Chapter 3 Section 3 Unification of Calligraphy and Ancient Chinese Characters

The origin of Chinese characters is very early. If we count from the marking marks and pictographic symbols on the pottery in the Yangshao site and Dawenkou site in the late primitive society, it has a history of five or six thousand years.The oldest Chinese characters that can be seen now are oracle bone inscriptions, which have formed a relatively mature and complete writing system.More than 4,000 oracle bone inscriptions have been discovered so far.Over the past 3,000 years since oracle bone inscriptions were produced, some Chinese characters have gradually disappeared, and new Chinese characters have emerged in large numbers.The increase in the number of Chinese characters makes the later dictionaries always add a lot of new characters on the basis of the previous ones, and the later the dictionary is compiled, the more characters are included.Take Shuowen Jiezi, the first dictionary in ancient times, for example, it collects a total of 9353 Chinese characters in the classics.After "Shuowen", Lu Chen's "Zi Lin" in the Jin Dynasty included 12,824 Chinese characters, and it was written in "Yu Pian" in the ninth year of Datong (AD 543) of Emperor Wu of Liang in the Southern Dynasty, with 16,917 characters.The "Lei Pian" compiled in the Northern Song Dynasty contained 31,319 characters, and the "Zi Hui" compiled in the 43rd year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1615) contained 33,179 characters.By the time the "Kangxi Dictionary" came out in the Qing Dynasty, the total number of Chinese characters recorded and explained in it had reached 47,035.

At the same time, the scope of collection of ancient calligraphy books has also been continuously expanded. Some calligraphy books have preserved many ancient and rare characters, while some calligraphy books have concentrated traditional characters, variant characters, and popular characters from different periods. It compiles various words and special names, and some word books specialize in interpreting words in foreign documents. Chinese characters are a kind of ideographic text, mainly expressing meaning through fonts.The same Chinese character may have different pronunciations in various dialects, both ancient and modern, but the meaning is the same.Written language recorded in Chinese characters can break through the limitations of time, space and region, and "passed on in different places and stayed in different times" (Volume 11 of "Dongshu Reading Secretary" by Chen Li) originated in different historical periods and within different scopes. to the communicative effect.People who speak various dialects can use Chinese characters to exchange ideas and achieve mutual understanding.Therefore, ancient philologists paid special attention to the research and interpretation of the shape, sound and meaning of Chinese characters.They often adopt the form of dictionaries to devote themselves to establishing the norms of font shape, pronunciation, and meaning of characters.The rulers in history, out of the need for political unification, often used administrative means to promote the unification of writing.

Among the form, sound, and meaning of characters, compared with language, "shape" refers to the shape of characters, which is unique to characters as a recording and communication tool.The fonts of Chinese characters mainly include oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, seal script, official script, and regular script. Oracle bone inscriptions are Chinese characters carved on tortoise shells and animal bones during the Yin and Shang Dynasties (1300-1028 BC).Its shape is uneven, the font is small, the strokes are thin and thin, there are many straight strokes, the writing method is not fixed, and there are many variants.

Bronze inscriptions refer to the characters (inscriptions) cast (or engraved) on bronze wares from Shang to Han (mainly Western Zhou).Bronze inscriptions have a squarer outline than oracle bone inscriptions, with fatter strokes, and some characters have solid strokes (that is, the strokes enrich the entire outline). tends to be linear. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the State of Qin used a line font with rounded strokes - seal script. In order to distinguish it from the seal script after Qin unified China, it was called Dazhuan, and it was named after it was collected in "Shi Zhen Pian".籀文.On the basis of inheriting the writing method of the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty, some provincial changes have been made to the shape of the seal characters.

During the Warring States Period, except for Qin, the other six countries each had their own scripts, called the Warring States (or Six Kingdoms) scripts.It is not as dignified and thick as bronze inscriptions, but tends to be beautiful and smooth. The biggest feature is that the fonts are simplified and have many irregular shapes. Qin Shihuang unified China and promulgated the standard font of characters - Xiaozhuan, which was sorted and simplified on the basis of Dazhuan. The strokes are simpler than Dazhuan, and the shape is more flat and well-proportioned. In the Qin Dynasty, for the convenience and speed of writing, a simpler font was popular: Lishu, also known as Qinli.The circular and arc-shaped lines of Xiaozhuan are changed into square, folded and straight strokes, but the whole glyph structure retains more traces of seal script, so it is also called Gu Li to distinguish it from Han Li, which has few traces of seal script.

The Han Li changed Qin Li's flat, straight, square folded strokes into strokes of left, right, and long horizontal strokes (slightly undulating, and thickened at the end of the stroke, and slightly upward at the end of the stroke). It is flat and square, with strokes of different thickness. Regular script (also known as real script, regular script, and regular script), which arose at the end of the Han Dynasty and prevailed in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, evolved from the official script, changing the wave strokes of the Han official script into dots, horizontals, verticals, and left strokes.The font is square, the font is regular, neat, simple and easy to write, and it is still in use today.The regular script used for block printing in the Song Dynasty was called Song Ti, but now it is called Fang Song Ti, which is used in general newspapers and periodicals. The strokes are well-proportioned and slightly thinner than Song Ti.

