The evolution order of Chinese fonts is as follows: Oracle Bone Inscriptions (Shang) → Jinwen (Zhou) → Xiaozhuan (Qin) → Lishu (Han) → Regular script (Wei and Jin Dynasties) → Running script (Wei and Jin Dynasties) → Cursive script (Tang and Song Dynasties).

1. Oracle Bone Inscriptions

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest and relatively complete ancient script found in China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins, also known as "Yin Ruins Characters" and "Yin Qi", which were written on tortoise shell and beast bones in the Shang Dynasty.

2. inscriptions on bronze

inscriptions on bronze wares in the yin and Zhou dynasties are also called Zhong Dingwen. Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the era of bronzes, in which ding was the representative of the ritual vessels and bell was the representative of the musical instruments, and "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronzes.

3. Xiao Zhuan

Xiao Zhuan was a unified writing form of Chinese characters, which was created after Qin Shihuang unified China (221 years ago) and unified measurement's policy of "writing in the same language, cars on the same track". Li Si, the prime minister, was in charge of it, and simplified it on the basis of the original script of Da Zhuan in Qin State, canceling the variant characters of other six countries.

4. Official script

Official script, also known as han li, is a common solemn font in Chinese characters. Its writing effect is slightly wide and flat, with a long horizontal drawing and a short vertical drawing, showing a rectangular shape, and paying attention to "the head of a silkworm and the tail of a goose" and "twists and turns".

5. cursive script

A style of Chinese characters, characterized by simple structure and continuous strokes. Formed in the Han dynasty, it evolved on the basis of official script for the convenience of writing. There are zhangcao, jincao and kuangcao.

6. Regular script

Regular script, also known as regular script, regular script, regular script or real script, is a common font in Chinese calligraphy. Its glyph is square, unlike the flat shape written in official script. Regular script is still the reference standard of modern Chinese handwriting, and another kind of handwriting-pen character has been developed.

7. Running script

Running script is produced on the basis of regular script, which is a font between regular script and cursive script, in order to make up for the slow writing speed of regular script and the illegibility of cursive script.

characteristics of Chinese characters

1. Chinese characters have a long history and are profound. China is one of the oldest countries in the world, and our Chinese civilization has continued from birth to the present without interruption. As one of the basic carriers of culture, Chinese characters naturally have unique advantages. Chinese characters have a history of thousands of years since their origin, and they have profound connotations. Not only that, Chinese characters have a great influence on our neighboring countries. Even now, we can see the shadow of Chinese characters from the words of some neighboring countries.

2. Change from complex to simple. Chinese characters have crossed the vast river of time since their formation, and their appearance has also changed greatly. From the beginning, graphics gradually evolved into strokes, from complex strokes to concise and clear forms now.

3. There is a certain relationship between the form, pronunciation and meaning of Chinese characters. Chinese characters come from life and have a strong reference. Traditionally, we think that Chinese characters are ideograms, and we can guess its meaning from its shape. For example, the word next to the word "clothes", we will think whether this is related to clothing.

For example, people's first reaction is related to water. This is the relationship between form and meaning. There is also the relationship between pronunciation and meaning, such as "Didi, Didi, Ding Ding Dong Dong". As soon as we read it, we will know that it is a word related to sound, which is also a particularly magical place for our Chinese characters.

4. The number of Chinese characters is huge. The number of Chinese characters is huge. There are more than 9, Chinese characters, and there are more than 7, commonly used Chinese characters. The most commonly used 3, Chinese characters can basically cover all fields of Chinese characters that we need in our daily life. Therefore, it is necessary to master about 3,5 Chinese characters to cope with our daily study and work.