Chinese Characters-Cultural China Series

Author: Han Jiantang
Language: English
ISBN/ISSN: 9787508513409
Published on: 2008-01
Paperback

When the characters were first created，the ancient Chinese had quite deliberately decided to select the square form，and numerous primitive rock paintings,symbols carved on pottery ware，and early characteFS are almost all square．The earliestcharacter,the symbol of“旦”in the Dawenkou Culture,was obviouslva rectangle；the earfiest mature characters,i．e．the Jiaguwen and Jinwen,nearly all had rectangular forms；Xiaozhuan characters,standardizedby Emperor Qinshihuang of the Qin Dynasty（221—206 BC）wererectangular,with a symmetry between up and down and 1eft and right；after the change of Lishu，Han characters gradually became fixed onthe square forrnI and the Kaishu characters we use today have a veryregular squareform．Sowe candefinitely saythatthe squareformiSthefundamental forlTlal feature of Han characters,and the evolution of Hancharacters was from an irregular to aregular square form．The square form ofHan characters was a result of a sort ofnatural selection based on visual appeal．

The Emergence of Written Language 1
Graphic Characters of the River Civilization 2
Origin of Han Characters 9
Legends in Ancient Time10
Han Characters Originated from Drawings15
Evolvement of Forms of Han Characters 22
Ancient Drawing-like Characters23
Modern Characters Dissimilar to Drawings39
Mainstream in the Development of Han Characters48
Formation of Han Characters 53
Ancient Formation of "Six Categories"54
Formation Methods for Han Characters58
Form and Structure of Modern Han Characters77
The Profound Mysteryof Han Characters 83
Causes of the Square Form of Han Characters84
Perspective on Han Characters88
Chinese History Narrated in Han Characters 100
Social Life in Ancient Time101
Show of Ancient Civilization Sights115
TheArt of Han Characters 146
Calligraphic Art of Han Characters147
Commercial-art Han Characters151
Seal Art of Han Characters158