Since ancient times, China has said that "calligraphy and painting are of the same origin", because the earliest source of words is pictures, and calligraphy and painting are brothers, born from the same root, and have many internal relations. The origin of Chinese characters is the original painting, and primitive people express themselves in the form of "painting" in their lives. It slowly changed from the original picture to an ideographic symbol, about14th century BC, in the late Yin and Shang Dynasties. "Ideographic symbol" evolved into a relatively stereotyped "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". This is considered to be the first form of Chinese characters. The characters carved on the tortoise shell of animal bones and found in Yin ruins are considered as the direct ancestors of "modern Chinese characters", which can prove the continuation of Chinese civilization. For thousands of years, Middle Easterners have been unable to read the hieroglyphics of their ancestors. Only modern people in China can understand some "Oracle Bone Inscriptions" in Shang Dynasty. The words on these tortoise shells were originally used to predict good luck or bad luck. Ancient people thought that if some problems about diseases, dreams, hunting, weather, etc. were carved on tortoise shells, and then tortoise shells and animal bones were burned, then the cracks could be judged by fortune tellers according to the shapes and directions of these cracks. This is the ancestor of the modern Chinese character "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". Up to now, there are more than 5,000 species of "Oracle Bone Inscriptions". And there are more than 1000 kinds that can be interpreted. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, bronzes were widely used, and the inscription on bronze Zhong Ding and stone drum was "Da Zhuan". Also known as Zhong Dingwen and Shi Guwen. Legend has it that it was written by Taishi Gong of Zhou Xuanwang. At present, the Palace Museum has ten Zhou Dynasty stone drums with ten four-character poems engraved on them. Because the feudal regime was fragmented, the words were different. Until the Qin dynasty. Qin Shihuang unified China. To unify the text. During the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang unified writing and measurement. His outstanding achievement was Li Si, the prime minister at that time. Li Si collected and sorted out the characters at that time, and then simplified and beautified them. The unified characters were called Xiao Zhuan, also known as Qin Zhuan. At this time, there are almost no hieroglyphs in the text. The writing of Xiao Zhuan in Qin Dynasty was too standard and slow, so many simple fonts appeared among the people. This font is characterized by changing the circle of "Xiao Zhuan" into a square. The tune of Xiao Zhuan was straightened and some radicals were separated, which was called Qin Li. Official script was very popular in Han Dynasty. Qin Li didn't completely get rid of the structural characteristics of Xiao Zhuan, and it was basically square, while Han Li gave full play to the role of a brush, with the twists and turns of "silkworm head and goose tail", making it easy to write. This kind of official script was popular in the Western Han Dynasty. Call it "Han Li". When Han Li was popular in the Han Dynasty, regular script was still in its infancy. It was very popular in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi in Jin Dynasty were the real founders of regular script. At the same time, they absorbed the round strokes of seal script, retained the square straightness of official script, and removed the "dovetail". The structure of Chinese characters is generally fixed. At that time, it was called "true calligraphy", and later generations renamed it "orthodox calligraphy" because it was used as a model for learning calligraphy. In the Tang Dynasty, "regular script" was particularly popular. Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan, Ou Yangxun and other calligraphers were outstanding at that time, and their calligraphy works are still studied as models. Due to the neatness of regular script, the need of writing quickly, and the writer's creation of expressing his thoughts and feelings at the end of the pen, a smooth, rhythmic and artistic font-"cursive script" has been produced. Between regular script and cursive script is "running script". Running script is not as standard and serious as regular script, nor as bold and unrestrained as cursive script, but it is elegant and cheerful, and the font is flexible. It is also the most popular and commonly used font. Before I knew the font, I was asked to practice running script when I was a child. In Song Dynasty, engraving printing and movable type printing, one of the four great inventions in China, were invented, and "Song typeface" should also be produced. First produced in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was changed from regular script. There are fat and thin, but regardless of fat and thin, they are horizontal, thin, vertical and square. Looks quaint and dignified. "Imitation of Song Dynasty" is also a font that imitates Song Dynasty. This font has only appeared for 70 or 80 years, but it has developed very rapidly. It is the standard font that people like to use most, and it has been widely used in printed matter and various occasions. At the same time, the "black body" was born. This font is striking and generous, the handwriting is the same thickness, the structure is striking and compact, the strokes are strong and powerful, and the strokes are not sharp, which makes people read easily. Because of its striking characteristics, it is often used in titles, introductions, signs and so on. It enriches the expression forms of Chinese characters. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, comprehensive art forms appeared, such as blocks, clouds, variants and so on. This is the concrete manifestation of the cultural prosperity of the motherland and the inevitable result of the development of Chinese characters. Chinese characters, also known as Chinese characters, Chinese characters and Chinese characters, are widely used in the cultural circle of Chinese characters. They belong to morpheme syllables of ideographic characters, which were invented and improved by the ancient Han people. At present, the exact history can be traced back to Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty around 1300 BC. Then the seal script of the Qin Dynasty was named "Chinese Characters" in the Han Dynasty, and in the Tang Dynasty it became the standard of handwritten fonts used today-regular script. Chinese characters are the main characters that have been used for the longest time so far, and they are also the only characters that have been passed down to this day in various ancient writing systems. Some scholars believe that Chinese characters are one of the key elements to maintain the long-term reunification of China's north and south, and some scholars list Chinese characters as China's fifth greatest invention. In China, Chinese characters are the main official languages of several generations. oracle bone script

Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the earliest and most complete ancient script discovered by China. Oracle Bone Inscriptions mainly refers to the Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Yin Ruins, also known as "Yin Ruins Characters" and "Yin Qi", written on the bones of tortoise shells and beasts in Shang Dynasty. 65438+ was discovered in Yin Ruins in Xiaotun, Anyang, Henan at the end of 2009. It inherited Wen Tao's word-making method and was carved (or written) on tortoise shells and animal bones by the royal family in the late Shang Dynasty (14 ~1century) in China. After the demise of Shang Dynasty and the rise of Zhou Dynasty, Oracle Bone Inscriptions continued to be used for some time.

Ancient bronze inscriptions

The bronze inscriptions on Yin and Zhou bronzes are also called Zhong Dingwen. Shang and Zhou Dynasties were the bronze age, with the tripod as the representative ritual vessel and the bell as the representative musical instrument. "Zhong Ding" was synonymous with bronze ware. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. China entered the Bronze Age in Xia Dynasty, and the technology of copper smelting and bronze ware manufacturing was very developed. Because copper was also called gold a week ago, the inscriptions on bronzes were called "bronze inscriptions" or "auspicious words"; This bronze ware was called "Zhong Dingwen" in the past because it had the largest number of characters on Zhong Ding. The application time of bronze inscriptions is about 1200 years, from the early Shang Dynasty to the Qin Dynasty's destruction of the Six Kingdoms. According to Rong Geng's Jin Wen Bian, there are 3,722 inscriptions, of which 2,420 can be identified.

big seal character

Dazhuan is a widely used font in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is said that it was created by Boyi in the Xia Dynasty. According to the different writing media, there are differences between bronze inscriptions (or "Zhong Dingwen") and bronze inscriptions.

Small/small seal characters

After Qin Shihuang unified China (22 1 year ago), Xiao Zhuan implemented the policy of "the words are the same, the cars are the same", and unified measurement is responsible. On the basis of the original script of the Qin Dynasty's Da Zhuan, it was simplified, and the variant characters of the other six countries were cancelled, creating a unified writing form of Chinese characters. It was popular in China until the end of the Western Han Dynasty (about 8 AD) and was gradually replaced by official script. But because of its beautiful font, it has always been favored by calligraphers. Because of its complex strokes and simple form, it is possible to add twists and turns and seal cutting at will, especially the official seal that needs anti-counterfeiting. Seal script was always used until the collapse of feudal dynasty and the emergence of modern new anti-counterfeiting technology.

official script

Lishu, also called Han Li, is a solemn font commonly used in Chinese characters. Its writing effect is slightly wide and flat, the horizontal painting is long and straight, and it is rectangular, paying attention to "silkworm head and goose tail" and "twists and turns". Lishu originated in the Qin Dynasty, formed by Cheng Miao, and reached its peak in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Calligraphy is known as "Han Li Tang Kai".

cursive script

A Chinese character with 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 Cao Zhang, Cao Jin and Crazy Grass.

regular script

Regular script, also called regular script, regular script, regular script or original script, is a common font in China's calligraphy. Its glyph is square, unlike the flat one written in official script. Regular script is still the reference standard of modern calligraphy in China, and another kind of calligraphy, pen-and-ink, has also developed.

Semi-cursive/running/calligraphy (China's calligraphy)

Running script is produced on the basis of regular script, which is a font between regular script and cursive script. It came into being to make up for the slow writing speed of regular script and the illegible cursive script. "Go" means "go", so it is not as scribbled as cursive script, nor as straight as regular script. Whether it is cursive or cursive in essence. Those with more patterns than grass patterns are called "running patterns", and those with more grass patterns are called "running grass".

Song typeface

Song Ti is a China printing font invented by China in Song Dynasty. The strokes vary in thickness, generally horizontal and vertical, with decorative parts at the end (namely "feet" or "serif"), and strokes such as dots, strokes, strokes and hooks have sharp points, which belong to white body and are often used for text typesetting of books, magazines and newspapers. Because it was introduced to Japan from the Ming Dynasty, it is also called Ming style and Ming style.

