This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. Mojibake is the happenstance of incorrect unreadable characters (garbage characters shown when Computer software fails to render a text correctly according to its associated

A Chinese character, Han character or Hanzi (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字; pinyin: Hànzì) is a logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi), Japanese (kanji), less frequently Korean (hanja), and formerly Vietnamese (hán tự). Neolithic signs At a range of Neolithic sites in China, small numbers of symbols of either pictorial or simple geometric nature have been unearthed which were Variant Chinese characters ( are Chinese characters that can be used interchangeably The second round of Chinese character simplification was an aborted orthography reform officially promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's The debate on Traditional Chinese characters and Simplified Chinese characters (繁簡之爭 more recently 正簡之爭 a are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana is an ancient Writing system which employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated Idu is an archaic Writing system which represents the Korean language using Hanja. Hán tự ( {{IPA|/han˦˥ tɯ˨/}}; 漢[[wikt 字|字]] meaning " Chinese character " or chữ Nho ( {{IPA|/tɕɯ˧˨˧ ɲɔ/}} Chữ Nôm ( IPA: /cɨ3ˀ5 nom33/ chữ Nôm in Unicode: 字[[wikt 喃|喃]]/ 𡨸 喃/ 𡦂 喃 chữ Nôm in Unicode The art of Calligraphy is widely practiced and revered in the East Asian Civilizations that use or used Chinese characters. Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular Semi-cursive script is a partially cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. Since the Chinese language uses a logographic script — that is a script where one or more " characters " corresponds roughly to one "word" or Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam) Hán tự ( {{IPA|/han˦˥ tɯ˨/}}; 漢[[wikt 字|字]] meaning " Chinese character " or chữ Nho ( {{IPA|/tɕɯ˧˨˧ ɲɔ/}}

The number of Chinese characters contained in the Kangxi dictionary is approximately 47,035, although a large number of these are rarely used variants accumulated throughout history. The Kangxi Dictionary was the standard Chinese dictionary during the 18th and 19th centuries Studies carried out in China have shown that full literacy requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National ^[1]

In the Chinese writing system, each character corresponds to a single spoken syllable. A majority of words in all modern varieties of Chinese are poly-syllabic and thus require two or more characters to write. A word is a unit of Language that carries meaning and consists of one or more Morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together and has a Phonetic Cognates in the various Chinese languages/dialects which have the same or similar meaning but different pronunciations can be written with the same character. Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from In addition, many Chinese characters were adopted according to their meaning by the Japanese and Korean languages to represent native words, disregarding pronunciation altogether.

Chinese characters are also known as sinographs, and the Chinese writing system as sinography. Non-Chinese languages which have adopted sinography — and, with the orthography, a large number of loanwords from the Chinese language — are known as Sinoxenic languages, whether or not they still use the characters. Sinoxenic languages are languages other than Sinitic languages which have at one point adopted written Chinese characters, or sinographs which have greatly affected The term does not imply any genetic affiliation with Chinese. The major Sinoxenic languages are Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

History

Precursors

Main article: Neolithic signs in China

In the last 50 or so years, inscriptions have been found on Neolithic pottery in a variety of locations in China such as Bànpō near Xī’ān, as well as on bone and bone artifacts at Hualouzi, Chang'an County near Xi'an. Neolithic signs At a range of Neolithic sites in China, small numbers of symbols of either pictorial or simple geometric nature have been unearthed which were These simple, often geometric marks have been frequently compared to some of the earliest known Chinese characters, on the oracle bones, and some have taken them to mean that the history of Chinese writing extends back over six millennia. However, because these marks occur singly, without any context to imply usage as writing, and because they are generally extremely crude and simple, Qiú Xīguī (2000, p. 31) concluded that "we do not have any basis for stating that these constituted writing, nor is there reason to conclude that they were ancestral to Shang dynasty Chinese characters. " Isolated graphs and pictures continue to be found periodically, frequently accompanied by media reports pushing back the purported beginnings of Chinese writing a few thousand years. For example, at Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 pictorial cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BC have been discovered, leading to headlines such as "Chinese writing '8,000 years old. Damaidi (大麥地 is a small village in China located in Zhongwei County in Ningxia, among the Weining Mountains on the north bend of the Yellow Ningxia ( Postal map spelling: Ningsia full name Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region ( is a Hui autonomous region of the People's Republic '"^[2] Similarly, archaeologists report finding a few inscribed symbols on tortoise shells at the Neolithic site of Jiahu in Henan, dated to around 6,600-6,200BCE, leading to headlines of "'Earliest writing' found in China^[3] However, each time, scholars urge caution and skepticism. Professor David Keightley, a renowned expert on Shang script, urged caution in the latter instance, noting "There is a gap of about 5,000 years. It seems astonishing that they would be connected," adding "we can't call it writing until we have more evidence. "^[4]

An additional problem with many such claims of connections to later Chinese writing is the lack of any direct cultural connection to Shāng culture, combined with gaps between them of many millennia. One group of sites without such problems is the Dàwènkǒu culture sites (2800-2500 BCE, only one millennium earlier than the early Shāng culture sites, and positioned so as to be plausibly albeit indirectly ancestral to the Shāng). There, a few inscribed pottery and jade pieces have been found^[5], one of which combines pictorial elements (resembling, according to some, a sun, moon or clouds, and fire or a mountain) in a stack which brings to mind the compounding of elements in Chinese characters. Major scholars are divided in their interpretation of such inscribed symbols. Some, such as Yú Xĭngwú^[6], Táng Lán^[7] and Lĭ Xuéqín ^[8], have identified these with specific Chinese characters. Others such as Wang Ningsheng^[9] interpret them as pictorial symbols such as clan insignia, rather than writing. But as Wang Ningsheng points out, "True writing begins when it represents sounds and consists of symbols that are able to record language. The few isolated figures found on pottery still cannot substantiate this point. "^[10]

Legendary origins

According to legend, Chinese characters were invented by Cangjie (c. Cangjie is a legendary figure in ancient China (c 2650 BC claimed to be an official historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters 2650 BC), a bureaucrat under the legendary emperor, Huangdi. Huangdi, or the Yellow Emperor, is a Legendary Chinese sovereign and cultural hero who is considered in Chinese mythology to be the The legend tells that Cangjie was hunting on Mount Yangxu (today Shanxi) when he saw a tortoise whose veins caught his curiosity. ( Postal map spelling: Shansi) is a province in the northern part of the People's Republic of China. Inspired by the possibility of a logical relation of those veins, he studied the animals of the world, the landscape of the earth, and the stars in the sky, and invented a symbolic system called zì — Chinese characters. It was said that on the day the characters were born, Chinese heard the devil mourning, and saw crops falling like rain, as it marked the beginning of the world.

Real origins

Main article: Oracle bone script

Shāng Dynasty Oracle Bone Script on Ox Scapula, Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany. Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in Photo by Dr. Meierhofer

The oldest Chinese inscriptions that are indisputably writing are the Oracle bone script (Chinese: 甲骨文; pinyin: jiǎgǔwén; literally "shell-bone-script"). Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use These were identified by scholars in 1899 on pieces of bone and turtle shell being sold as medicine, and by 1928, the source of the oracle bones had been traced back to modern Xiǎotún (小屯) village at Ānyáng in Hénán Province, where official archaeological excavations in 1928-1937 discovered 20,000 oracle bone pieces, about 1/5 of the total discovered. Anyang ( is a Prefecture-level city in Henan province, People's Republic of China. Henan ( is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country The inscriptions were records of the divinations performed for or by the royal Shāng household. The oracle bone script is a well-developed writing system, attested from the late Shang Dynasty (1200–1050 BC). The Shang Dynasty ( Chinese: 商[[wiktionary 朝|朝]] or Yin Dynasty ( 殷[[wiktionary 代|代]] was according to traditional sources the ^{[11][11][12][13]} Only about 1,400 of the 2,500 known oracle bone script logographs can be identified with later Chinese characters and therefore deciphered by paleographers.

