Chapter 18 Chapter 6 Orthodox and popular characters, ancient and modern characters, variant characters, traditional and simplified characters

In the long history of ancient Chinese society, writing was only used as a ruling tool of the ruling class by the national government, emperors and ministers. It was itself a symbol of power and was used on solemn and solemn occasions.The Chinese characters that appear and be used on such occasions must be formal and standardized in terms of physical structure and writing style, that is, officially recognized, so they can be regarded as authentic.The earliest Chinese characters of the crude tool system that we can see now should be regarded as inscriptions on bronze wares in the middle and late Shang Dynasty.Although these inscriptions are very short, some of them are only the clan name, that is, the clan emblem, which has a strong pictorial nature (introduced above), but they are all written (painted) neatly and meticulously, reflecting the uniqueness of the owner of the utensil. Dignity of the individual and the entire clan.In the early days of the oracle bone inscriptions in the Yin Ruins, that is, the era of King Wuding of the Shang Dynasty, the inscriptions were generally in the orthodox style of Chinese characters. Some scholars have used the four characters "zhuangweihongfang" to describe the overall style of the orthodox style.

This kind of orthodox style is relatively stable in the bronze inscriptions. This is because the sacrificial vessels are mostly used for sacrifices, and their uses are relatively solemn, and they must be "used by children and grandchildren forever".The oracle bone inscriptions are different. Although they were also used by the court and even the king of Shang himself, they were used for a short period of time, and new oracle bones were used for divination.Since most of them are "one-time use" and the number of divinations is frequent, the engravers can't help but pay attention to convenience. Within the scope that can be recognized by the official (Shang Wang), they can be faster, such as horses, cows, sheep and other animals. When using characters, as long as they retain their respective "distinguishing characteristics" and can be recognized, there is no need to describe and describe them delicately, so the word "horse" was changed from

This variant often appears under the hands of lower-level Chinese characters writers, such as general historians and divination personnel. Compared with the supreme rulers such as the Shang king, they are more popular, so they are called "vulgar".Therefore, the variants of the orthodox Chinese characters that come from them are also called vulgar styles. With the gradual decline of the Shang Dynasty, the tendency of oracle bone inscriptions in Yin Ruins became more and more obvious.Compared with the Yin Ruins where the central government of the Shang Dynasty was located, the Zhouyuan local government with a subordinate relationship, although it also used oracle bone inscriptions, it pursued the simplicity and speed of its inscription, and there were many changes in shape, and the vulgarization of Chinese characters was even more important. strengthening trend.

From the perspective of the history of Chinese characters, vulgar characters can often obtain the status of orthodox characters.This usually relies on the power of political indoctrination.For example, after the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang Dynasty and took over the central government, the inscriptions on the ritual vessels of the royal court appeared many shapes that were originally only seen in the oracle bone inscriptions of Zhouyuan.As mentioned earlier, Xiaozhuan, as the official official style of the Qin Dynasty, also absorbed folk customs such as the inscription "Shang Yang Fangsheng" during its formation process.

With the popularization and use of new regular characters, new vulgar characters continue to be produced.For example, compared with the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period, the characters of the Warring States Period have a large number of Chinese characters that can be regarded as popular styles at that time. Lishu, as the orthodox style of the Han Dynasty, evolved from the vulgar style Qinli of the Qin Dynasty.Regular script, as the orthodox style widely used in later generations until today, was finalized after the evolution of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties from the vulgar style of Han Li in the later period.Among the inscriptions of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there are also many folk characters, some of which are preserved in running script and cursive script.After the regular script matured and became the official style in the early Tang Dynasty, folk characters appeared immediately. For example, in the Tang Dynasty folk documents discovered in Dunhuang, Gansu Province at the end of the 19th century, many folk characters can be seen.

Therefore, the unity of opposites between orthodox and vulgar styles, and the growth and decline of each other, can be said to be a very important clue throughout the history of the development of Chinese characters.