Imitation font

A printed font, modeled after the font engraved in the Song Dynasty. The strokes are even in thickness, with three bodies: long, square and flat. Also known as imitation song, imitation song characters. This involves another font-Songti. What are the characteristics of song style? Horizontal and vertical, horizontal and thin, vertical and thick, and thick at the end of each pen, these are not the characteristics of writing with a brush. Why does Song Ti have these characteristics? Because of the need of printing, of course. In the Song Dynasty, when woodblock printing was popular, woodcuts were mostly used for woodblock printing and plate making, that is to say, rectangular boards were used for woodblock printing and plate making. There are lines on the board, and the plate making is generally horizontal, so that the horizontal lines of the carved words are consistent with the wood grain and are relatively strong; But when the vertical line of lettering crosses the wood grain, it is easy to break. Therefore, the vertical lines of fonts are thicker and the horizontal lines are thinner. Even if the horizontal line is strong, the end is easy to wear, so the end is thicker. Horizontal and vertical, of course, is for the convenience of carving and plate-making knife workers. Carving and plate making is a very laborious job. If you want to express the characteristics of handwriting, lettering must be much larger than horizontal and vertical. Do a simple experiment and you will know. Enter or paste a Chinese character in windows Notepad, and set the font to Song Ti No.9 and Kai Ti No.9 respectively to see which one is easier to read. Because of the texture of the board, it is more difficult to carve various curves. Moreover, each board can only print two pages, and a book needs to be carved with many boards. If the words are carved too big, not only the sculptor will work hard, but also the board will be used a lot, so the words carved on the board will not be too big. However, on such a small reverse lettering, it is difficult to show the change, roundness and delicacy of handwriting. As you can imagine, it is of course the best choice. As can be seen from the above, these characteristics of Song Ti are printed, which meets the needs of printing and is very different from the handwriting of a brush. Later, people imitated the structure and brushwork of Song typeface, and changed it into a long, narrow and beautiful printing font with uniform strokes, which is imitation of Song typeface.

blackbody

Bold characters, also known as squares or isolines, have no serif decoration, dignified fonts, horizontal and vertical, and all handwriting is of the same thickness. After modern printing was introduced to the East, Chinese characters in black body were created according to the western sans-serif black body. Because Chinese characters have many strokes and the clarity of bold small characters is poor, they were mainly used for article titles at first. However, with the development of typesetting technology, there are many bold fonts suitable for words. In Chinese, fonts without serif are usually called bold, and the category of this word is similar to Sans-serif. Therefore, Chinese fonts are often "bold" and western fonts are often "sans serif". It can be called a serif font. "Bold" is called Goshikku-tai in Japanese (literally translated as "Gothic").

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Comprehensive art institutions

Comprehensive artistic style is a bold variant and an artistic vocabulary. The feature is that the strokes are thick and the space is filled as much as possible. At the same time, for the sake of beauty, the corner treatment is more rounded. Mainstream fonts such as Founder and Microsoft have been developed, which are often used in the titles of advertisements, newspapers and periodicals. Comprehensive artistic style is a commonly used artistic font (bold, song style, variant, regular script, etc. ).

Caiyunti

Cai Yun font is an artistic font. It is characterized by being surrounded by smooth curves, empty strokes and misty clouds. It was originally developed by China Changzhou SinoType and distributed with the simplified Chinese version of Microsoft Office under the name of "Chinese Cai Yun". Then other fonts were developed, which are now commonly used for eye-catching titles.

Wenhua Xin Wei

China's new Wei style is dignified and generous, solemn and beautiful, magnificent, and full of rich artistic flavor. Many media, institutions and websites use the new Chinese Wei Ti as trademarks, logos or photo annotations. The new Wei style of Chinese combines font and aesthetic feeling, showing a high degree of unity of art and culture.

Amber body

The font is round and full, novel and lively, orderly in structure, thick but not heavy, fat but not ugly. Suitable for titles and advertising decoration of books, newspapers, magazines and various printed materials.

China Xihe

Chinese fine black is a TrueType computer font made by China Changzhou Chinese Printing New Technology Co., Ltd. (SinoType), which has copyright. The name displayed in the environment without Chinese is STHeiti Light or STXihei, which belongs to one of Chinese bold font series. It belongs to black body or sans serif in design.

Yaoti

Yao Ti is a China calligraphy style created by Yao Zhutian, former director of Juzhen Department of Zhonghua Book Company, and was used by Yao Zhutian to make movable type bronze molds and other utensils. Yao style is similar to Song style, but more slender. The standardized Yao style is collected by Founder, Jinqiao and other major computer fonts for printing.

relax

Graceful figure, a bow and a horse, heavy and steep, can be seen in arrogance to escape. Suddenly, you look as strong as an ox, and your bones and muscles appear. Learning from the past, respecting the law and seeking new changes have formed a "wind of freedom", also known as the "seven-character book", that is, one for Kai, Xing, Cao, Li, and Xu, one for Yan and Liu, and one for each.

Microsoft YaHei

Microsoft Yahei is a font designed by China Peking University Founder Electronics Co., Ltd. entrusted by Microsoft Corporation of the United States, which fully supports ClearType technology. Monotype company is responsible for font prompting. It belongs to OpenType, and the file name is MSYH. TTF, and the font design belongs to sans serif font and bold type. The cost per word of this font is about 100 USD. The font family also includes "Microsoft Yahei Bold" (bold) with the file name of MSYHBD. TTF is not a simple bold ordinary text, but deals with specific strokes separately, so it is an independent font. Microsoft yahei is released with the simplified Chinese version of Windows Vista, which is the default font of Windows Vista. In addition, the simplified Chinese version of Microsoft Office 2007 also comes with this font.

Juvenile round body