2.1 Development of Chinese writing: from oracle bones to characters

Chinese writing evolved from oracle bones to modern characters over thousands of years. Early forms like oracle bone and bronze scripts were used for divination and rituals, providing insights into ancient Chinese society and beliefs.

Later developments like seal and clerical scripts improved efficiency and standardization. The evolution of character types, from pictographs to phono-semantic compounds, allowed Chinese writing to express a wide range of concepts and sounds.

Oracle Bone and Bronze Scripts

Early Writing on Oracle Bones

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• Oracle bone script (jiaguwen) earliest known form of Chinese writing dating back to the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE)
• Inscriptions carved on animal bones or turtle shells used for divination purposes in royal court ceremonies
• Oracle bones heated until cracks formed interpreted as messages from ancestors or gods about future events, weather, harvests, military campaigns
• Over 150,000 oracle bone fragments discovered providing valuable insights into Shang society, politics, religion, agriculture (millet, rice)

Evolution to Bronze Script

• Bronze script (jinwen) emerged during late Shang Dynasty as writing began appearing on ritual bronze vessels, weapons, seals
• Characters generally more rounded, symmetrical, and stylized compared to the more angular oracle bone script
• Bronzes often commemorated important events, recorded clan histories, or honored ancestors showcasing advancements in metallurgy and casting techniques
• Bronze script continued to evolve throughout the Western Zhou period (c. 1046-771 BCE) becoming more standardized and simplified

Seal and Clerical Scripts

Development of Seal Script

• Seal script (zhuanshu) developed during the late Western Zhou period and reached maturity in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE)
• Used for official seals, carved into jade, or cast into bronzes signifying power and authority
• Characters more stylized with rounded strokes and decorative flourishes compared to bronze script
• Small seal script (xiaozhuan) standardized under Qin Shi Huang credited with unifying the Chinese writing system

Transition to Clerical Script

• Clerical script (lishu) emerged during the Qin Dynasty and became widely used in the Han period (206 BCE-220 CE)
• Simplified and more efficient to write than the ornate seal script better suited for record-keeping, correspondence, and everyday use
• Characters more rectilinear and angular with fewer strokes making them faster to write with a brush on bamboo or wooden slips
• Innovations like combining semantic and phonetic components within a single character expanded the writing system's expressive capabilities

Standardization of Chinese Characters

• First Emperor of Qin standardized Chinese script as part of sweeping reforms to unify the empire under a common writing system
• Prime Minister Li Si tasked with creating a standardized list of characters and their forms to be used throughout the empire
• Variant forms eliminated and characters systematized based on the Qin regional script laying the foundation for modern Chinese writing
• Standardization facilitated communication, record-keeping, and cultural unity across the vast empire despite regional differences in spoken dialects

Character Types and Structure

Pictographs and Ideographs

• Pictographs (xiangxingzi) are characters that visually resemble the objects they represent through simplified drawings (mountain 山, river 川, sun 日)
• Ideographs (zhishizi) express more abstract concepts through symbolic representation (up 上, down 下, middle 中)
• Both pictographs and ideographs among the earliest character types that formed the basis for more complex characters
• Many pictographs and ideographs have become highly stylized over time bearing less direct resemblance to their original referents

Logical Aggregates and Phonetic Loans

• Logical aggregates (huiyizi) are characters that combine two or more pictographic or ideographic elements to represent a new meaning (rest 休, bright 明)
• Phonetic loans (jiajiezi) are characters borrowed to represent words with similar pronunciations but different meanings (use of 莫 for "sunset" in oracle bone script)
• Logical aggregates and phonetic loans allowed the writing system to represent a wider range of concepts and words
• In some cases, the original pictographic origins of aggregate characters are still recognizable (forest 森 from three trees)

Phono-semantic Compounds

• Phono-semantic compounds (xingshengzi) make up the vast majority of Chinese characters combining a semantic component (radical) with a phonetic component
• Semantic component (bushou) suggests the general meaning while the phonetic component (shengpang) hints at the pronunciation
• For example, in the character 清 (clear), the left component 氵means "water" while the right component 青 is phonetic
• Phono-semantic compounds allowed the writing system to represent the large number of homophones in Chinese by disambiguating words with similar sounds
• Understanding the semantic and phonetic components of characters is essential for learning and remembering them efficiently

Modern Script Forms

• Regular script (kaishu) is the standard printed form of Chinese characters used today that emerged during the Cao Wei period (220–266 CE)
• Cursive script (caoshu) is a highly simplified and fluid form of writing Chinese characters used for calligraphy and quick notation
• Semi-cursive script (xingshu) falls between regular and cursive styles retaining more of the regular script structure while allowing for faster writing
• All modern script styles are descendants of the clerical script with varying degrees of simplification, abstraction, and artistic expression
• Simplified Chinese characters introduced in the 20th century to increase literacy rates by reducing the number of strokes in complex characters (horse 马 vs. 馬)