Chinese Literature by EAS: Chinese Characters

Chinese Characters

Chinese characters, also known as Hanzi (漢字) are one of the earliest forms of written language in the world, dating back approximately five thousand years. Nearly one-fourth of the world’s population still use Chinese characters today. As an art form, Chinese calligraphy remains an integral aspect of Chinese culture.

Origin of Chinese Characters

As one kind of the most ancient characters, Chinese characters have played a significant role in the development of Chinese culture. Originally, ancient Sumerian and ancient Egyptian symbols existed, but only Chinese characters remain today.

Based on pictographs, Chinese characters combine shapes with sounds and connotations to form unique, block-shaped characters that carry meaning. Archaeological researchers discovered many such signs carved on earthenware excavated from Banpo Village in Xi'an City and Jiangzhai Village in Lintong. The etchings were carved during the Yangshao Culture Period some 6,000 years ago. More than 4,000 years ago, people living in Tai'an area of Shangdong Province also carved signs on earthenware. The character "旦"(dàn),meaning dawn, for instance; the sun (日) rises upwards, crossing the mountains and passing through cloud layers to tell people a new day has begun. It is safe to say that the earthenware signs are the first Chinese characters, which originated from drawings.

Evolution of Chinese Characters

Chinese charaters have evolved from Jiaguwen (甲骨文) (inscription on tortoise shells and animal bones) to today's characters over a long process. Jiaguwen of the Shang Dynasty (c. 1765-1112BC) is a group of Chinese characters that resemble drawings.

In the Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty (1121-771BC), there were also inscriptions on bronzeware called Zhongdingwen (钟鼎文)， which also resembled drawings. After the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty (221-207BC) unified China, he also unified Chinese characters and introduced Xiaozhuan (小篆) (lesser seal script) --- a very beautiful style of characters.

Since the Xiaozhuan script was very time-consuming, people of the Qin further simplified the characters and created a new style, Lishu (隶书) (offical script). In the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD8), Lishu -- including another type of calligraphy, Caoshu (草书) (grass script), followed by Xingshu (行书) (running script)-- became the main general typeface. The official script broke away from the pictographic element of ancient Chinese characters laying the foundations for Kaishu (楷书) (regular script).

Kaishu came into being in the late Han Dynasty and was based on Lishu. After Kaishu appered, the block-shaped Chinese characters were finalized Kaishu has been used ever since. Kaishu is standard calligraphy that has been used for the longest period of time, still today. For the students in Chinese schools, they are required to write the Chinese characters in Kaishu as the regular script.

The evolution of the Chinese character for dragon (long 龍) is illustrated below:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions refers to the writings inscribed on the carapaces of tortoises and mammals during theShang Dynasty (1600 – 1046 B.C.). This is the earliest form of Chinese characters. Because Oracle Bone inscriptions mainly recorded the art of divination, this script is also called bu ci (卜辭), divination writings. Over one thousand of the over four thousand characters inscribed on excavated oracle bones have been deciphered.
Bronze Inscriptions are the characters inscribed on bronze objects, such as ritual wine vessels, made during the Shang (1600 – 1046 B.C.) and Zhou (1046 – 256 B.C.) dynasties. Over two thousand of the nearly four thousand collected single characters from these bronze objects are now understood.
Small Seal Characters refer to the written language popular during theQin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.). In the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), different scripts were in use in different parts of the Chinese empire. Following the conquest and unification of the country, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty simplified and unified the written language. This unification of the written language during the Qin Dynasty significantly influenced the eventual standardization of the Chinese characters.
Official Script is the formal written language of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.). Over time, curved and broken strokes gradually increased, becoming distinct characteristics of this style. Official Script symbolizes a turning point in the evolution history of Chinese characters, after which Chinese characters transitioned into a modern stage of development.
Regular Script first appeared at the end of the Han Dynasty. But it was not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 A.D.) that Regular Script rose to dominant status. During that period, regular script continued evolving stylistically, reaching full maturity in the early Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). Since that time, although developments in the art of calligraphy and in character simplification still lay ahead, there have been no more major stages of evolution for the mainstream script.
Cursive Writing first appeared at the beginning of the Han Dynasty. The earliest cursive writings were variants of the rapid, freestyle form of Official Script. Cursive Writing is not in general use, being a purely artistic, calligraphic style. This form can be cursive to the point where individual strokes are no longer differentiable, and characters are illegible to the untrained eye. Cursive Writing remains highly revered for the beauty and freedom it embodies.
Freehand Cursive (or semi-cursive writing) appeared and became popular during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280 A.D.) and the Jin Dynasty (265-420 A.D.). Because this style is not as abbreviated as Cursive Writing, most people who can read Regular Script can read semi-cursive. Some of the best examples of semi-cursive are found in the work of Wang Xizhi (321-379 A.D.), the most famous calligrapher in Chinese history, from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (316-420 A.D.).
Simplified Chinese characters (Jianti Zi, 简体字) are standardized Chinese characters used in Mainland China. The government of the People’s Republic of China began promoting this form for printing use in the 1950s ’60s in an attempt to increase literacy. Simplified characters are the official form of the People’s Republic of China and in Singapore; traditional Chinese characters are still used in Hong Kong, Macau and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Since 1954, over 2,200 Chinese characters have been simplified.