Bronze Age: Parallel script forms and gradual evolution

Main article: Chinese bronze inscriptions

The traditional picture of an orderly series of scripts, each one invented suddenly and then completely displacing the previous one as implied by neat series of graphs in popular books on the subject, has been conclusively demonstrated to be fiction by the archaeological finds and scholarly research of the last half century^[14]. Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons Gradual evolution and the coexistence of two or more scripts was more often the case. As early as the Shāng dynasty, oracle bone script coexisted as a simplified form alongside the normal script of bamboo books (preserved for us in typical bronze inscriptions) as well as extra-elaborate pictorial forms (often clan emblems) found on many bronzes. The Shang Dynasty ( Chinese: 商[[wiktionary 朝|朝]] or Yin Dynasty ( 殷[[wiktionary 代|代]] was according to traditional sources the Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons

Left: Bronze 方樽 fāngzūn ritual wine container dated about 1000 BCE. The written inscription cast in bronze on the vessel commemorates a gift of cowrie shells (then used as currency in China) from someone of presumably elite status in 周 Zhōu Dynasty society. Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons The Zhou Dynasty ( POJ: Chiu Tiau 1122 BC to 256 BC was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. Right: Bronze 方彝 fāngyí ritual container dated about 1000 BCE. A written inscription of some 180 Chinese characters appears twice on the vessel. The written inscription comments on state rituals that accompanied court ceremony, recorded by an official scribe.

Based on studies of such bronze inscriptions, it is clear that from the Shāng dynasty writing to that of the Western Zhōu and early Eastern Zhōu, the mainstream script evolved in a slow, unbroken fashion, until taking the form now known as seal script in the late Eastern Zhōu in the state of Qín, without any clear line of division^[15][16]. The Shang Dynasty ( Chinese: 商[[wiktionary 朝|朝]] or Yin Dynasty ( 殷[[wiktionary 代|代]] was according to traditional sources the The Zhou Dynasty ( POJ: Chiu Tiau 1122 BC to 256 BC was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. The Zhou Dynasty ( POJ: Chiu Tiau 1122 BC to 256 BC was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. Qín or Ch'in ( Wade-Giles) (秦 ( 778 BC - 207 BC) was a State during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods Meanwhile other scripts had evolved, especially in the eastern and southern areas during the late Zhōu, including regional forms, such as the gǔwén “ancient forms” of the eastern Warring States preserved in the Hàn dynasty etymological dictionary Shuōwén Jiézì as variant forms, as well as decorative forms such as bird and insect scripts. The Zhou Dynasty ( POJ: Chiu Tiau 1122 BC to 256 BC was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. Gǔwén ( literally means ancient Chinese script. Historically the term has been used in several different ways The Warring States Period ( also known as the Era of Warring States covers the period from some time in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by the The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Shuōwén Jiězì ( "Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters" was an early 2nd century CE Chinese dictionary from the Han Dynasty

Unification: Seal script, vulgar writing and proto-clerical

Seal script, which had evolved slowly in the state of Qín during the Eastern Zhōu dynasty, became standardized and adopted as the formal script for all of China in the Qín dynasty (leading to a popular misconception that it was invented at that time), and was still widely used for decorative engraving and seals (name chops, or signets) in the Hàn dynasty onward. Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. Not to be confused with the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of China A seal can mean a wax seal bearing an impressed figure or an embossed figure in paper with the purpose of authenticating a document but the term can also mean any device for The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. But despite the Qín script standardization, more than one script remained in use at the time. For example, a little-known, rectilinear and roughly executed kind of common (vulgar) writing had for centuries coexisted with the more formal seal script in the Qín state, and the popularity of this vulgar writing grew as the use of writing itself became more widespread^[17]. Qín or Ch'in ( Wade-Giles) (秦 ( 778 BC - 207 BC) was a State during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods By the Warring States period, an immature form of clerical script called “early clerical” or “proto-clerical” had already developed in the state of Qín ^[18] based upon thus vulgar writing, and with influence from seal script as well^[19]. The Warring States Period ( also known as the Era of Warring States covers the period from some time in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by the The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which The coexistence of the three scripts, small seal, vulgar and proto-clerical, with the latter evolving gradually in the Qín to early Hàn dynasties into clerical script, runs counter to the traditional beliefs that the Qín dynasty had one script only, and that clerical script was suddenly invented in the early Hàn dynasty from the small seal script. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which Lesser or Small Seal Script (小篆 Xiaozhuan or Hsiao-chuan is associated with the work on Chinese characters compiled by Li Si during

Hàn Dynasty

Proto-clerical evolving to clerical

Proto-clerical, which had emerged by the Warring States period from vulgar Qín writing, matured gradually, and by the early Western Hàn, was little different from that of the Qín^[20]. Recently discovered bamboo slips show the script becoming mature clerical script by the middle to late reign of Emperor Wǔ of the W. Hàn^[21], who ruled 141 BCE to 87 BCE. Background birth and years as crown prince Emperor Wu was the tenth child of Emperor Jing, and was born to one of Emperor Jing's favorite Concubines,

Clerical & clerical cursive

Contrary to popular belief of one script per period, there were in fact multiple scripts in use during the Hàn^[22]. Although mature clerical script, also called bāfēn^[23] script (Chinese 八分), was dominant at that time, an early type of cursive script was also in use in the Hàn by at least as early as 24 BCE (very late W. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which Hàn)^[24], incorporating cursory^[25] forms popular at that period as well as many^[26] from the vulgar writing of the Warring State of Qín. Qín or Ch'in ( Wade-Giles) (秦 ( 778 BC - 207 BC) was a State during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods By around the Eastern Jìn dynasty this Hàn cursive became known as zhāngcǎo (Chinese 章草; sometimes called lìcǎo (隸草) today), or in English sometimes clerical cursive, ancient cursive, or draft cursive. The Jìn Dynasty ( 265 – 420) one of the Six Dynasties, followed the Three Kingdoms period and preceded the Southern and Northern Dynasties Some believe that the name, based on zhāng (章), meaning “orderly”, is due to the fact that this was a more orderly form^[27] of cursive than the modern form of cursive emerging around the E. Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. Jìn and still in use today, called jīncǎo (今草) or “modern cursive”^[28].

Neo-clerical

Around the mid Eastern Hàn^[29], a simplified and easier to write form of clerical appeared, which Qiú (2000, p. The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. 113 & 139) terms “neo-clerical” (Chinese 新隸體 xīnlìtĭ) and by the late E. Hàn it had become the dominant daily script^[30], although the formal, mature bāfēn (八分) clerical script remained in use for formal situations such as engraved stelae^[31]. Some have described this neo-clerical script as a transition between clerical and standard script^[32], and it remained in use through the Cáo Wèi and Jìn dynasties^[33]. Cao Wei ( was one of the empires that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period The Jìn Dynasty ( 265 – 420) one of the Six Dynasties, followed the Three Kingdoms period and preceded the Southern and Northern Dynasties

Semi-cursive

By the late E. Hàn, an early form of semi-cursive script appeared^[34], developing out of a somewhat cursively written kind of neo-clerical script^[35] and cursive^[36]. Semi-cursive script is a partially cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. It was traditionally attributed to Liú Déshēng ca. 147-188 CE^[37][38], although such attributions refer to early masters of a script rather than to their actual inventors, since the scripts generally evolved into being over time. Qiú 2000, p. 140 gives examples of early semi-cursive showing that it had popular origins rather than being only Liú’s invention.

Wèi to Jìn period

Standard script

Standard script has been attributed to Zhōng Yáo, of the E. The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular Zhong Yao (151–230 was a Chinese Calligrapher and politician of Cao Wei. Hàn to Cáo Wèi period (ca 151-230 CE), who has been called the “father of standard script”. Cao Wei ( was one of the empires that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period The earliest surviving pieces written in standard script are copies of his works, including at least one copied by Wáng Xīzhī. This new script, which is the dominant modern Chinese script, developed out of a neatly written form of early semi-cursive, with addition of the pause (dùn 頓) technique to end horizontal strokes, plus heavy tails on strokes which are written to downward right diagonal. ^[39]. Thus, early standard script emerged from a neat, formal form of semi-cursive which had emerged from neo-clerical (a simplified, convenient form of clerical). It then matured further in the Eastern Jìn dynasty in the hands of the “Sage of Calligraphy” Wáng Xīzhī and his son Wáng Xiànzhī. The Jìn Dynasty ( 265 – 420) one of the Six Dynasties, followed the Three Kingdoms period and preceded the Southern and Northern Dynasties Wang Xianzhi ( 344 – 386) Courtesy name Zijing (子敬 was a famous Chinese calligrapher of the Eastern Jin It was not, however, in widespread use at that time, and most continued using neo-clerical or a somewhat semi-cursive form of it for daily writing^[40], while the conservative bāfēn clerical script remained in use on some stelae, alongside some semi-cursive, but primarily neo-clerical^[41].

