First, the origin of Chinese characters:

There have been many theories about the origin of Chinese characters since ancient times. There are mainly the following kinds.

One is to tie a rope. "Northern history? Wei Benji said that the ancestors of the Northern Wei Dynasty "hunted for a career, simplified for vulgarity, and simplified for change; Not for words, but for wood carving. "It records the tribes in primitive society or some ethnic minorities in China. Before the writing appeared, it recorded large and small events such as war, hunting, alliance, election, celebration, marriage, childbirth, disease and disaster by knotting notes. Zhouyili? There is a cloud under the copula: "The ancient people ruled by knots, and later generations were easy to use books, and hundreds of officials ruled them, and all the people observed them. "

The second is gossip: Kong Anguo's Preface to Shangshu (this is a fake, but it is a long time ago) said: "The ancients sacrificed the world with the king of the family, and began to draw gossip and make a book agreement instead of the politics of tying the rope, so literary books were born." Evie Fuck? Chisel degree "thinks: dry divination, Tian Zi ancient prose;" Kungua, ancient Chinese characters; Deviating from divination, the ancient Chinese character of fire in China; Kangua, an ancient water character in China; Sea melon, ancient prose with wind characters; China ancient divination and thunder writing; Gengua, ancient mountain words; Dugua, Zezi's ancient prose.

Third, Cang Xie's Word-making Theory: This theory was popular in the Warring States Period. "Lu Chunqiu?" JUNSHOU "has" Cang Xie as a book and Hou Ji as a crop. "Xunzi and everything is done is also recorded. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, this legend became more popular. Huainanzi? Cang Xie was born to see birds and understand books. Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi? The preface has "Cang Xie wrote the beginning of a book, and Gai Yi is like a hieroglyph".

Cang Xie is said to be a historian of the Yellow Emperor, who was the leader of the tribal alliance in ancient Central Plains. With the society entering the stage of large-scale tribal alliances, foreign affairs between alliances are becoming more and more frequent, and it is urgent to establish a set of communication symbols for the alliance to enjoy, so the work of collecting and sorting out * * * was handed over to historian Cang Xie. During the period of Chunhua in Song Dynasty, there was a famous calligraphy collection "Chunhua Pavilion Post", which contained five volumes of 28-word ancient seal script, and the legend was written by Cang Xie.

Fourth, the theory of pictures: Modern scholars believe that Chinese characters really originated from the original pictures. Some figures carved on unearthed cultural relics are probably related to words. There are four bird-shaped patterns on the painted pottery basin of Yangshao culture in Neolithic age unearthed from the site of Hu Quan Village in Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province, which are very similar to "bird" (upward) and "Wei" (downward) in ancient Chinese characters. Shuowen said that "Wei" is a general term for short-tailed birds. Painted pottery pots of Yangshao culture unearthed from Anbanpo site in Xi 'an and fish-shaped patterns on bronzes in the late Shang Dynasty are vivid. Comparing them with some "fish" in ancient Chinese characters, the similarity is enough to make people believe that Chinese characters evolved from the original picture.

Fifth, the book of hetuluo says

"Is it easy? Cohesion: "River drawing, Luo writing, sage writing. "River map? Jade Edition: "Cang Xie is the emperor, and he hunts in the south, making a mountain with a sunny spot, and writing a book near the Yuan Dynasty. Dan Jiaqing wrote it as a gift. "'Painting' and' Book' are from Heluo, how mysterious! Mysticism is the main feature of this theory. In vain, it can be understood as books, but in fact, it can be understood as the Book of Changes and history books. Under the article "Book of River Map" in Ci Hai, it is said that in Fu, Yi Long appeared from the Yellow River with a horse carrying "River Map"; A turtle appeared from Luoshui, carrying "Luoshu". Fuxi painted eight diagrams based on this "picture" and "book", which was the source of the later Zhouyi. When Yu was in charge of water control, God gave him nine domains of Hongfan (Shangshu? HongFan), Liu Xin thinks HongFan is Luo Shu.

Second, the evolution and development of Chinese characters.

1, Oracle Bone Inscriptions

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a font of ancient Chinese characters in China, especially the characters recorded by divination with tortoise shells and animal bones at the end of Shang Dynasty. Yin people used tortoise shells and animal bones to predict good or bad luck when they encountered big or small events, such as sacrifice, conquest, fishing and hunting, entry and exit, maturity, rain or shine, disease or fortune. The method of divination is to polish the tortoise shell (mainly tortoise shell version) or the bones of other animals (mainly the shoulder blades of cattle) smoothly, then drill holes in the back, and then bake them with fire to expose cracks in the front. They carved inscriptions on the side of divination, recorded the content of asking ghosts and gods, the revelation of ghosts and gods, and the results of later development, so we had the Oracle Bone Inscriptions Ci we saw today, or Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins. In fact, other special inscriptions are not used for divination, but are mainly used to register the source, quantity, renovation process and the names of relevant personnel, and the content is often very important.

