中国文化3.Chinese Characters and Language

中国文化 chinese culture

Chinese Characters Origin of Chinese Characters The most sophisticated and earliest Chinese characters are the inscriptions on tortoise shells and animal bones called Oracle-bone Script (Jiaguwen) of the Shang Dynasty (17th-11th century BC) which were found at the site of the last Shang capital Yin near present-day Anyang, Henan province.

中国文化 chinese culture

The Finding of Oracle Bones The discovery of the oracle bones in China goes back to 1899, when a scholar Wang Yirong (王懿荣) from Beijing was prescribed a remedy containing "dragon bones" for his illness. ―Dragon bones‖ were widely used in Chinese medicine and usually refer to fossils of dead animals. Wang Yirong noticed some carvings that looked like some kind of writing. This lucky finding led to the discovery of Anyang, the last capital of Shang dynasty, as well as Oracle-bone Script .

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Chinese Characters Evolution of Chinese Characters The next stage in the history of Chinese writing is the bronze inscriptions (Jinwen), which also resembled drawings appearing the Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty.

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Five major scripts of Chinese calligraphyThe art of Chinese calligraphy is closely related to the evolution of Chinese characters and evolved into five major styles with different techniques: The Seal Script (Zhuanshu) The Clerical Script (Lishu) The Standard Script (Kaishu) The Cursive Script (Caoshu) The Running Script (Xingshu)

中国文化 chinese culture

The Seal Script (篆书) Soft lines of strokes and upright rectangular shape keep the seal form characters more close to pictography. Each of the characters has a balanced and symmetrical pattern.

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The Clerical Script (隶书) It was the turning point in the evolution of Chinese scripts and is the foundation of the later script forms. It turned the remaining curved and round strokes of the seal form into linear and flat square shapes.

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The Standard Script (楷书) It is most influential script and still today’s standard writing. It is straight in line, square in form, and non-cursive in strokes.

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The Cursive Script (草书) This style of calligraphy is smooth and lively with strokes flowing and characters linking together. The characters are often joined, with the last stroke of one merging into the initial stroke of the next. It is executed freely and rapidly so that parts of the characters appear exaggerated.

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The Running Script (行书) The Running Script is somewhere between the Standard and the Cursive scripts allowing simpler and faster writing. The running standard script 行楷 The running cursive script 行草

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Tools of Chinese Calligraphy

-- Four Treasures of the Study Brush Ink, ink stick Paper Ink stone The best of each of these items is represented by: Hu brush (湖笔), Hui ink stick (徽墨), Xuan paper (宣纸) , and Duan ink stone (端砚). In addition to these four tools, desk pads and paperweights are also used by calligrapher

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Chinese Calligraphy The art of Chinese calligraphy is widely practiced and revered in Chinese culture. In addition to being an art form in its own right, Chinese calligraphy has also influenced ink and wash painting, which is accomplished using similar tools and techniques. It has also led to the development of many other forms of art in China, including seal carving, ornate paperweights, and inkstones.

中国文化 chinese culture

Chinese Characters Formation of Chinese characters Xu Shen (许慎; 58 –147), the Chinese philologist in the Han Dynasty summarized ―Six Ways‖ in his Shuo Wen Jie Zi: Pictogram, Ideograph, Logical Aggregates, Pictophonetic Compounds, Transfer, Loan. Later scholars pointed out that only the first 4 are the principle of constructing Chinese characters, the rest two are ways of using them.

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Shuo Wen Jie Zi (说文解字) by Xu Shen The first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give the reasons behind them The first to use the principle of organization characters by shared components, called section headers/radicals (部首).

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Chinese Characters Formation of Chinese characters Pictograms (象形) represent real-life objects by drawings. Example: 日 月 云 雨

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Chinese Characters Formation of Chinese charactersIdeographs (指事) represent positional and numeral concepts by indication. Example:

一 二 三 上 下 本 末

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Chinese Characters Formation of Chinese charactersLogical Aggregates (会意) form a new meaning by combining the meanings of two or more characters. Example: Wood 木 Small Forest 林 Big Forest 森 手 + 分 + 手 = 掰 Hand + To separate + Hand = To separate sth with two hands

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Chinese CharactersFormation of Chinese characters Pictophonetic Compounds (形声) form a character by combining the meaning of one character and the pronunciation of another character.

Example: 妈 码 玛

骂

蚂

吗

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Strokes of Chinese Characters There are 8 basic categories:Heng—horizontal stroke Shu—vertical stroke Pie—left falling stroke Na—right falling stroke Dian—dot stroke Ti—upward stroke Zhe—horizontal stroke with a vertical turn Gou—vertical stroke with a hook

中国文化 chinese culture

Chinese Characters There are currently two systems of Chinese characters. The Simplified Chinese Character System 简体字 was d …… 此处隐藏：3658字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……