Modern cursive

Meanwhile, modern cursive script slowly emerged out of the clerical cursive (zhāngcǎo) script during the Cáo Wèi to Jìn period, under the influence of both semi-cursive and the newly emerged standard script^[42]. Cursive was formalized in the hands of a few master calligraphers, the most famous and influential of which was Wáng Xīzhī^[43]. However, because modern cursive is so cursive, it is hard to read, and never gained widespread use outside of literati circles.

Dominance and maturation of standard script

It was not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties that the standard script rose to dominant status^[44]. This article is about the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China. During that period, standard script continued evolving stylistically, reaching full maturity in the early Táng dynasty. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by Some call the writing of the early Táng calligrapher Ōuyáng Xún (557-641) the first mature standard script. Ouyang Xun ( 557-641 Courtesy name Xinben (信本 was a Confucian Scholar and Calligrapher of the early Tang Dynasty After this point, although developments in the art of calligraphy and in character simplification still lay ahead, there were no more major stages of evolution for the mainstream script. Chinese writing had reached full maturity.

Use in other countries

The Japanese Kanji were adopted for recording the Japanese language from the 1st century AD. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana The Chinese script spread to Korea together with Buddhism from the 7th century (Hanja). Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. Korean Buddhism is distinguished from other forms of Buddhism by its attempt to resolve what it sees as inconsistencies in Mahayana Buddhism Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated Adaptation for Vietnamese (Chữ Nôm) emerged in the 13th century. Chữ Nôm ( IPA: /cɨ3ˀ5 nom33/ chữ Nôm in Unicode: 字[[wikt 喃|喃]]/ 𡨸 喃/ 𡦂 喃 chữ Nôm in Unicode

Modern history

Areas using only Chinese characters in green; in conjunction with other scripts, dark green; maximum extent of historic usage, light green. (does not include other territories annexed by Japan in WWII)

Further information: Simplified Chinese

Although most of the simplified Chinese characters in use today are the result of the works moderated by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1950s and 60s, character simplification predates the PRC's formation in 1949. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lu Feikui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. Year 1909 ( MCMIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China. The May Fourth Movement ( was an anti- imperialist, cultural and political movement in early modern China. In the 1930s and 1940s, discussions on character simplification took place within the Kuomintang government, and a large number of Chinese intellectuals and writers have long maintained that character simplification would help boost literacy in China. The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949 Events and trends The 1940s was a period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s which also leads the period to be In many world languages, literacy has been promoted as a justification for spelling reforms. Many languages have undergone spelling reform, where a deliberate often officially sanctioned or mandated change to spelling takes place The People's Republic of China issued its first round of official character simplifications in two documents, the first in 1956 and the second in 1964. Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1964 ( MCMLXIV) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the 1964 Gregorian calendar. In the 1950s and 1960s, while confusion about simplified characters was still rampant, transitional characters that mixed simplified parts with yet-to-be simplified parts of characters together appeared briefly, then disappeared. The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969

"Han unification" was completed for the purposes of Unicode in 1991 (Unicode 1. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's 0).

Written styles

Sample of the cursive script by Chinese Tang Dynasty calligrapher Sun Guoting, c. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by Sun Guoting ( 646–691 or Sun Qianli (孫虔禮was a Chinese calligrapher of the early Tang Dynasty, remembered for his cursive calligraphy 650 AD.

There are numerous styles, or scripts, in which Chinese characters can be written, deriving from various calligraphic and historical models. Most of these originated in China and are now common, with minor variations, in all countries where Chinese characters are used. These characters were used over 3,000 years ago.

The Shang dynasty Oracle Bone and Zhou dynasty scripts found on Chinese bronze inscriptions being no longer used, the oldest script that is still in use today is the Seal Script (simplified Chinese: 篆书; traditional Chinese: 篆書; pinyin: zhuànshū). The Shang Dynasty ( Chinese: 商[[wiktionary 朝|朝]] or Yin Dynasty ( 殷[[wiktionary 代|代]] was according to traditional sources the Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in The Zhou Dynasty ( POJ: Chiu Tiau 1122 BC to 256 BC was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. Chinese Bronze inscriptions are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on Chinese bronze artifacts such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use It evolved organically out of the Spring and Autumn period Zhou script, and was adopted in a standardized form under the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. The Spring and Autumn Period ( was a period in Chinese history which roughly corresponds to the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (from the second half of the 8th century BC The Emperor of China ( refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning since the founding of the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC until the fall of Qin Shi Huang ( (259 BC – September 10 210 BC personal name Yíng Zhèng, was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 247 BCE to 221 BCE (during the The seal script, as the name suggests, is now only used in artistic seals this was copied and sticked. Few people are still able to read it effortlessly today, although the art of carving a traditional seal in the script remains alive; some calligraphers also work in this style. The art of Calligraphy is widely practiced and revered in the East Asian Civilizations that use or used Chinese characters.

Scripts that are still used regularly are the "Clerical Script" (simplified Chinese: 隶书; traditional Chinese: 隸書; pinyin: lìshū) of the Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, the Weibei (Chinese: 魏碑; pinyin: wèibēi), the "Regular Script" (simplified Chinese: 楷书; traditional Chinese: 楷書; pinyin: kǎishū) used for most printing, and the "Semi-cursive Script" (simplified Chinese: 行书; traditional Chinese: 行書; pinyin: xíngshū) used for most handwriting. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Not to be confused with the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty of China The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Semi-cursive script is a partially cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use

The Cursive Script (simplified Chinese: 草书; traditional Chinese: 草書; pinyin: cǎoshū; literally "grass script") is not in general use, and is a purely artistic calligraphic style. Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use The basic character shapes are suggested, rather than explicitly realized, and the abbreviations are extreme. Despite being cursive to the point where individual strokes are no longer differentiable and the characters often illegible to the untrained eye, this script (also known as draft) is highly revered for the beauty and freedom that it embodies. Some of the Simplified Chinese characters adopted by the People's Republic of China, and some of the simplified characters used in Japan, are derived from the Cursive Script. The Japanese hiragana script is also derived from this script. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet

There also exist scripts created outside China, such as the Japanese Edomoji styles; these have tended to remain restricted to their countries of origin, rather than spreading to other countries like the standard scripts described above. are Japanese lettering styles which were invented for advertising in the Edo period.

Oracle Bone Script	Seal Script	Clerical Script	Semi-Cursive Script	Cursive Script	Regular Script (Traditional)	Regular Script (Simplified)	Pinyin	Meaning
						—	rì	Sun
						—	yuè	Moon
						—	shān	Mountain
						—	shuǐ	Water
						—	yǔ	Rain
						—	mù	Wood
						—	hé	Millet
						—	rén	Human
						—	nǚ	Woman
						—	mǔ	Mother
						—	mù	Eye
						—	niú	Ox
						—	yáng	Sheep
							mǎ	Horse
							niǎo	Bird
							guī	Tortoise
							lóng	Chinese Dragon
							fèng	Chinese Phoenix

Formation of characters

Main articles: Chinese character classification and radical (Chinese character)

Excerpt from a 1436 primer on Chinese characters

The earliest known Chinese texts, in the Oracle bone script, display a fully developed writing system, little different functionally than modern characters. Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in Seal script ( Chinese: Simplified 篆书 篆書 Pinyin: zhuànshū is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which Semi-cursive script is a partially cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular The regular script or standard script, or in Chinese kaishu ( and Japanese kaisho, also commonly known as standard regular Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use The Sun (Sol is the Star at the center of the Solar System. A mountain is a Landform that extends above the surrounding Terrain in a limited area with a peak Water is a common Chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of Life. Rain is Liquid precipitation. On Earth it is the condensation of atmospheric Water vapor into drops heavy enough to fall often making it to Wood is hard fibrous lignified structural tissue produced as secondary Xylem in the stems of Woody plants notably trees but also shrubs The millets are a group of small- Seeded Species of Cereal crops or grains widely grown around the world for Food and Fodder Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus "Mom" "Mum" and "Mommy" redirect here Eyes are organs that detect Light, and send signals along the Optic nerve to the visual areas of the brain Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domesticated Ungulates a member of the Subfamily Bovinae of the family The horse ( Equus caballus) is a hoofed ( Ungulate) Mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae. Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. Tortoises or land Turtles are land-dwelling Reptiles of the family of Testudinidae', order Testudines. The Chinese Dragon or Oriental dragon is a mythical creature in East Asian culture with a Chinese origin Fenghuang are mythological Chinese birds that reign over all other birds All Chinese characters are Logograms but there are several derivative types This disambiguation page differentiates the various historical uses of the term radical in the context of Chinese characters Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in It can only be assumed that the early stages of the development of characters were dominated by pictograms, which were the objects depicted, and ideograms, in which meaning was expressed iconically. A pictogram ( also spelled pictogramme) or pictograph is a Symbol representing a Concept, object, activity place or event An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek idea "idea" + grafo "to write" is a Graphic symbol that represents an Idea In functional- Cognitive linguistics, as well as in Semiotics, iconicity is the conceived Similarity or Analogy between a form of a Sign The demands of writing full language, including words which had no easy pictographic or iconic representation, forced an expansion of this system, presumably through use of rebus. A rebus ( Latin: "by things" is a kind of word puzzle which uses pictures to represent words or parts of words for example H + =

