The Chinese script
From Oracle Bones to Computer Bytes
Origins of Chinese script
It all started with a myth, when Cangjie, a historian-official noticed the changing of the moon and the varied footprints of birds and animals around him. From that moment he invented the Chinese characters.
In 1899, a Chinese scholar, Wang Yirong, contracted Malaria and was advised by the doctors to take some medicine that included an ingredient called “dragon bones”. He noticed on the surface of these bones some thin, curved scratches resembling Chinese characters. After determining where the bones came from, Wang discovered that these dragon bones were actually animal bones inscribed with Chinese characters. These scratches are considered to be the oldest known Chinese script in existence, and were given the name “Oracle Bone Script”.
In the pre-script ages, the ancient Chinese communicated with several forms of oral language; later on, various symbols and pictures were also invented, such as “Knot- making” to represent numbers or events.
Structure of the Chinese character
An Associative Compound is the composition of two or more symbols or scripts into a new character.
A phonetic compound is a character composed of both phonetic and ideographic side radicals.
Evolution of Chinese Script
The oldest known Chinese characters were found on the 3000-year-old oracle bone inscriptions. These knife-carved marks generally have thin strokes and varied sizes, just like children’s drawings. Afterwards they began to write on bronze and on clay models.
In 221 BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huang united China. At that time, the use of diverse scripts around china had become a great handicap to the implementation of political directives, economic production and spread of culture.
Chinese Calligraphy
Before the use of paper, letters were carved on oracle bones or bronze wares. Silk was also used by the small class of aristocrats, while bamboo and wood by the general public.
In the early phases of the Chinese script, characters were carved with knives and writing was called ‘Carving’. Afterwards, other tools like brushes, ink sticks and ink stones were used and knives began to serve as erasers to scratch off the mistakes.
All Chinese characters can be written in a square-sized shape. Therefore a book can be written or printed in both vertical and horizontal ways and bound either on the left or the right.
Chinese Script in the information age
Today, there are many methods applied to type Chinese scripts by computer, either by each character shape, or pronunciation, or both.
The invention of the computer makes the learning and usage of Chinese characters much easier.
Chinese scientists have coded Chinese characters, which enable people to input corresponding Chinese characters by inputting codes on the keyboard of the computer. Chinese characters can then be displayed on screen or printed out by printer.
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