{"id":22,"date":"2022-07-20T11:24:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T15:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/platform-for-chinese\/?page_id=22"},"modified":"2022-10-07T01:47:04","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T05:47:04","slug":"evolution-of-characters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/evolution-of-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution of Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese characters have evolved over several thousands of years to include many different styles, or scripts. The main forms are:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-139 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/platform-for-chinese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/326\/2022\/10\/\u516d\u4e66-700x394.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/326\/2022\/10\/\u516d\u4e66-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/326\/2022\/10\/\u516d\u4e66-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/326\/2022\/10\/\u516d\u4e66.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Oracle Bone Inscriptions (<em>Jia Gu Wen<\/em>\u7532\u9aa8\u6587), late Shang dynasty (c. 1250\u20131050 BC).\uff09<\/li>\n<li>Bronze Inscriptions, (<em>Jin Wen<\/em>\u91d1\u6587), <em>Shang<\/em>\u00a0(1600 \u2013 1046 B.C.) and\u00a0<em>Zhou<\/em>\u00a0(1046 \u2013 256 B.C.) dynasties<\/li>\n<li>Small Seal Characters (<em>Xiao Zhuan<\/em>\u5c0f\u7bc6), <em>Qin<\/em>\u00a0Dynasty (221-207 B.C.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), different scripts were in use in different warring states. After the conquest and unification of the country, the first emperor of the\u00a0<em>Qin<\/em>\u00a0Dynasty simplified and unified the written language, and this unification of the written language significantly influenced the eventual standardization of the Chinese characters.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Official Script (<em>Li Shu<\/em>\u00a0\u96b8\u66f8), <em>Han<\/em>\u00a0Dynasty (206 B.C. \u2013 220 A.D.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Over time, curved and broken strokes gradually increased, becoming distinct characteristics of this style. Official Script symbolizes a turning point in the evolution history of Chinese characters, after which Chinese characters transitioned into a modern stage of development.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Regular Script (<em>Kai<\/em><em>Shu<\/em>\u00a0\u6977\u66f8), the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 A.D.) and the early\u00a0<em>Tang<\/em>\u00a0Dynasty (618-907 A.D.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Regular script reached full maturity in the early\u00a0<em>Tang<\/em>\u00a0Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), and since then there have been no more major stages of evolution for the mainstream script.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cursive Writing or Grass Stroke Characters (<em>Cao<\/em><em>Shu<\/em>\u00a0\u8349\u66f8),<\/li>\n<li>and Freehand Cursive (<em>XingShu<\/em>\u884c\u66f8).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nChinese characters have evolved over several thousands of years to include many&hellip;\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/evolution-of-characters\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Evolution of Characters&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4506,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/chinesecharacters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}