The presumed methods of forming characters were first classified c. 100 AD by the Chinese linguist Xu Shen, whose etymological dictionary Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字/说文解字) divides the script into six categories, the liùshū (六書/六书). Xǔ Shèn ( ca 58 CE – ca 147 CE was a Chinese philologist of the Han Dynasty. The Shuōwén Jiězì ( "Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters" was an early 2nd century CE Chinese dictionary from the Han Dynasty While the categories and classification are occasionally problematic and arguably fail to reflect the complete nature of the Chinese writing system, this account has been perpetuated by its long history and pervasive use. [1]

Four percent of Chinese characters are derived directly from individual pictograms, though in most cases the resemblance to an object is no longer clear. Others are ideograms, compound ideograms, where two ideograms are combined to give a third reading, or rebus. But most characters are phono-semantic compounds, with one element to indicate the general category of meaning and the other to suggest the pronunciation. Again, in many cases the suggested sound is no longer accurate.

Pictograms

• 象形字 xiàngxíngzì

Contrary to popular belief, pictograms make up only a small portion of Chinese characters. While characters in this class derive from pictures, they have been standardized, simplified, and stylized to make them easier to write, and their derivation is therefore not always obvious. Examples include 日 (rì) for "sun", 月 (yuè) for "moon", and 木 (mù) for "tree". . . . [2]

There is no concrete number for the proportion of modern characters that are pictographic in nature; however, Xu Shen (c. 100 AD) estimated that 4% of characters fell into this category.

Ideograms

• 指事字, zhǐshìzì

Also called a simple indicatives or simple ideographs, these characters either modify existing pictographs iconically, or are direct iconic illustrate. For instance, by modifying 刀 dāo, a pictogram for "knife", by marking the blade, an ideogram 刃 rèn for "blade" is obtained. Direct examples include 上 shàng "up" and 下 xià "down". This category is small.

Ideogrammic compounds

• 會意字/会意字 huìyìzì

Translated literally as logical aggregates or associative compounds, these characters symbolically combine pictograms or ideograms to create a third character. For instance, doubling the pictogram 木 mu "tree" produces 林 lin "forest", while combining 日 rì "sun" and 月 yuè "moon", the two natural sources of light, makes 明 míng "bright".

Xu Shen estimated that 13% of characters fall into this category.

Some scholars flatly reject the existence of this category, opining that failure of modern attempts to identify a phonetic in a compound is due simply to our not looking at ancient "secondary readings", which were lost over time. ^[45] For example, the character 安 ān "peace", a combination of "roof" 宀 and "woman" 女, is commonly cited as an ideogrammic compound, purported motivated by a meaning such as "all is peaceful with the woman at home". However, there is evidence that 女 was once a polyphone with a secondary reading of *an, as may be gleaned from the set 妟 yàn "tranquil", 奻 nuán "to quarrel", and 姦 jiān "licentious".

Adding weight to this argument is the fact that characters claimed to belong to this group are almost invariably interpreted from modern forms rather than the archaic forms, which as a rule are quite different and often far more graphically complex. However, interpretations differ greatly between sources. ^[46]

Phono-semantic compounds

• 形聲字/形声字 xíngshēngzì

By far the most numerous category are the phono-semantic compounds, also called semantic-phonetic compounds or pictophonetic compounds. These characters are composed of two parts: one of a limited set of pictographs, often graphically simplified, which suggests the general meaning of the character, and an existing character pronounced approximately as the new target word.

Examples are 河 (hé) river, 湖 (hú) lake, 流 (liú) stream, 沖 (chōng) riptide, 滑 (huá) slippery. All these characters have on the left a radical of three dots, which is a simplified pictograph for a water drop, indicating that the character has a semantic connection with water; the right-hand side in each case is a phonetic indicator. This disambiguation page differentiates the various historical uses of the term radical in the context of Chinese characters For example, in the case of 冲 (chōng), the phonetic indicator is 中 (zhōng), which by itself means middle. In this case it can be seen that the pronunciation of the character has diverged from that of its phonetic indicator; this process means that the composition of such characters can sometimes seem arbitrary today. Further, the choice of radicals may also seem arbitrary in some cases; for example, the radical of 貓 (māo) cat is 豸 (zhì), originally a pictograph for worms, but in characters of this sort indicating an animal of any sort.

Xu Shen (c. 100 AD) placed approximately 82% of characters into this category, while in the Kangxi Dictionary (1716 AD) the number is closer to 90%, due to the extremely productive use of this technique to extend the Chinese vocabulary. The Kangxi Dictionary was the standard Chinese dictionary during the 18th and 19th centuries

Transformed cognates

• 轉注字/转注字 zhuǎnzhùzì

Characters in this category originally didn't represent the same meaning but have bifurcated through orthographic and often semantic drift. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language In diachronic (or historical linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. For instance, 考 (kǎo) to verify and 老 (lǎo) old were once the same character, meaning "elderly person", but detached into two separate words. Characters of this category are rare, so in modern systems this group is often omitted or combined with others.

Rebus

• 假借字 jiǎjièzì

Also called borrowings or phonetic loan characters, this category covers cases where an existing character is used to represent an unrelated word with similar pronunciation; sometimes the old meaning is then lost completely, as with characters such as 自 (zì), which has lost its original meaning of nose completely and exclusively means oneself, or 萬 (wan), which originally meant scorpion but is now used only in the sense of ten thousand.

This technique has become uncommon, since there is considerable resistance to changing the meaning of existing characters. However, it has been used in the development of written forms of dialects, notably Cantonese and Taiwanese in Hong Kong and Taiwan, due to the amount of dialectal vocabulary which historically has had no written form and thus lacks characters of its own. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia.

Written variants

Just as Roman letters have a characteristic shape (lower-case letters occupying a roundish area, with ascenders or descenders on some letters), Chinese characters occupy a more or less square area. Characters made up of multiple parts squash these parts together in order to maintain a uniform size and shape — this is the case especially with characters written in the Sòngtǐ style. Ming typefaces, known as Song typefaces in Mainland China, are a category of Typefaces used to display Chinese characters which are used in the Because of this, beginners often practise on squared graph paper, and the Chinese sometimes use the term "Square-Block Characters" (simplified Chinese: 方块字; traditional Chinese: 方塊字; pinyin: fāngkuàizì). Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use

The actual shape of many Chinese characters varies in different cultures. Mainland China adopted simplified characters in 1956, but Traditional Chinese characters are still used in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term synonymous with the area that is under the jurisdiction Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Macau topics. Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. Singapore has also adopted simplified Chinese characters. Singapore Postwar Japan has used its own less drastically simplified characters since 1946, while South Korea has limited its use of Chinese characters, and Vietnam and North Korea have completely abolished their use in favour of romanized Vietnamese and hangul, respectively. Shinjitai (in Shinjitai ja [[wikt新字体 新字体]] in Kyūjitai: ja [[wikt新字體 新字體]] meaning "new character form" are the forms of South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː Vietnam (ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm Việt Nam) officially North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, The Vietnamese alphabet has the following 29 letters in collating order Description The Vietnamese alphabet called Chữ Quốc Ngữ

Orthography

Main article: Variant Chinese character

The nature of Chinese characters makes it very easy to produce allographs for any character, and there have been many efforts at orthographical standardization throughout history. Variant Chinese characters ( are Chinese characters that can be used interchangeably Allography, from the Greek for "other writing" has several meanings which all relate to how Words and Sounds are written down The widespread usage of the characters in several different nations has prevented any one system becoming universally adopted; consequently, the standard shape of any given character in Chinese usage may differ subtly from its standard shape in Japanese or Korean usage, even where no simplification has taken place.

