15).
8 print font
After the invention of printing, in order to meet the needs of printing, especially the printing of books and periodicals, characters gradually developed in the direction suitable for printing, and a horizontal, vertical and square printing font-Song Style appeared. It originated in the Song Dynasty in the golden age of block printing and was shaped in the Ming Dynasty, so the Japanese called it "Ming style". Songti is the main font used in publishing and printing, because it is suitable for printing and engraving and people's visual requirements when reading.
9 computer fonts
With the development of culture and science and technology, under the influence of western writing style, many new fonts have appeared, such as bold and artistic fonts. , have appeared, such as poster (POP) style, comprehensive art style, pavilion style, girl font, etc. , and more genre variants, such as imitation song, Pingsong and so on. Moreover, all kinds of Chinese characters are computerized, and the scope of application is wider.
As shown in the following figure (from left to right: overlapping circle, comprehensive art, ancient seal, pavilion, poster).
The origin of Chinese characters is an unsolved mystery. Speaking of Chinese characters, I have to mention Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Archaeological evidence of Shang Dynasty Oracle Bone Inscriptions first appeared 3,300 years ago, nearly 2,000 years later than the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian scripts in the two river basins. Up to now, * * * has found more than 5,000 Oracle characters, of which about 1700 characters can be recognized. To some extent, China, as one of the four ancient civilizations, has no reason to lag behind others so much! At the same time, we found that the earliest Oracle Bone Inscriptions had a certain degree of understanding and pictophonetic elements. In these Oracle Bone Inscriptions, "literacy" accounts for less than 80%, and pictophonetic characters account for more than 20%. This is very different from other early hieroglyphics such as the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians.
Some people think that the level of science and technology in ancient China is far less than that in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. When the ancient Egyptians had built huge pyramids with huge stones, China had only rammed earth buildings. The ancient Egyptians had carved exquisite hieroglyphs on hard stones, while China could only carve rough scratches on animal bones or tortoise shells. But look at China's Oracle Bone Inscriptions's abstraction, but it is far higher than those of ancient Egypt. Chinese characters seem to have directly crossed the early stage of early hieroglyphics and entered a more abstract and advanced stage. There is almost no pictographic stage in the development of Chinese characters: pictophonetic characters, and the so-called pictographic characters have been highly abstracted in Oracle Bone Inscriptions stage. Later, with the evolution of Chinese characters, Chinese characters are no longer purely ideographic characters. When the Greeks built the exquisite sculpture of the Parthenon and the Romans built the huge dome of the Pantheon, there were only rammed Great Wall and pottery terracotta warriors and horses in China during the Qin and Han Dynasties, while the seal script of the Qin Dynasty was a unified national standard, and the official script of the Han Dynasty was very close to today's Chinese characters. It can be said that both the rapid development of writing culture and the huge and complicated language symbol system of Chinese characters in China are miracles.
In the early days of writing, hieroglyphics can work well. However, with the continuous enrichment of languages, some languages can no longer be expressed by images. The ancient Egyptians and Sumerians began to create symbols representing only pronunciation to record these languages. China people chose another solution:
Understand words, such as "day+month = bright, woman+son = good";
Phonetic words, such as "a", have no meaning and only one syllable;
Common words, such as "saying more"; Began to appear in Chinese characters.
When it comes to Chinese, people will inevitably think of English, which also accounts for a large part in cultural classes. At the same time, we also thought a lot. The highest state of learning a language is to think in this language, just like thinking in your mother tongue. However, it is the mother tongue that can give full play to personal creativity, not to mention that learning a "foreign language" requires great energy. The ancient Romans did not learn Greek because they envied Greek civilization-although the two languages were very close. Arabs should also translate Latin and Greek into Arabic instead of using Latin or Greek. Similarly, Renaissance Europeans did not switch to Arabic themselves, but translated Arabic into Latin. During the Enlightenment, Mandarin was further translated and popularized.
For an individual with a good foreign language, it is not difficult to read the original foreign language directly. But it is much less efficient to let him translate. But for the whole society, if everyone spends a lot of energy on learning foreign languages, the efficiency will be very low. The most extreme situation is that, like those peoples who have lost their own languages in history, they have completely disappeared. The best choice is to do a lot of translation work with a few people who are good at languages, such as Arabs or Europeans in the Renaissance, and then spread and popularize them in their own languages. Only in this way can more people in this nation think and innovate efficiently in their mother tongue.
The dilemma that Chinese now faces in front of English is that the civilization based on this language is at its peak-unlike the ancient Greek and Roman civilization faced by Arabs, it is in a lost static civilization; Unlike Europeans in the Renaissance, they faced the declining Islamic civilization. Nowadays, the English-speaking world is still producing a large number of new scientific and technological achievements, new knowledge and new ideas. As a de facto international social language in today's world, English has achieved unprecedented success. As far as the population who use it is concerned, the number of English speakers is the second in the world after Chinese, with about 400 million people. However, the number of people who use English as a second language or to a certain extent is far more than that, which can be said to be distributed in all corners of the world and all ethnic groups. Therefore, students nowadays should not learn English, not simply because learning English consumes a lot of time. Learning English well is not enough. Learning English for all does not mean that we can improve our quality, but we cannot go to the other extreme.
If Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi spread the Western Renaissance thought to China, it has been hundreds of years; More than 60 years have passed since the Opium War to Lin Zexu's translation of western books and newspapers. Even from the May 4th New Culture Movement, it's almost a hundred years now. Contemporary China should be at the turning point from Renaissance to Enlightenment. Now China should attach equal importance to English learning and translation. The most important thing is to start thinking and innovating in your mother tongue. Improving the English level of employees in scientific research, journalism and other industries pays equal attention to popularizing basic education and advanced scientific and cultural concepts. English should not become an "aristocratic language" like Latin in the Middle Ages or the European Renaissance in China.
Writing is the trace of a nation and a country's history. The evolution of China characters is leaping, gorgeous and intriguing, just like the history of China. The people of China created the script of China, and the script of China also guided the people of China.
The word "six books" comes from Zhou Li: "Bao Zhang remonstrates the evil of the king, while raising the son of the country with Tao is to teach six arts: one says five rites; Second, six music; Three shots and five shots; Four days and five days; Five words and six books; Six equals nine; " . However, Zhou Li only described the term "Six Books", but did not explain it.
Xu Shen, a scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty in China, wrote in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Li Zhou entered primary school at the age of eight, and there were only six books. One is the object: the object can be identified by vision and can be seen by observation. The same is true of' up' and' down'. Second, pictographic characters: pictographic characters, painted as objects, follow the body,' day' and' month' are also. Third, form and sound: form and sound, in the name of things, complement each other with examples,' Jiang' and' River' are also. Fourth, know each other: those who know each other are more friendly than others to see what they mean? " Wu "and" Xin "are both. Wuyue changed his mind: he changed his mind, composed music, and agreed to accept each other, as did Kao and Lao. 6. Borrowing: Borrowers have nothing to say, and they rely on their voices to excuse themselves. "Preface" and "Long" are the same. Xu Shen's explanation is the first time in history to formally record the definition of Six Books. Xu Yi is still the core of the interpretation of the Six Books in later generations.
Interpretation of six structural rules
hieroglyph
It belongs to the "single word-making method". Outline the shape characteristics of the object to be expressed with lines or strokes of words. For example, the word "moon" looks like the shape of a curved moon, the word "turtle" looks like the side shape of a turtle, the word "horse" is a horse with four legs, the word "fish" is a swimming fish with a head, a body and a tail, and the word "snake" (the original word of grass) is two sokcho and the word "door". The word "sun" is like a circle with a little bit in the middle, much like the shape we see when we look directly at the sun.
Self-evident character
It belongs to the "single word-making method". The main difference from hieroglyphics is that signifiers contain more abstract things in painting. For example, the word "blade" is marked by adding a point to the sharpness of "knife"; The word "fierce" is to add a cross symbol to the trap; "Up" and "Down" are symbols painted above or below the subject "I"; "Three" is indicated by three horizontal lines. The sketches of these characters all have more abstract parts.
Pictophonetic method of word formation
It belongs to the "combined word-making method". Pictophonetic characters are composed of pictophonetic characters (also called "semantic symbols") and notes (also called "notes"). The shape side indicates the meaning or category of words, and the sound side indicates that the pronunciation of words is the same or similar. For example, the word "Sakura" has a "wood" beside its shape, indicating that it is a kind of tree, and the word "baby" beside its sound indicates that its pronunciation is the same as that of the word "baby"; The word "bamboo" next to the "basket" means bamboo products, and the word "prison" next to the sound means that its pronunciation is similar to the word "prison"; Below the word "tooth" is the shape side, drawing the shape of the tooth, and the word "stop" above is the sound side, indicating that the pronunciation of the word is similar.
Associative compound
It belongs to the "combined word-making method". A cognitive word is composed of two or more independent words, which are combined to express the meaning of the word with form or meaning. For example, combine the word "wine" with liquid "water" to express meaning; The split of the word "solution" means to separate the "cow" from the "horn" with a knife. Song refers to the sound of birds, so it is composed of mouth and bird.
Characters that explain/are synonymous with each other
It belongs to "using Chinese characters". Different regions have different names for the same thing because of different pronunciations and geographical barriers. These two words are used to mean the same thing, and when they have the same meaning, they will have the same radicals or components. For example, the original meaning of the words "Kao" and "Lao" are elders; "Top" and "top" both mean the top of the head; The original meaning of "Qiao" and "Kong" is Kong. These words have the same radical (or component) and analysis, and also have phonetic relations in pronunciation.