Generally speaking, from oracle bone inscriptions to regular script, the trend of the evolution of Chinese characters is simplification, that is, from pictographic characters to pure writing symbols, from uneven fonts to square and well-proportioned, and strokes from curved and complex to straight and simple. , from polymorphic to merging or simplifying radicals to make legible writing.This tendency towards constant simplification is also reflected in variations of the same typeface. The development of Chinese characters is also very complicated. A large number of variant characters and other characters are produced, traditional and simplified characters are shared, and ancient and modern characters coexist. The complex and abnormal phenomena formed directly affect the mutual distinction of Chinese characters and the actual use effect.As early as in ancient times, our ancestors realized the importance of character standardization.Before the Yellow Emperor, the characters were not finalized, which hindered their understanding and use. After the Yellow Emperor unified China, the historian Cangjie "began to be uniform, and his writing could not be added or damaged. From the symbol of the shape of the chopsticks, it began to be a contract of the convention" (Zhang Taiyan, "Xian Lun · Theory of the Origin of Chinese Characters").

"Shi Zhou Pian" is a product of the texts compiled during the reign of King Xuan of Zhou. "Hanshu Yiwenzhi" said: "The author of "Shizhen" is also a children's book taught by historians in the Zhou Dynasty." "Shizhen Pian" written in big seal script has become a standardized textbook for the official historians of the Zhou Dynasty to teach the literacy of aristocratic children, which can be seen Zhou rulers attached great importance to the unification of characters. Another large-scale writing collation in Chinese history was in the era of Qin Shihuang.During the Warring States period, the seven countries acted independently and did not seek mutual conspiracies, and "characters were shaped differently".Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, and immediately began to "write the same script" ("Historical Records·The Chronicle of Qin Shihuang"), stipulating that "Xiaozhuan shall be used as the standard font, and Li Si's Cangjie Pian" will become the propaganda Xiaozhuan, and the "model" of the unified font will be passed on to later generations .

Although Qin Shihuang's "books with characters" had a very important impact on the development of Chinese characters in later generations, it was limited to official documents at that time, and the actual effect of the unification of characters was very poor after the death of Qin II.At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the official script became a common script. Not only the Warring States script was unknown to most people, but even Qin Xiaozhuan was not recognized by many people.The rulers of the Han Dynasty noticed the confusion of characters and did some work that was conducive to the standardization of characters.For example, during the Yuanshi period of the Western Han Dynasty (1-5 A.D.), Emperor Ping held a text discussion meeting in the imperial court with the participation of more than a hundred people including Yuan [yuan Yuan] Li.

The most comprehensive and systematic arrangement of characters belongs to "Shuowen Jiezi" written by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty.In Xu Shen's era, official script was prevalent, and "Cang Jie Pian", which is a model of Xiaozhuan script, also switched to official script.The great changes in the shape of the characters make some characters unable to see the original shape, so the original meaning of the characters cannot be seen."Shuowen Jiezi·Xu" compiled by Xu Shen organizes the small seal script for the purpose of "reasoning the group, solving errors, understanding scholars, and reaching the gods [Zhi Zhi]" (Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi · Syllabus"), so that it normalized.The book mainly focuses on Xiaozhuan, and collects a lot of ancient Chinese characters, Chinese characters, strange characters, Qin carved stones, Han Dynasty folk styles, and variant fonts. It comprehensively analyzes the shape and structure of characters, and explains the original shape, original sound, and original meaning of each Chinese character. After "Shuowen Jiezi" was handed down, the confusion of characters from the Warring States period to the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the phenomenon of random turning around were gradually overcome.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the practical value of seal script and official script decreased, and regular script replaced it as the main calligraphy became more and more popular. In the Southern Dynasties, "Jade Pian", which was fully collected in regular script by King Gu Ye, came into being.Since then, all ancient calligraphy has been compiled in regular script, with few seal script appendices. In the Tang Dynasty, the seal script was no longer current, and the work of sorting out variants, distinguishing vulgarities, and correcting classic characters began, resulting in a series of "zizi" books.For example, Yan Shigu edited "Zi Zi", Du Yanye edited "Qunshu Xinding Zi Zi", Yan Yuansun edited "Qianlu Zishu", Ouyang Rong edited "Classic Fenhao Zhengzi", Tang Xuanzong had "Kaiyuan Characters Sound and Meaning", Zhang Shen The compilation of "Five Classics" and Tang Xuandu's compilation of "Newly Added Nine Classics" played a positive role in determining the standard regular script. Since the popularization of regular script, there has been a big difference in the shape of ancient and modern characters. After the Song Dynasty, a number of different types of calligraphy books were compiled, or they focused on distinguishing the orthodoxy and errors of fonts, or mainly researched the similarities and differences between ancient and modern characters, or recommended seal script. changes, or focus on the research on the phonetic corruption of characters and the suspicion of character strokes.The most influential ones include Guo Zhongshu's "Pei Xi [xi Xi]", Zhang You's "Guo Bian", Li Congzhou's "Zi Tong", Liao Dynasty's "Long Ni Shou Jian" by Xing Jun, and Yuan Dynasty's "Long Ni Shou Jian". Li Wenzhong's "Zi Jian" and so on. In the Qing Dynasty, the "Kangxi Dictionary" used the word "dian" to refer to a calligraphy book for the first time, which means that this book should be regarded as the "canon" and "model" of standard characters. As a tool of social communication, language and writing cannot be without certain models, and without certain norms, it is bound to cause confusion.Since the Tang Dynasty established regular script as the authentic form of Chinese characters, and after the publication of the Stone Classics, the standardized regular script font has been fixed, and it is still in use today.