Usually, each Chinese character takes up the same amount of space, due to their block-like square nature. Beginners therefore typically practice writing with a grid as a guide. In addition to strictness in the amount of space a character takes up, Chinese characters are written with very precise rules. The three most important rules are the strokes employed, stroke placement, and the order in which they are written (stroke order). Stroke order ( 筆順 hitsujun or ja 書き順 kaki-jun; 필순 筆順 "pilsun" or ko 획순 畫順 "hoeksun" refers to the correct order in Most words can be written with just one stroke order, though some words also have variant stroke orders, which may occasionally result in different stroke counts; certain characters are also written with different stroke orders in different languages.

Common typefaces

Serif (top) and sans-serif (bottom) typefaces exist for Chinese characters in the regular script.

There are two common typefaces based on the regular script for Chinese characters akin to serif and sans-serif fonts in the West. Origins & etymology Serifs are thought to have originated in the Roman alphabet with inscriptional lettering —words carved into stone in Roman antiquity History Ancient usages Sans-serif letter forms can be found in Latin Etruscan, and Greek inscriptions for as early as 5th century BC The most popular for body text is a family of fonts called the Song typeface (宋体), also known as Minchō (明朝) in Japan, and Ming typeface (明體) in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Ming typefaces, known as Song typefaces in Mainland China, are a category of Typefaces used to display Chinese characters which are used in the The names of these fonts come from the Song and Ming dynasties, when block printing flourished in China. The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms The Ming Dynasty ( or Empire of the Great Ming ( was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol -led For the use of the technique in art see Woodcut on the technique and Old master print for the history in Europe and Woodblock printing in Japan. Because the wood grain on printing blocks ran horizontally, it was fairly easy to carve horizontal lines with the grain. Wood grain describes the alignment texture and appearance of the Wood fibres However, carving vertical or slanted patterns was difficult because those patterns intersect with the grain and break easily. This resulted in a typeface that has thin horizontal strokes and thick vertical strokes. To prevent wear and tear, the ending of horizontal strokes are also thickened. These design forces resulted in the current Song typeface characterized by thick vertical strokes contrasted with thin horizontal strokes; triangular ornaments at the end of single horizontal strokes; and overall geometrical regularity. This typeface is similar to Western serif fonts such as Times New Roman in both appearance and function. Times New Roman is a Serif Typeface commissioned by the British newspaper The Times, in 1931, designed by Stanley

The other common group of fonts is called the black typeface (黑体/體) in Chinese and Gothic typeface (ゴシック体) in Japanese. This group is characterized by straight lines of even thickness for each stroke, akin to sans-serif styles such as Arial and Helvetica in Western typography. Arial, sometimes marketed as Arial MT, is a Sans-serif Typeface and Computer font packaged with Microsoft Windows, other Helvetica is the name of a widely used Sans-serif Typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss Typeface designer Max Miedinger. This group of fonts, first introduced on newspaper headlines, is commonly used on headings, websites, signs and billboards.

Reform

Main articles: Simplified Chinese character and Shinjitai

Simplification in China

The use of traditional characters versus simplified characters varies greatly, and can depend on both the local customs and the medium. Shinjitai (in Shinjitai ja [[wikt新字体 新字体]] in Kyūjitai: ja [[wikt新字體 新字體]] meaning "new character form" are the forms of Because character simplifications were not officially sanctioned and generally a result of caoshu writing or idiosyncratic reductions, traditional, standard characters were mandatory in printed works, while the (unofficial) simplified characters would be used in everyday writing, or quick scribblings. Cursive script ( simplified草书 erroneously translated as Grass script is a style of Chinese calligraphy. Since the 1950s, and especially with the publication of the 1964 list, the PRC has officially adopted a simplified script, while Hong Kong, Macau, and the ROC retain the use of the traditional characters. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders There is no absolute rule for using either system, and often it is determined by what the target audience understands, as well as the upbringing of the writer. In addition there is a special system of characters used for writing numerals in financial contexts; these characters are modifications or adaptations of the original, simple numerals, deliberately made complicated to prevent forgeries or unauthorized alterations. Chinese numerals are characters for writing Numbers in Chinese.

Although most often associated with the PRC, character simplification predates the 1949 communist victory. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Caoshu, cursive written text, almost always includes character simplification, and simplified forms have always existed in print, albeit not for the most formal works. In the 1930s and 1940s, discussions on character simplification took place within the Kuomintang government, and a large number of Chinese intellectuals and writers have long maintained that character simplification would help boost literacy in China. Indeed, this desire by the Kuomintang to simplify the Chinese writing system (inherited and implemented by the CCP) also nursed aspirations of some for the adoption of a phonetic script, in imitation of the Roman alphabet, and spawned such inventions as the Gwoyeu Romatzyh. The Communist Party of China ( CPC) ( also known as the Chinese Communist Party ( CCP) is the founding and ruling political party of the Gwoyeu Romatzyh (literally "National Romanization " abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet

The PRC issued its first round of official character simplifications in two documents, the first in 1956 and the second in 1964. A second round of character simplifications (known as erjian, or "second round simplified characters") was promulgated in 1977. The second round of Chinese character simplification was an aborted orthography reform officially promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's It was poorly received, and in 1986 the authorities rescinded the second round completely, while making six revisions to the 1964 list, including the restoration of three traditional characters that had been simplified: 叠 dié, 覆 fù, 像 xiàng. Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar)

Many of the simplifications adopted had been in use in informal contexts for a long time, as more convenient alternatives to their more complex standard forms. For example, the traditional character 來 lái (come) was written with the structure 来 in the clerical script (隸書 lìshū) of the Han dynasty. The clerical script ( pinyin lìshū; Japanese 隷書体 Reishotai; formerly also chancery script is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which The Han Dynasty ( 206 BC–220 AD followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. This clerical form uses two fewer strokes, and was thus adopted as a simplified form. The character 雲 yún (cloud) was written with the structure 云 in the oracle bone script of the Shāng dynasty, and had remained in use later as a phonetic loan in the meaning of to say. Oracle bone script ( refers to incised (or rarely brush-written ancient Chinese characters found on Oracle bones which are animal bones or turtle shells used in The Shang Dynasty ( Chinese: 商[[wiktionary 朝|朝]] or Yin Dynasty ( 殷[[wiktionary 代|代]] was according to traditional sources the The simplified form reverted to this original structure.

Japanese kanji

Main article: Kanji

In the years after World War II, the Japanese government also instituted a series of orthographic reforms. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Japan no longer officially has the traditional Federal system, and its 47 prefectures, and prefectural and municipal assembly members are popularly elected for Some characters were given simplified forms called Shinjitai 新字体 (lit. Shinjitai (in Shinjitai ja [[wikt新字体 新字体]] in Kyūjitai: ja [[wikt新字體 新字體]] meaning "new character form" are the forms of "new character forms"; the older forms were then labelled the Kyūjitai 旧字体 , lit. "old character forms"). The number of characters in common use was restricted, and formal lists of characters to be learned during each grade of school were established, first the 1850-character Tōyō kanji 当用漢字 list in 1945, and later the 1945-character Jōyō kanji 常用漢字 list in 1981. The tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō (当用漢字 "kanji for general use" are the result of a reform of the Kanji characters The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Many variant forms of characters and obscure alternatives for common characters were officially discouraged. This was done with the goal of facilitating learning for children and simplifying kanji use in literature and periodicals. These are simply guidelines, hence many characters outside these standards are still widely known and commonly used, especially those used for personal and place names (for the former, see Jinmeiyō kanji). The jinmeiyō kanji (ja 人名用漢字 Chinese characters for use in personal names) are a set of 983 Chinese characters known as the "name kanji" in

Southeast Asian Chinese communities

Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification. Singapore These resulted in some simplifications that differed from those used in mainland China. Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term synonymous with the area that is under the jurisdiction It ultimately adopted the reforms of the PRC in their entirety as official, and has implemented them in the educational system. This is a list of articles on Education organized by country A Education in Afghanistan Education in Albania However, unlike in the PRC, personal names may still be registered in traditional characters.

