Chapter 8 Section 4 Warring States Characters

The above-mentioned ancient Chinese characters casted and written on pottery, jade, bamboo slips, seals, and coins are relatively fragmented, and according to current archaeological findings, most of them belong to the Warring States Period; in terms of character structure and writing style , and are quite different from the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, it is advisable to give them a general name called "Warring States Characters".Of course, this also includes the inscriptions on the bronze wares of the Warring States Period (that is, the bronze inscriptions of the Warring States Period). Especially during this period of frequent wars, all countries attached great importance to the manufacture of weapons.Most of the weapons are also engraved with characters, such as the names and official positions of craftsmen and supervisors, and the names of competent authorities (Figure 20).These materials have also been unearthed in large quantities and have become a large part of the Warring States writings.

We also regard "Warring States Characters" as a relatively independent stage in the history of Chinese character development; although this name is different from Oracle and Bronze Inscriptions in terms of categories, it does not prevent us from making a general understanding of it. During this period, due to the fact that the vassal states were independent and did not belong to each other, the centralization of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was completely lost, and even the characters were written in their own way. Therefore, the characters of various countries have many differences in physical structure and writing style.Generally speaking, it can be divided into two major systems: the western "Qin characters" and the eastern "six kingdoms characters".The six countries refer to: Han, Zhao, Wei (which was separated from the Jin State in the Spring and Autumn Period, and are collectively called the "Three Jins"), Qi, Chu, and Yan. In addition, there are some small countries such as Yue and Zhongshan. Can be classified as "six languages".

Later, the Six Kingdoms characters were also called "Six Kingdoms Ancient Languages".Compared with the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period, the main difference is the random simplification. Simplification means greatly simplifying the strokes of Chinese characters.This is because during the Warring States Period, productivity was greatly developed, people’s pace of life accelerated, and culture was not monopolized by a few divination officials, historians, and nobles like in the Yin, Zhou, and Spring and Autumn Periods. The conditions for ordinary people to write characters were not so superior, and the time was not so abundant. , so it is unavoidable to write characters carelessly, quickly, and arbitrarily simplified, which causes strange changes in the shape of many Chinese characters: or the upper part of the character is reserved, and the lower part is only drawn with one or two horizontal strokes. Express, such as "horse" character by

However, in some areas and occasions, there are also forms that are complicated by adding some parts, such as "Zhongshan King" in Zhongshan Kingdom. [cuocuo] In Pot and Ding, it is common to add "mouth" or "say" to a certain part of a character, such as "nian" as "(upper and lower heart)", and "convergence (contraction)" as " "And so on. Some strokes are added in the shape of a bird's head or a long tail, and some are added in the shape of a worm to form a so-called "bird and insect book", such as the words on the "King of Chu Drinking Kenpan" written by the State of Chu. :

It has become a kind of artistic calligraphy. The situation of Qin characters is rather special, which will be introduced below. Due to the randomness of writing, the shape of Warring States characters often varies in different countries and regions, for example: Warring States characters can be said to be the most chaotic characters in the history of Chinese character development. Therefore, although many materials have been mastered and many scholars have conducted research, there are still many unrecognizable characters.At that time, this kind of text confusion greatly affected the implementation of political laws, economic development, and the dissemination of culture and education.Therefore, the first thing the talented Qin Shihuang did after destroying the six countries and unifying China was to unify the characters.