Application of Six Books
In fact, there were no six books before the ancients made Chinese characters. Because Chinese characters had developed quite systematically in Shang Dynasty, there were no records about six books at that time. Liu Shu is a system for later generations to analyze and summarize Chinese characters. However, when the "Six Books" system came into being, people used this system as the basis when creating new words. It seems that "Yi" and "Yue" are pictophonetic words, "concave", "convex" and "Yue" are demonstrative words, and "Yi" and "Yue" are cognitive words.
In Oracle Bone Inscriptions and inscriptions on bronze, hieroglyphics are the majority. This is because drawing things is the most direct way to create words. However, with the development of characters, more and more things need to be carefully divided, such as "carp", "shad", "shad" and "loach", all of which are fish, and it is difficult to draw their characteristics and differences carefully by pictographic methods. Therefore, pictophonetic characters have become the most convenient method. As long as you use the word "fish" next to the shape, you can explain their genus, and then distinguish these words with similar pronunciation. In modern times, 80% of Chinese characters are pictophonetic characters.
Calligraphy is a unique traditional art in China. Chinese characters in China were created by working people and began to be recorded by pictures. After thousands of years of development, it has evolved into today's writing. Because our ancestors invented the brush, calligraphy came into being. Throughout the ages, Chinese characters were mainly written with a brush. As for other writing forms, such as hard pen and finger book, their writing rules are not completely different from those of brush, but they are basically the same. Based on tracing the source (after Oracle bone inscriptions), this paper focuses on the law of writing Chinese characters with a brush. As long as we have a "narrow" understanding of calligraphy, it will be of great benefit to understand "broad" calligraphy.
Calligraphy in a narrow sense refers to the methods and laws of writing Chinese characters with a brush. Including writing, calligraphy, stippling, structure, layout (distribution, lines, composition) and so on. For example, the pen refers to the palm and the five fingers are Qi Li; The pen carrying center is unfolded; Stippling is the same as a pen; The structure is shaped by words and echoes each other; The distribution is intricate, the density is appropriate, and the virtual and the real are born together, and the whole chapter is full of gas fields; Every word is ancient for literacy, and every word is big and small, and high is not as good as low.
Calligraphy in a broad sense refers to the writing rules of language symbols. In other words, calligraphy refers to writing with its brushwork, structure and composition according to the characteristics and significance of words, making it a beautiful work of art. With the development of cultural undertakings, calligraphy is not limited to using brush and writing Chinese characters, but its connotation has greatly increased. For example, in terms of using tools, there are many kinds of pens alone, such as writing brushes, hard pens, computer instruments, and spray gun branding tools. Pigment is not only black ink block, but also ink, adhesive, chemicals, paint glaze and so on. In the past, Four Treasures of the Study-pen, ink, paper, inkstone, its meaning has also been greatly expanded, and there are many varieties, too numerous to mention; From the way of writing, some people write with their hands, others with their feet, and many people write with other organs. Some people don't even use pens at all, such as "pointing at books" and "squeezing books". In terms of writing style, it is not a kind of Chinese characters, and some minority languages have also entered the calligraphy art world, and Mongolian is an example; From the point of view of style and composition, in addition to the authentic traditional calligraphy school, there is also an "Yi" school in China, which is called modern calligraphy. Innovating on the basis of traditional calligraphy, highlighting the word "change", integrating poetry, calligraphy and painting, striving for the unity of form and content, and making the work a masterpiece of "beauty in meaning, beauty in sound and beauty in form". In Japan, many calligraphers abandoned the language of writing and established the "image" of writing, and the school of "ink image" came into being to write various writing images with the weight of the pen, the opening and closing of Ji Xu and the nib, and the change of writing posture. Although this school of calligraphy emphasizes "image" and its writing is novel, not all Chinese characters are "image", so its development is limited. All these (of course, not only these) can be seen that calligraphy, like other things, is constantly developing and changing. This point must be highly valued by people in the calligraphy field.
The origin of calligraphy
Calligraphy is the art of writing Chinese characters. It is not only the cultural treasure of the Chinese nation, but also unique in the treasure house of world culture and art. In the long historical evolution and development, on the one hand, Chinese characters play an important social role in the exchange of ideas and cultural heritage, on the other hand, they also form a unique plastic arts. According to modern textual research, regarding the origin of China characters, it is generally believed that characters were created in the "Yangshao Culture Period" in the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China about five or six thousand years ago. Yangshao culture was named after it was first discovered in Yangshao Village, Shengshan, Henan Province in 192 1. In the past 40 years, there have been many discoveries.
There are three kinds of characters of all nationalities in the world, namely ideographic characters; Ideographic characters; Recording. Chinese characters are typical ideographs developed on the basis of ideographs. The method of pictographic writing is to draw the real thing. While painting tends to be more simplified and abstract, becoming a symbol that highlights the physical characteristics, representing a certain meaning and having a certain pronunciation ... Our Chinese characters have gradually taken shape, from pictures and symbols to creation and stereotypes, from ancient China seal script to small seal script, from seal script to official script, regular script and cursive script. In the process of writing and application of Chinese characters, the unique and independent calligraphy art of all nationalities in the world has gradually emerged.