Malaysia promulgated a set of simplified characters in 1981, which were also completely identical to the Mainland China simplifications; here, however, the simplifications were not generally widely adopted, as the Chinese educational system fell outside the purview of the federal government. For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and The politics of Malaysia takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister of Malaysia is the Head of government However, with the advent of the PRC as an economic powerhouse, simplified characters are taught at school, and the simplified characters are more commonly, if not almost universally, used. However, a large majority of the older Chinese literate generation use the traditional characters. Chinese newspapers are published in either set of characters, typically with the headlines in Traditional Chinese while the body is in Simplified Chinese.

Comparisons of Traditional, Simplified and Kanji

Note: this table is merely a brief sample, not a complete listing. Kowtow ( Cantonese Kau tàuh is the act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to touch the head to the ground

Dictionaries

Dozens of indexing schemes have been created for arranging Chinese characters in Chinese dictionaries. Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which is a significantly longer Lexicographical history than any other language The great majority of these schemes have appeared in only a single dictionary; only one such system has achieved truly widespread use. This is the system of radicals. This disambiguation page differentiates the various historical uses of the term radical in the context of Chinese characters

Chinese character dictionaries often allow users to locate entries in several different ways. Many Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dictionaries of Chinese characters list characters in radical order: characters are grouped together by radical, and radicals containing fewer strokes come before radicals containing more strokes. The CJK strokes (also known as the CJK(V or CJKV strokes are the strokes needed to write the Chinese characters used in East Asia. Under each radical, characters are listed by their total number of strokes. It is often also possible to search for characters by sound, using pinyin (in Chinese dictionaries), zhuyin (in Taiwanese dictionaries), kana (in Japanese dictionaries) or hangul (in Korean dictionaries). Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use Kana is a general term for the syllabic Japanese scripts Hiragana (ひらがな and Katakana (カタカナ as well as the old system Most dictionaries also allow searches by total number of strokes, and individual dictionaries often allow other search methods as well.

For instance, to look up the character where the sound is not known, e. g. , 松 (pine tree), the user first determines which part of the character is the radical (here 木), then counts the number of strokes in the radical (four), and turns to the radical index (usually located on the inside front or back cover of the dictionary). Under the number "4" for radical stroke count, the user locates 木, then turns to the page number listed, which is the start of the listing of all the characters containing this radical. This page will have a sub-index giving remainder stroke numbers (for the non-radical portions of characters) and page numbers. The right half of the character also contains four strokes, so the user locates the number 4, and turns to the page number given. From there, the user must scan the entries to locate the character he or she is seeking. Some dictionaries have a sub-index which lists every character containing each radical, and if the user knows the number of strokes in the non-radical portion of the character, he or she can locate the correct page directly.

Another dictionary system is the four corner method, where characters are classified according to the "shape" of each of the four corners. The Four Corner Method (literal translation ( is a character input method used for encoding Chinese characters either into a computer or a manual typewriter using

Most modern Chinese dictionaries and Chinese dictionaries sold to English speakers use the traditional radical-based character index in a section at the front, while the main body of the dictionary arranges the main character entries alphabetically according to their pinyin spelling. Pinyin, more formally Hanyu pinyin, is the most common Standard Mandarin Romanization system in use To find a character with unknown sound using one of these dictionaries, the reader finds the radical and stroke number of the character, as before, and locates the character in the radical index. The character's entry will have the character's pronunciation in pinyin written down; the reader then turns to the main dictionary section and looks up the pinyin spelling alphabetically.

Sinoxenic languages

Besides Japanese and Korean, a number of Asian languages have historically been written using Han characters, with characters modified from Han characters, or using Han characters in combination with native characters. They include:

• Iu Mien language
• Jurchen language
• Khitan language
• Miao language
• Nakhi (Naxi) language (Geba script)
• Tangut language [3], [4]
• Vietnamese language (Chữ nôm)
• Zhuang language (using Zhuang logograms, or "sawndip")

In addition, the Yi script is similar to Han, but is not known to be directly related to it. The Iu Mien language is one of the main languages spoken by the Yao people in China, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and more recently The Jurchens ( were a Tungus people who inhabited the region of Manchuria ( Northeast China) until the 17th century when they adopted the name Manchu The Khitan language (also known as Liao Kitan 639-3 is a now-extinct language once spoken by the Khitan people. Hmong ( RPA: Hmoob) or Mong ( RPA: Moob) is the common name for a group of dialects of the West Hmongic (Chuanqiandian branch The Nakhi ( endonym ¹na²khi) are an ethnic group inhabiting the foothills of the Himalayas in the northwestern part of Yunnan Province Geba is the syllabic component of the Naxi script. It is called ¹Ggo¹baw in Naxi, adapted as Geba in Chinese Tangut (also Xixia or Hsi-Hsia) is an ancient northeastern Tibeto-Burman language once spoken Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam) Chữ Nôm ( IPA: /cɨ3ˀ5 nom33/ chữ Nôm in Unicode: 字[[wikt 喃|喃]]/ 𡨸 喃/ 𡦂 喃 chữ Nôm in Unicode The Zhuang language ( autonym: Cuengh or Cueŋь) is used by the Zhuang people in the People's Republic of China. Zhuang logograms or sawndip are Logograms created as a derivative characters of Han characters and used by Zhuang in Guangxi The Yi scripts, also known as Cuan or Wei are used to write the Yi languages Classical Yi Logogram

Number of Chinese characters

The total number of Chinese characters from past to present remains unknowable because new ones are developed all the time. Chinese characters are theoretically an open set. In Metric topology and related fields of Mathematics, a set U is called open if intuitively speaking starting from any point x in The number of entries in major Chinese dictionaries is the best means of estimating the historical growth of character inventory.

Comparing the Shuowen Jiezi and Hanyu Da Zidian reveals that the overall number of characters recorded in dictionaries has increased 577 percent over 1,900 years. The Shuōwén Jiězì ( "Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters" was an early 2nd century CE Chinese dictionary from the Han Dynasty The Yupian ( "Jade Chapters" is a circa 543 CE Chinese dictionary edited by Gu Yewang ( Ku Yeh-wang 519-581 during the Liang Dynasty The Qieyun ( is a Chinese Rime dictionary, published in 601 CE during the Sui Dynasty. The Guangyun ( literally "Broad/Extensive Rimes" is a Chinese Rime dictionary that was compiled from 1007 to 1011 under The Jiyun ( literally "Collected Rimes" is a Chinese Rime dictionary published in 1037 during the Song Dynasty. The Zihui ( was a 1615 Chinese dictionary, edited by Mei Yingzuo (梅膺祚 during the late Ming Dynasty. The Kangxi Dictionary was the standard Chinese dictionary during the 18th and 19th centuries The Zhonghua Da Zidian ( "Comprehensive Chinese character dictionary" was an unabridged Chinese dictionary of characters published in 1915 The Hanyu Da Zidian ( is one of the best available reference works on Chinese characters. Depending upon how one counts variants, 50,000+ is a good approximation for the current total number. This correlates with the most comprehensive Japanese and Korean dictionaries of Chinese characters; the Dai Kan-Wa Jiten has some 50,000 entries, and the Han-Han Dae Sajeon has over 57,000. The is a Japanese dictionary of Kanji ( Chinese characters) compiled by Morohashi Tetsuji. Han-Han Dae Sajeon refers to generic term for Korean dictionaries from Hanja to Hangul. The latest behemoth, the Zhonghua Zihai, records a staggering 85,568 single characters, although even this fails to list all characters known, ignoring the roughly 1,500 Japanese-made kokuji given in the Kokuji no Jiten^[48] as well as the Chu Nom inventory only used in Vietnam in past days.

Modified radicals and obsolete variants are two common reasons for the ever-increasing number of characters. There are about 300 radicals and 100 are in common use. Creating a new character by modifying the radical is an easy way to disambiguate homographs among xíngshēngzì pictophonetic compounds. A homograph is one of a group of words that share the same spelling but have different meanings This practice began long before the standardization of Chinese script by Qin Shi Huang and continues to the present day. Qin Shi Huang ( (259 BC – September 10 210 BC personal name Yíng Zhèng, was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 247 BCE to 221 BCE (during the The traditional 3rd-person pronoun tā (他 "he; she; it"), which is written with the "person radical," illustrates modifying significs to form new characters. In modern usage, there is a graphic distinction between tā (她 "she") with the "woman radical", tā (牠 "it") with the "animal radical", tā (它 "it") with the "roof radical", and tā (祂 "He") with the "deity radical", One consequence of modifying radicals is the fossilization of rare and obscure variant logographs, some of which are not even used in Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of Written Chinese based on the Grammar and Vocabulary of ancient Chinese For instance, he 和 "harmony; peace", which combines the "grain radical" with the "mouth radical", has infrequent variants 咊 with the radicals reversed and 龢 with the "flute radical".

