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Chinese Character Classification
Chinese characters are generally logographs, but can be further categorized based on the manner of their creation or derivation. Some characters may be analysed structurally as compounds created from smaller components, while some are not decomposable in this way. A small number of characters originate as pictographs and ideographs, but the vast majority are what are called ''phono-semantic compounds'', which involve an element of pronunciation in their meaning. A traditional six-fold classification scheme was originally popularized in the 2nd century CE, and remained the dominant lens for analysis for almost two millennia, but with the benefit of a greater body of historical evidence, recent scholarship has variously challenged and discarded those categories. In older literature, Chinese characters are often referred to as "ideographs", inheriting a historical misconception of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Overview Chinese characters have been used in several different wri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Characters
Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only one that has remained in continuous use. Over a documented history spanning more than three millennia, the function, style, and means of writing characters have changed greatly. Unlike letters in alphabets that reflect the sounds of speech, Chinese characters generally represent morphemes, the units of meaning in a language. Writing all of the frequently used vocabulary in a language requires roughly 2000–3000 characters; , nearly have been identified and included in ''The Unicode Standard''. Characters are created according to several principles, where aspects of shape and pronunciation may be used to indicate the character's meaning. The first attested characters are oracle bone inscriptions made during the 13th century&n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qiu Xigui
Qiu Xigui (; (13 July 1935 – 8 May 2025) was a Chinese historian, palaeographer, and professor of Fudan University. His book ''Chinese Writing'' is considered the "single most influential study of Chinese palaeography". Early life and education Qiu Xigui was born in July 1935 in Shanghai, of Ningbo ancestry. In 1952, he was admitted to the history department of Fudan University and was interested in pre- Qin dynasty Chinese history. Under the influence of the renowned oracle bone expert Hu Houxuan, he took interest in the oracle bones and Chinese bronze inscriptions. After graduating in 1956, he became a graduate student of oracle bones and Shang dynasty history, studying under Professor Hu. The same year, Hu was transferred to the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and Qiu followed Hu to the institute. Career After finishing his graduate studies in 1960, Qiu was assigned to be a teaching assistant in the Department of Chinese of Peking Un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Character Ri4 Cur
Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theophrastus Music * ''Character'' (Dark Tranquillity album), 2005 * ''Character'' (Julia Kent album), 2013 * ''Character'', an album by Rachael Sage, 2020 * ''Characters'' (John Abercrombie album), 1977 * ''Characters'' (Stevie Wonder album), 1987 * "Character", a song by Ryokuoushoku Shakai, 2022 Types of entity * Character (arts), an agent within a work of art, including literature, drama, cinema, opera, etc. ** Character actor, an actor known for playing unusual, eccentric or interesting characters in supporting roles ** Character sketch or character, a literary description of a character type * Game character (other), various types of characters in a video game or role playing game ** Player character, as above but who is c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally means 'spelled sounds'. Pinyin is the official romanization system used in China, Singapore, Taiwan, and by the United Nations. Its use has become common when transliterating Standard Chinese mostly regardless of region, though it is less ubiquitous in Taiwan. It is used to teach Standard Chinese, normally written with Chinese characters, to students in mainland China and Singapore. Pinyin is also used by various Chinese input method, input methods on computers and to lexicographic ordering, categorize entries in some Chinese dictionaries. In pinyin, each Chinese syllable is spelled in terms of an optional initial (linguistics), initial and a final (linguistics), final, each of which is represented by one or more letters. Initi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Script
The regular script is the newest of the major Chinese script styles, emerging during the Three Kingdoms period , and stylistically mature by the 7th century. It is the most common style used in modern text. In its traditional form it is the third-most common in publishing after the Ming typefaces, Ming and East Asian Gothic typeface, Gothic types used exclusively in print. History The ''Xuanhe Calligraphy Manual'' () credits with creating the regular script, based on the clerical script of the early Han dynasty (202 BCE220 CE). It became popular during the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms periods, with Zhong Yao (230 BC), a calligrapher in the state of Cao Wei (220–266), being credited as its first master, known as the father of regular script. His famous works include the , , and . Palaeographer Qiu Xigui describes the script in ''Xuanshi biao'' as: However, very few wrote in this script at the time other than a few literati; most continued writing in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cursive Script (East Asia)
Cursive script (; , ''sōshotai''; , ''choseo''; ), often referred to as ''grass script'', is a script style used in Chinese and East Asian calligraphy. It is an umbrella term for the cursive variants of the clerical script and the regular script. The cursive script functions primarily as a kind of shorthand script or calligraphic style and is faster to write than other styles, but it can be difficult to read for those unfamiliar with it because of its abstraction and alteration of character structures. People who can read only standard or printed forms of Chinese or related scripts may have difficulty reading the cursive script. Names The character primarily means "grass", and the character means script in this context, which has led to the literal calque for as "grass script". However, can be extended to mean "hurried" or "rough", from which the name came. Thus, the name of this script is literally "draft script", "quick script" or "rough script". The character ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semi-cursive Script
Semi-cursive script, also known as running script, is a style of Chinese calligraphy that emerged during the Han dynasty (202 BC220 AD). The style is used to write Chinese characters and is abbreviated slightly where a character's strokes are permitted to be visibly connected as the writer writes, but not to the extent of the cursive style. This makes the style easily readable by readers who can read regular script and quickly writable by calligraphers who require ideas to be written down quickly. In order to produce legible work using the semi-cursive style, a series of writing conventions is followed, including the linking of the strokes, simplification and merging strokes, adjustments to stroke order and the distribution of text of the work. One of the most notable calligraphers who used this style was Wang Xizhi (303–361). Wang is known for the '' Lantingji Xu'' ('Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection'), a work published in 353 which remains highly influenti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clerical Script
The clerical script (), sometimes also chancery script, is a style of Chinese writing that evolved from the late Warring States period to the Qin dynasty. It matured and became dominant in the Han dynasty, and remained in active use through the Six Dynasties period. In its development, it departed significantly from the earlier scripts in terms of graphic structures (a process known as '' libian''), and was characterized by its rectilinearity, a trait shared with the later regular script. Although it was succeeded by the later scripts, including the regular script, the clerical script is preserved as a calligraphic practice. In Chinese calligraphy, the term ''clerical'' often refers to a specific calligraphic style that is typical of a subtype of the clerical script, the Han ''clerical'' () or ''bafen'' () script. This style is characterized by the squat character shapes, and its "wavy" appearance due to the thick, pronounced and slightly downward tails that are up-tilted at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