Wang was the first person to recognize the characters of tortoise shells and animal bones in Shang Dynasty. 1899, Wang was killed when he went to Beijing in Eight-Nation Alliance. His collection of Oracle bones belongs to Liu E, a famous writer and historian. He compiled his collected Oracle bones into a book, called "Tieyun Hidden Turtle", which was the first book written by Oracle Bone Inscriptions.

There are about 4,000 words in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and about 1500 words have been recognized. Most of the unknown words are proper nouns and uncommon words. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is pictographic, but the "Six Books" are complete. There are obvious diachronic changes in the font in the early and late stages. Some words are written in a variety of ways between periods, lacking a unified and fixed style. Because it is carved with sharp tools, the strokes are mostly straight lines, which are quite uniform.

2. Jinwen

Bronze inscription is a font of ancient Chinese characters in China, also known as Jinji style, Zhong Ding style and Zhong Ding's one-piece calligraphy. , mainly refers to the inscriptions carved on bronzes in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. China entered the Bronze Age from the Xia Dynasty and reached its peak in the late Shang Dynasty. At that time, bronzes were often cast with the names of families, private people and ancestors to be sacrificed. The font is primitive, and the number of words is from less to more, which can clearly reflect the development and evolution of Chinese characters. At the end of Shang Dynasty and the beginning of Zhou Dynasty, great progress was made in bronze smelting and casting technology, and a large number of bronzes were given to nobles and ministers in Yin and Zhou Dynasties. When casting bronzes, these people often carve inscriptions, describe the gifts of the king, praise the achievements of their ancestors, and hope to leave them to future generations for a long time.

In the Outline of Philology, Mr. Qiu Xigui said: Bronzes engraved with surnames are often later than those in early Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and even on bronzes in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, such inscriptions can often be seen. But their hieroglyphics are more pictographic than those in early Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This phenomenon should be caused by the ancient people's conservative attitude towards national names.

1985, the fourth edition of Rong Geng's Jin Wen bian uses 3902 inscriptions, including 2420 words (literate) in the text and 3772 words (illiterate) in the appendix 1352. This is the total number of inscriptions that can be seen today. Although it may not be accurate, it is not far off. Similar to Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions are based on pictographs, with strong pictographs and complete six books. Most of the strokes are thick, but not as uniform as those in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. These are the striking features of inscriptions on bronze.

3. Warring States script

The Warring States script is in an important stage of transition from Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions in Shang and Zhou Dynasties to seal script and official script in Qin and Han Dynasties, with rich contents. According to the recorded materials, there are Shi Guwen, Meng Shu, bamboo and silk, seal script and currency characters, which are introduced one by one below.

Shi Guwen: Shi Guwen was discovered in Tianxing County (now Baoji City, Shaanxi Province) in the early Tang Dynasty. It has about 700 words and is carved on ten stones. The stone is more than three feet in diameter and looks like a big drum, so people call it a stone drum. The words on the stone drum are all four-character poems, one * * * ten, which mainly describe the grand occasion of Qin monarch's road construction, fishing and hunting; Because it tells a lot about hunting, it is also called "hunting" by later generations. "Knot" refers to the stone tablet of the dome. Now hidden in the Palace Museum in Beijing, most of the words on the drum have been erased, leaving only 272 words. It is the earliest existing long stone carving "Shi Guwen" in China, and it also occupies a high position in the history of China writing and calligraphy. As a A Qin book before Qin Shihuang's "Tong Shu", Shi Guwen is a typical representative of the calligraphy style of Dazhuan, and it can be called "the ancestor of seal script".

Mongolian characters: 1965 Mongolian characters unearthed from Jincheng site in Houma, Shanxi Province are typical of early Mongolian characters in China and early calligraphy in China. The book of alliance, also known as "carrying a book", is a special document that records vows and promises; Generally, there are many copies, one of which is kept in the government of the alliance, one of which is buried underground, and the others are kept by the allies. Most of Hou Ma's letters are written on a laurel-shaped jade card with a brush. Although the font is similar to the bronze inscriptions at that time, it is less carved and more natural.