Chinese

It is usually said that about 3,000 characters are needed for basic literacy in Chinese (for example, to read a Chinese newspaper), and a well-educated person will know well in excess of 4,000 to 5,000 characters. Note that Chinese characters should not be confused with Chinese words, as the majority of modern Chinese words, unlike their Ancient Chinese and Middle Chinese counterparts, are multi-morphemic and multi-syllabic compounds, that is, most Chinese words are written with two or more characters; each character representing one syllable. In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. Knowing the meanings of the individual characters of a word will often allow the general meaning of the word to be inferred, but this is not invariably the case.

In the People's Republic of China, which uses Simplified Chinese characters, the Xiàndài Hànyǔ Chángyòng Zìbiǎo (现代汉语常用字表; Chart of Common Characters of Modern Chinese) lists 2,500 common characters and 1,000 less-than-common characters, while the Xiàndài Hànyǔ Tōngyòng Zìbiǎo (现代汉语通用字表; Chart of Generally Utilized Characters of Modern Chinese) lists 7,000 characters, including the 3,500 characters already listed above. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The Xiàndài Hànyǔ Chángyòng Zìbiǎo (zh 现代汉语常用字表 "List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese" is the list of the 3500 most frequently used GB2312, an early version of the national encoding standard used in the People's Republic of China, has 6,763 code points. GB2312 is the registered internet name for a key official Character set of the People's Republic of China, used for simplified Chinese characters Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES GB18030, the modern, mandatory standard, has a much higher number. GB18030 is the registered Internet name for the official Character set of the People's Republic of China (PRC superseding GB2312. The Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì proficiency test covers approximately 5,000 characters.

In the ROC, which uses Traditional Chinese characters, the Ministry of Education's Chángyòng Guózì Biāozhǔn Zìtǐ Biǎo (常用國字標準字體表; Chart of Standard Forms of Common National Characters) lists 4,808 characters; the Cì Chángyòng Guózì Biāozhǔn Zìtǐ Biǎo (次常用國字標準字體表; Chart of Standard Forms of Less-Than-Common National Characters) lists another 6,341 characters. REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES The Chinese Standard Interchange Code (CNS11643)—the official national encoding standard—supports 48,027 characters, while the most widely-used encoding scheme, BIG-5, supports only 13,053. Big-5 or Big5 is a character encoding method used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau for Traditional Chinese characters

In Hong Kong, which uses Traditional Chinese characters, the Education and Manpower Bureau's Soengjung Zi Zijing Biu (常用字字形表), intended for use in elementary and junior secondary education, lists a total of 4,759 characters. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders

In addition, there is a large corpus of dialect characters, which are not used in formal written Chinese but represent colloquial terms in non-Mandarin Chinese spoken forms. One such variety is Written Cantonese, in widespread use in Hong Kong even for certain formal documents, due to the former British colonial administration's recognition of Cantonese for use for official purposes. Written Cantonese refers to the Written language used to write Colloquial Standard Cantonese using Chinese characters. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders This article is about a type of political territory For other uses see Colony (disambiguation. In Taiwan, there is also an informal body of characters used to represent the spoken Hokkien (Min Nan) dialect. The Southern Min language or Min Nan ( POJ: Bân-lâm-gú or "Southern Fujian" language refers to a family of Chinese languages Dialects

Japanese

Main article: Kanji

In Japanese there are 1,945 Jōyō kanji (常用漢字 lit. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. "frequently used kanji") designated by the Japanese Ministry of Education; these are taught during primary and secondary school. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana The list is a recommendation, not a restriction, and many characters missing from it are still in common use.

The one area where character usage is officially restricted is in names, which may contain only government-approved characters. Since the Jōyō kanji list excludes many characters which have been used in personal and place names for generations, an additional list, referred to as the Jinmeiyō kanji (人名用漢字 lit. The jinmeiyō kanji (ja 人名用漢字 Chinese characters for use in personal names) are a set of 983 Chinese characters known as the "name kanji" in "kanji for use in personal names"), is published. It currently contains 983 characters, bringing the total number of government-endorsed characters to 2928. (See also the Names section of the kanji article. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana )

Today, a well-educated Japanese person may know upwards of 3500 kanji. The kanji kentei (日本漢字能力検定試験 Nihon Kanji Nōryoku Kentei Shiken or Test of Japanese Kanji Aptitude) tests a speaker's ability to read and write kanji. The, also known as, or Kanken, is a test of Kanji ability There are 12 levels (levels 10 through 3 pre-2 2 pre-1 and 1 with level 10 being the lowest and level The highest level of the kanji kentei tests on 6000 kanji, though in practice few people attain (or need to attain) this level.

Written Japanese also includes a pair of syllabic scripts known as kana, which are used in combination with kanji. A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate Syllables which make up Words A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional Kana is a general term for the syllabic Japanese scripts Hiragana (ひらがな and Katakana (カタカナ as well as the old system Not all words in modern Japanese can be expressed with kanji alone, requiring the use of kana in written communication.

Korean

Main article: Hanja

In times past, until the 15th century, in Korea, Chinese was the only form of written communication, prior to the creation of hangul, the Korean alphabet. Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated Much of the vocabulary, especially in the realms of science and sociology, comes directly from Chinese. However, due the lack of tones in Korean, as the words were imported from Chinese, many dissimilar characters took on identical sounds, and subsequently identical spelling in hangul. Chinese characters are sometimes used to this day for either clarification in a practical manner, or to give a distinguished appearance, as knowledge of Chinese characters is considered a high class attribute and an indispensable part of a classical education.

In Korea, 한자 hanja have become a politically contentious issue, with some Koreans urging a "purification" of the national language and culture by totally abandoning their use. Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated These individuals encourage the exclusive use of the native hangul alphabet throughout Korean society and the end to character education in public schools.

In South Korea, educational policy on characters has swung back and forth, often swayed by education ministers' personal opinions. At times, middle and high school students have been formally exposed to 1,800 to 2,000 basic characters, albeit with the principal focus on recognition, with the aim of achieving newspaper-literacy. Since there is little need to use hanja in everyday life, young adult Koreans are often unable to read more than a few hundred characters.

There is a clear trend toward the exclusive use of hangul in day-to-day South Korean society. Hanja are still used to some extent, particularly in newspapers, weddings, place names and calligraphy. Calligraphy (from Greek kallos "beauty" + graphẽ "writing" is the art of writing (Mediavilla 1996 17 Hanja is also extensively used in situations where ambiguity must be avoided, such as academic papers, high-level corporate reports, government documents, and newspapers; this is due to the large number of homonyms that have resulted from extended borrowing of Chinese words. In linguistics a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings and are usually spelled differently

The issue of ambiguity is the main hurdle in any effort to "cleanse" the Korean language of Chinese characters. Characters convey meaning visually, while alphabets convey guidance to pronunciation, which in turn hints at meaning. As an example, in Korean dictionaries, the phonetic entry for 기사 gisa yields more than 30 different entries. In the past, this ambiguity had been efficiently resolved by parenthetically displaying the associated hanja.

In the modern Korean writing system based on hangul, Chinese characters are not used any more to represent native morphemes.

In North Korea, the government, wielding much tighter control than its sister government to the south, has banned Chinese characters from virtually all public displays and media, and mandated the use of hangul in their place.

