豕 shĭ 'swine'
犬 quǎn 'dog'
Oracle script for Spring
Oracle script inquiry about rain: "Today, will it rain?"
An oracle bone (which is incomplete) with a diviner asking the Shang king if there would be misfortune over the next ten d script
Large seal script Small seal script
Clerical script Cursive script Semi-cursive script Regular script
一、甲骨文
– 甲骨文是中国已发现的古代文 字中时代最早、体系较为完整 的文字。甲骨文主要指殷墟甲 骨文，又称为 “殷契”，是殷 商时代刻在龟甲兽骨上的文字。 19世纪末年，在殷代都城遗址 （今河南安阳小屯）被发现。 甲骨文继承了陶文的造字方法， 是中国商代后期王室用于占卜 记事而刻（或写）在龟甲和兽 骨上的文字。殷商灭亡周朝兴 起之后，甲骨文还延绵使用了 一段时期
– Chinese characters can be retraced to 4000 BC. The principles of contemporary Chinese characters were already visible in Jiaguwen, carved on ox scapulas and tortoise plastrons and around 14th - 11th century BC. During the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone to be later carved.
金文作用： 内容多是记述重大事件，如纪念祖先、记 录赏赐、记述战功或王命等
Oracle bone script (Chinese: 甲骨文) was the form of Chinese characters used on oracle bones—animal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divination—in the late 2nd millennium BCE, and is the earliest known form of Chinese writing. The vast majority record the pyromantic divinations of the royal house of the late Shang dynasty at the capital of Yin (modern Anyang, Henan Province); dating of the Anyang examples of oracle bone script varies from c. 14th–11th centuries BCE to c. 1200–1050 BCE. Very few oracle bone writings date to the beginning of the subsequent Zhou dynasty, because pyromancy fell from favor and divining with milfoil became more common. The late Shang oracle bone writings, along with a few contemporary characters in a different style cast in bronzes, constitute the earliest significant corpus of Chinese writing, which is essential for the study of Chinese etymology, as Shang writing is directly ancestral to the modern Chinese script. It is also the oldest known member and ancestor of the Chinese family of scripts, preceding the bronzeware script.
Beauty of Chinese Calligraphy
——中国书法的演变
– 中国书法的种类： 篆书、隶书、行书、草书、楷书
汉字的演变： 甲骨文—金文—小篆—隶书—草书—楷书—行书
Oracle script 甲骨文 Bronze script 金文 Large seal script 大篆 Small seal script 小篆 Clerical script 隶书 Cursive script 草书 Semi-cursive script 行书 Regular script 楷书
Tortoise plastron with divination inscription dating to the reign of King Wu Ding
二、金文
– 金文是指铸刻在殷周青铜器上的铭文，也叫钟鼎文。商周是青铜器的 时代，青铜器的礼器以鼎为代表，乐器以钟为代表，“钟鼎”是青铜 器的代名词。所谓青铜，就是铜和锡的合金。中国在夏代就已进入青 铜时代，铜的冶炼和铜器的制造技术十分发达。因为周以前把铜也叫 金，所以铜器上的铭文就叫作“金文” ；金文应用的年代，上自商代 的早期，下至秦灭六国，约1200多年。