Words on bamboo slips and silks: Jane refers to simple strategies, and silk refers to silk books, which are called materials. Unearthed cultural relics prove that from the Warring States to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people mainly wrote with long and narrow bamboo or wood chips. Bamboo chips are called bamboo slips, and wood chips are called bamboo slips or bamboo slips, which are collectively called bamboo slips. Several compendiums are called strategies (through "books") and even "simple strategies". At the end of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, King Lu * * * demolished Confucius' former residence in order to expand his palace, and found a large number of bamboo slips in the wall, which was the first batch of bamboo slips found in the history of China. During the period of Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty, Wei Xiangwang's tomb in the Warring States Period was robbed and dozens of bamboo slips with characters were unearthed from the tomb, which was another large-scale bamboo slip discovery in the history of China. Because the Warring States characters on bamboo slips are written in ancient Li, with sharp strokes and heavy final strokes, they look like tadpoles, so people call them "tadpole characters".

Seal script: According to the literature records and unearthed objects, seal script appeared in the mid-Spring and Autumn Period and was very popular during the Warring States Period, corresponding to frequent wars and developed trade at that time. Studying seal script is helpful to deeply discuss the characteristics and applications of Chinese characters. However, without special skills and profound aesthetic cultivation, it is obviously impossible to arrange multiple Chinese characters reasonably in a limited box.

Currency words: words used in commodity trading media, such as cloth coins, knife coins, money, etc.

4. seal script

Big seal and small seal are collectively called seal script, which was mainly popular before the Han Dynasty. Dazhuan is a relatively broad term, which generally refers to pre-Qin characters such as Shuowen and Shi Guwen. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he adopted the opinion of Prime Minister Lisi, actively pursued the policy of unifying the national characters, simplified and revised the official script form of Qin State, and formed a new official font called Xiao Zhuan. Li Si is the first master of seal script in history, and also the main planner and promoter of Qin's unified writing policy.

The characteristic of seal script is that the font structure is neat, no matter how many strokes are drawn, they are all one stroke, which requires the sparseness, density, length and short of strokes to be well coordinated. The development of Chinese characters into seal script, from strokes to structures, has played an unprecedented role in standardizing Chinese characters. However, seal script is rare in practical application. There are Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi and some stone carvings. The font of seal script is solemn and dignified, and it is still used as seal script font and plaque after regular script is universal.

There are mainly Yishan stone carving, Taishan stone carving, Langyatai stone carving, Zhifu stone carving, Jieshimen stone carving and Huiji stone carving in Qin Dynasty, all of which are based on the seal script of Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty.

5. Official script

Wei Heng of the Jin Dynasty said in "Four-style Calligraphy": "Since the Qin Dynasty used seal script, there have been many things to play, and seal script is difficult to reach, so that official script is called official script. The scribe is also the winner of the seal. " These means that compared with Xiao Zhuan, official script is a more convenient and easy to write. Because of the complexity of government affairs, a large number of official documents need to be written, so official documents are used, assisted by ordinary small officials.

The official script of Qin Dynasty is quite close to Xiao Zhuan, so it is called "Qin Li" because it is popular in Qin Dynasty. After evolution, Qin Li gradually got rid of the meaning of seal script, and lost the pictographic meaning of Chinese characters, thus forming his own unique style characteristics: flat font, mostly square corners in the structure of characters, and thick strokes, which formed the wave potential and picking method. The so-called "three twists and turns, a swallow-tailed silkworm head" has made a qualitative change in the shape of Chinese characters. Modern characters below Lishu weakened pictographic features and strengthened symbolic features, which became the watershed between ancient characters and modern characters. Generally speaking, the official script of "full of twists and turns, swallowtail silkworm head" mainly refers to "Han Li" which prevailed from the middle of the Western Han Dynasty to the early Jin Dynasty. Han Li is also called "Eight Points" because he pays attention to waves, especially the pen-skimming and pen-holding, which are separated from each other like the word "Eight".

According to the latest archaeological data, ancient plums existed before. Looking at the words and descriptions on bamboo slips unearthed from Qin tombs, we can see that the fonts are more official, wavy and selective, and the writing is much more hasty and faster than the later Biography. The reason why official script is simpler and easier to write than seal script lies in "official change". The so-called "official change" refers to the transformation of seal script into official script and the change of its shape.

6, cursive script

In a broad sense, cursive script is a scribbled font. There are ancient Chinese characters and modern Chinese characters. In a narrow sense, cursive script is a writing style, characterized by a combination of strokes and a simple structure.

According to Xiao Yan's "Liang Kaidi cursive script", the current cursive script came into being because: "The princes fought for a long time, the simplified script was passed down from generation to generation, and they looked forward to the post office. Because it was difficult to seal the official seal, they could not save speed, so they pretended to be in a hurry and built this cursive script." It shows that cursive script is produced for the convenience of writing. The name of cursive script was mentioned for the first time in history. Syria ",Syria clearly pointed out that" Han Xing has a cursive script ".

