The creation and evolution of Chinese charactersare closely interwoven with the development of Chinese culture. Chinese characters are the basic carriers of traditional Chinese culture, and, as an important tool for extending, spreading and exchanging ideas have played a critical role in the long history of the Chinese nation. One may well argue that without Chinese characters Chinese culture would not have achieved the splendors it did.

It is difficult to determine the specific time when Chinese characters emerged. The oldest characters we see today are the scripts on the tortoise shells and animal bones in the Shang Dynasty(17th - 11th century BC) and scripts carved on bronze wares. Characters of the Shang Dynasty have been much developed, so Chinese characters might have emerged long before the dynasty, perhaps as early as in the New Stone Age about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.

   Jiaguwen and Jinwen

The earliest Chinese written language appeared in the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BC). At that time, people believed in ghosts and practiced divination on important occasions. They inscribed the divination words on tortoise shells or animal bones, and painted them red to symbolize good luck or black to symbolize potential disaster. The words were inscribed with knives. Some of them are big, some are small, some are complicated, some are simple, but they are all well defined.

Examples of shell and bone writing were not found until Emperor Guangxu's reign during the Qing Dynasty(1644 -1911), thousands of years after they were made. .The discovery occurred in Anyang,Henan Province, which was the capital city of the Shang Dynasty. In 1899, the banks of the Huanshui River in Henan Province collapsed, and many tortoise shells with carved patterns on them were revealed. At first, people regarded the shells as dragon bones and used them as medicine.

The following year, a merchant named Wang Yirong developed an interest in the shells, and went to Henan to collect more of them. Later, a scholar, Liu Er, continued the collection. They collected more than 5,000 pieces, which were given the name of Jiaguwen(scripts on tortoise shells and animal bones).

Jinwen

Philologists, who subsequently carried out research on more than 100000 shell and bone pieces, found out the structure of Jiaguwen had changed into legible characters complete with recognized signs. The shell and bone writing had developed a certain degree of maturity. Of the more than 4,600 distinct characters in these pieces, some 1,700 were later identified.

Developing a little later than Jiaguwen were the Jinwen(script on metal). These were characters inscribed on bronze wareduring the late Shang and early Zhou (1100-770BC) dynasties, which are known as the Bronze Age.Jinwen is also known as Zhongdingwen, a name deriving from the ding (tripod), a typical ceremonial instrument, and the Zhong (bell), which symbolizes musical instruments. The name Zhongdingwen is synonymous with bronze ware.

The Jinwen on bronze recorded important events and activities and reflected the social life of the time. The calligraphic style of Jinwen is delicate, simple and dignified. Compared with Jiaguwen, it has richer variations and content.Jinwen characters were first discovered in the Han Dynasty when a ding was discovered in Fenyang,Shanxi Province, and sent to the imperial palace. Other bronze objects inscribed withJinwenwere unearthed later. Song Dynasty (960-1279) intellectuals Ouyang Xiu and Zhao Mingcheng were good at writing and researching Jinwen.

The Jinwen on the Duke Mao Ding made during the Zhou Dynastyis the most representative of the calligraphy of the period. The inscription of some 497 characters in 32 lines recorded the political situation of that time, and how Duke Mao had offered his loyal services to the Emperor and helped him overcome difficulties. It has the longest inscriptions among the bronzeware attributed to that era; the structure of the characters is neat and the strokes thin and long. The inscriptions on the Dayu Ding and Sanpan Ding are also good examples of Jinwen.

 Characters of the Warring States Period

Zhanguo Wenzi(characters of the Warring States Period) is a collective name of Chinese characters used in different states during the Warring States Period.

From Jiaguwenin the Shang Dynasty (17th -11th century BC) and Jinwen(inscriptions on bronze) in the Western Zhou Dynasty(11th century-771BC) and the Spring and Autumn Period(770-476BC) to Zhanguo Wenzi, Chinese characters witnessed big changes. In the Warring States Period (476-221BC), different states had different written languages and these languages had many differences in structure and writing styles of characters. With economic and cultural development, use of characters was prevalent and writing materials extended to porcelain, bamboo, silk, currency andsealbesides bronzeware. As a result, Chinese characters in different areas featured differently.

From a broader sense,Zhanguo Wenzi fell into two systems -- characters of the six states and characters of Qin state. Characters of the six states refer to those characters used in the six states of Han, Zhao, Wei, Qi, Zhu and Yan and some other small kingdoms such as Zhongshan, Yue and Teng. Compared with Jinwen, characters of the six states featured simplified and unbending strokes and rough-and-tumble structures. Characters of Qin state were similar to Jinwen of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period and they featured relatively uniform structures. Characters of Qin state were called Zhouwen or Dazhuan(greater seal script) by later generations.

Due to different practices in writing languages in different states and different areas, graphemes of Zhanguo Wenzi were in a mess and the same characters sometimes could be written in quite different ways.

 Emperor Qinshihuang Unified Chinese Characters

Qin Emperor Shihuang (259-210BC) was the state-founding emperor of the Qin Dynasty(221-206BC). He was enthroned at the age of 13 and became an emperor at 39. From 230 to 221BC, he destroyed six states -- Han, Wei, Chu, Yan, Zhao and Qi -- in succession, unified China and established the feudal centralized system.

In order to consolidate his position, Qin Emperor Shihuang launched a series of reforms on politics, the economy, culture and ideology. He asked his Prime Minister, Li Si, to unify the eight calligraphic styles that were thriving in other states and absorb some simplified characters and vulgar style scripts to create the standardized Qinzhuan (Qin-Dynasty seal) script.

This was China's first thorough character standardization movement led by the central government, and the uniform calligraphic style has great significance in pushing forward the development of Chinese characters.

 Lishu

Soon after the Xiaozhuan became the official standard script, there arose one style called Sutizi (vulgar style), which was simplified from the scripts of the Qin State and used among the common people. Though Xiaozhuan was neater than the earlier scripts, it was still troublesome to common people. Even though it was not the standard, many people preferred using the Sutizi because it was faster and more convenient. Eventually some official documents came to be written with Sutizi. This script came to be called Lishu(clerical scripts). Legend has it that Lishu was created by a man called Cheng Miao, but it is probable that Cheng simply worked to organize the Sutizi. The Lishu of the Qin Dynasty is called Qinli (Qin clerical scripts) or Guli (Archaic clerical scripts), while that of the Han Dynasty is called Hanli (Han clerical scripts) or Jinli (Modern clerical scripts).

The scripts of Lishu revised and modified the former fat and curved strokes to be flat, upright and horizontal. It completely changed the numerous original pictographic features and made the Chinese script more symbolic. The period of the change from Xiaozhuan to Lishu represents a huge revolution in the history of the development of the Chinese script. This great change is known as the Libian (Clerical revolution) .Lishu became a main style during the Han Dynasty.

 Caoshu

When Lishu became the commonly- used style in the Han dynasty, there also existed another style known as Caoshu(Cursive script).Caoshu is the result of writing Lishu faster, more carelessly and conveniently. The main function of Caoshu was for writing manuscripts and letters. Due to the speed with which it is written, some writing procedures are omitted and some strokes are combined together.Caoshu from the Han Dynasty is called Zhang Cao (Zhang cursive scripts) because when compared to the Jinchao (Modern cursive script) of the Weijin period, it is still neater, more rule-bound, and easier to read.

 Kaishu & Xingshu

In the declining years of the Han Dynasty, the script again developed from the Lishu to the Kaishu(Standard Script), which is the script in use today. The change from Lishu to Kaishu involved a move toward more upright, angular characters.Kaishu is also called Zhenshu (Standard scripts). When writing Kaishu style, we need to write the strokes neatly, one by one. The Kaishu script began during the declining years of the Han Dynasty, became mature during the Weijin Period, became commonly used during the Nan Bei Chao Period, and is still in use today.

As Caoshu developed from the Zhangcao style down to the Jincao style, it became more messy and careless. It developed even further in the post Tang period and became called Kuangcao (Crazy cursive script), which was hardly even recognizable. Kuangcao, in fact, is not used for practical writing, but became a style used for artistic expression.

In between the Kaishu and Caoshu, there is another style called Xingshu(Running script). Xingshu is not as messy as Caoshu, nor as neat as Kaishu. In general, it is convenient and highly practical for writing.