Font features: cursive script itself has a process of evolution of tuxedo. Generally speaking, from the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, there were mainly Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Crazy Grass. "Cao Zhang" has strict organizational rules, so people call it "Cao Zhang", and later regular script cursive script is called "modern grass". Cursive script usually refers to "present grass".

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the famous cursive writer Zhang Zhi appeared. He is known as "Cao Sheng" because of his exquisite handwriting. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Huaiguan listed Zhang Zhi's Cao Zhang and Jin Cao as masterpieces. Zhang Xu, a famous cursive master, appeared in the Tang Dynasty. His word "Gao Bo" pioneered "weeds" and was called "Cao Xian". Weeds are a further artistic expression of this kind of grass, which is often endless, unrestrained and beautiful in shape.

7. Regular script

Regular script can be used as a French model for learning Chinese characters, so it is called regular script. Regular script is a writing style based on Han Li, also known as "official script" and "real script". Regular script evolved from Han Li, so it is also called "regular script" in history. In the Three Kingdoms period, Zhong Wei had Wang Jinxi, and the font was further standardized, making regular script a completely independent font.

Compared with official script, regular script has straighter lines and stronger font stereotypes. Specifically, Han Li's strokes are mostly flat and spread outward, while regular script strokes are rectangular and concentrated inward. Han Li's pens are mostly wavy, and the thickness changes greatly, while regular script pens are stable or hard to fold, and the thickness changes relatively little. Regular script has strict rules and very standardized writing forms, such as paying attention to "eight laws of ancient characters"

In the history of regular script, there have been various styles of regular script, such as, European style, Chu style, Yan style, Liu Ti style, Shoujin style and Zhao Ti style. The so-called "Wei Ti" refers to the calligraphy style of stone carvings, cliffs and statues in the Northern Dynasties, Yuan and Wei Dynasties, also known as "North Monument Style" or "Wei Monument Style". Wei Ti's brushwork is changeable, mainly square and dignified, which is an important calligraphy style during Kai Lee's political reform. "European Style" is a regular script style created by Ou Yangxun in Tang Dynasty. "Chu Style" is a regular script style created by Chu Suiliang in Tang Dynasty. "Yan Style" is a regular script style created by Yan Zhenqing in Tang Dynasty. Liu Ti is a regular script created by Liu Gongquan in Tang Dynasty. "Shoujin Style" is a regular script style created by Song Huizong and Evonne on the basis of Xue Jikai's calligraphy style in Tang Dynasty. "Zhao Ti" is a regular script created by Zhao Mengfu in Yuan Dynasty. Among many regular script styles, "Yan style" is vigorous and solemn, and "thin gold style" is particularly worthy of attention.

8. Running script

Running script is a writing style between cursive and regular script, and it is also the most commonly used one in daily life, so it can be said to be cursive or cursive. Zhang Huaiguan of the Tang Dynasty said: "This is a kind of running script." . Running script is actually only to remedy the illegibility of cursive script and the slow writing of regular script. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, cursive script and regular script prevailed. On the one hand, running script accepted the influence of cursive script, but on the other hand, it corrected the irregularity of cursive script. On the one hand, it accepts the influence of regular script, and at the same time avoids the laborious writing of regular script. Running script is between cursive and regular script, which has two advantages.

Running script is a kind of writing between cursive script and regular script. If there are many cursive scripts, they can also be called "cursive scripts" or "cursive scripts". Regular script with many parts can also be called "running script" or "true line". Liu Xizai's Outline of Fine Arts in Qing Dynasty said: "Running script has a trip of true line and cursive script. Truth is close to truth and perpendicular to truth, and grass is close to grass and gathers in grass. "

There are many famous calligraphers in past dynasties, and Wang Xizhi in Jin Dynasty was the first one. Wang Xizhi doesn't talk much. They are also called Wang Youjun and Wang Huiji because they are generals of the right army who also study literature and history. When he was young, he seriously studied Mrs. Wei's calligraphy style, and later learned Zhang Zhi's cursive and regular script, learned from others' strengths and studied the style, changed the simple calligraphy style in the Han and Wei dynasties, and created a beautiful and smooth calligraphy style, which reached a magical realm, unparalleled in ancient and modern times. Wang Xizhi's calligraphy has been handed down from generation to generation, and the most famous is naturally the Preface to Lanting, which is listed as the best running script by calligraphers. Some great calligraphers in the Tang Dynasty not only wrote regular script well, but also enjoyed great fame in running script, such as Ou Yangxun, Yu Shinan, Yan Zhenqing, Chu Suiliang and Xue Qi. Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Mi Fei, Cai Xiang and many other famous artists appeared in the Song Dynasty.