Vietnamese

Although now nearly extinct in Vietnamese, varying scripts of Chinese characters (hán tự) were once in widespread use to write the language, although hán tự became limited to ceremonial uses beginning in the 19th century. Hán tự ( {{IPA|/han˦˥ tɯ˨/}}; 漢[[wikt 字|字]] meaning " Chinese character " or chữ Nho ( {{IPA|/tɕɯ˧˨˧ ɲɔ/}} The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Similarly to Japan and Korea, Chinese (especially Classical Chinese) was used by the ruling classes, and the characters were eventually adopted to write Vietnamese. Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of Written Chinese based on the Grammar and Vocabulary of ancient Chinese To express native Vietnamese words which had different pronunciations from the Chinese, Vietnamese developed the Chữ Nôm script which used various methods to distinguish native Vietnamese words from Chinese. Chữ Nôm ( IPA: /cɨ3ˀ5 nom33/ chữ Nôm in Unicode: 字[[wikt 喃|喃]]/ 𡨸 喃/ 𡦂 喃 chữ Nôm in Unicode Vietnamese is currently exclusively written in the Vietnamese alphabet, a derivative of the Latin alphabet. The Vietnamese alphabet has the following 29 letters in collating order Description The Vietnamese alphabet called Chữ Quốc Ngữ

Rare and complex characters

Often a character not commonly used (a "rare" or "variant" character) will appear in a personal or place name in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (see Chinese name, Japanese name, Korean name, and Vietnamese name, respectively). Personal Names in Chinese culture follow a number of conventions different from those of personal names in Western cultures. in modern times usually consist of a Family name ( Surname) followed by a Given name. A Korean name consists of a Family name followed by a Given name, as used by the Korean people in both North Korea and South Korea Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts a Family name, a Middle name, and a Given name, used in that order This has caused problems as many computer encoding systems include only the most common characters and exclude the less oft-used characters. This is especially a problem for personal names which often contain rare or classical, antiquated characters.

People who have run into this problem include Taiwanese politician Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃, pinyin Yóu Xíkūn) and Taiwanese singer David Tao (陶喆 Táo Zhé) due to the last character in each name being very rare. Yu Shyi-kun ( Pinyin: Yóu Xíkūn POJ: Iû Siah-khun (born April 25, 1948) a Taiwanese politician of the Democratic David Tao is a popular Chinese Singer-songwriter. He is well-known for creating a crossover genre of R&B and Hard rock tunes which has now become his signature Newspapers have dealt with this problem in varying ways, including using software to combine two existing, similar characters, including a picture of the personality, or, especially as is the case with Yu Shyi-kun, simply substituting a homophone for the rare character in the hope that the reader would be able to make the correct inference. Taiwanese political posters, movie posters etc. will often add the bopomofo phonetic symbols next to such a character. Japanese newspapers may render such names and words in katakana instead of kanji, and it is accepted practice for people to write names for which they are unsure of the correct kanji in katakana instead. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet

There are also some extremely complex characters which have understandably become rather rare. According to Bellassen (1989), the most complex Chinese character is (U+2A6A5) zhé listen (help·info) (pictured below, left), meaning "verbose" and boasting sixty-four strokes; this character fell from use around the 5th century. The 5th century is the period from 401 to 500 in accordance with the Julian calendar in Anno Domini / Common Era. It might be argued, however, that while boasting the most strokes, it is not necessarily the most complex character (in terms of difficulty), as it simply requires writing the same sixteen-stroke character 龍 lóng (lit. "dragon") four times in the space for one.

One of the most complex characters found in modern Chinese dictionaries^[49] is 齉 (U+9F49) nàng listen (help·info) (pictured below, second from left), meaning "snuffle" (that is, a pronunciation marred by a blocked nose), with "just" thirty-six strokes. However, this is not in common use. The most complex character that can be input using the Microsoft New Phonetic IMA 2002a for Traditional Chinese is 龘 dá "the appearance of a dragon in flight"; it is composed of the dragon radical represented three times, for a total of 16 × 3 = 48 strokes. Among the most complex characters in modern dictionaries and also in frequent modern use are 籲 yù “to implore”, with 32 strokes; 鬱 yù "luxuriant, lush; gloomy", with 29 strokes, as in 憂鬱 yōuyù "depressed"; 豔 yan4 "colorful", with 28 strokes; and 釁 xìn "quarrel", with 25 strokes, as in 挑釁 tiǎoxìn "to pick a fight". Also in occasional modern use is  xiān “fresh” (variant of 鮮 xiān) with 33 strokes.

In Japanese, an 84-stroke kokuji exists [5]— it is composed of three "cloud" (雲) characters on top of the abovementioned triple "dragon" character (龘). The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts Kanji, characters of Chinese origin, Hiragana are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana Also meaning "the appearance of a dragon in flight", it has been pronounced おとど otodo, たいと taito, and だいと daito.

The most complex Chinese character still in use may be biáng (pictured right, bottom), with 57 strokes, which refers to Biang biang noodles, a type of noodle from China's Shaanxi province. Biáng biáng noodles ( are a type of Noodle popular in China 's Shaanxi province Biáng biáng noodles ( are a type of Noodle popular in China 's Shaanxi province China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National ( Postal map spelling: Shensi) is a north-central province of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess This character along with syllable biang cannot be found in dictionaries. The fact that it represents a syllable that does not exist in any Standard Mandarin word means that it could be classified as a dialectal character. Standard Mandarin, also known as Standard Spoken Chinese, is the official modern Chinese spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan

In contrast, the simplest character is 一 yī ("one") with just one horizontal stroke. The most common character in Chinese is 的 de, a grammatical particle functioning as an adjectival marker and as a clitic genitive case analogous to the English ’s, with eight strokes. In Linguistics, the term particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another and is therefore The average number of strokes in a character has been calculated as 9. 8;^[50] it is unclear, however, whether this average is weighted, or whether it includes traditional characters.

Another very simple Chinese character is 〇 (líng), the numeral zero in a positional system. For instance, the year 2000 would be 二〇〇〇年. It is not a typical character, but taken from the mathematical system of rod numerals. Counting rods ( Japanese: 算木 sangi are small bars typically 3-14 cm long used by mathematicians for calculation in China, Japan (The traditional character for líng is 零. ) The form 〇 is attested from 1247 AD, in the Southern Song mathematical text 數術九章 (Shǔ Shù Jiǔ Zhāng "Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections"), presumably an influence of Indian "0". ^[51] Being round, the character does not contain any traditional strokes.

Zhé, "verbose"

Nàng, "poor enunciation due to snuffle"

"Taito," the appearance of a dragon in flight

"Biáng," a kind of noodle in Shaanxi

Chinese calligraphy

Main article: Chinese calligraphy

Chinese calligraphy of mixed styles written by Song Dynasty (1051–1108 AD) poet Mifu. ( Postal map spelling: Shensi) is a north-central province of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess The art of Calligraphy is widely practiced and revered in the East Asian Civilizations that use or used Chinese characters. The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Biography According to tradition he was a very smart boy with a great interest in arts and letters and an astonishing ability of memorising For centuries, the Chinese literati were expected to master the art of calligraphy.

The art of writing Chinese characters is called Chinese calligraphy. It is usually done with ink brushes. Ink brushes ( in Japanese fude) are used in Chinese calligraphy. In ancient China, Chinese calligraphy is one of the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholars. The Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar, otherwise known as siyi ( 四[[wiktionary 艺|艺]] is a term used to describe four main requirements of the Chinese There is a minimalist set of rules of Chinese calligraphy. Every character from the Chinese scripts is built into a uniform shape by means of assigning it a geometric area in which the character must occur. Each character has a set number of brushstrokes, none must be added or taken away from the character to enhance it visually, lest the meaning be lost. Finally, strict regularity is not required, meaning the strokes may be accentuated for dramatic effect of individual style. Calligraphy was the means by which scholars could mark their thoughts and teachings for immortality, and as such, represent some of the more precious treasures that can be found from ancient China.

See also

• List of languages written in Chinese characters and derivatives of Chinese characters
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Romanization of Chinese
• Wiktionary:Chinese total strokes index
• Wiktionary:Chinese radical index
• Chinese character encoding
• Chinese input methods for computers
• Chinese language
• Sinosphere
• Han unification
• Chinese written language
• Chinese numerals, or how to write numbers with Chinese characters
• Transliteration into Chinese characters
• Chinese characters for chemical elements
• Xiandai Hanyu changyong zibiao (现代汉语常用字表, List of Frequently-Used Characters in Modern Chinese)
• Stroke order
• Eight Principles of Yong
• Earthly Branches
• Heavenly Stems
• East Asian calligraphy
• Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts
• Blissymbols (an international auxiliary logographic script)
• Sinoxenic
• Devanagari
• Hanja Test Wikipedia
• Chu-Nom Test Wikipedia
• Kanji
• Hanja

References

External links

• Evolution of Chinese Characters
• History of Chinese writing
• Unihan Database: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean references, readings, and meanings for all the Chinese and Chinese-derived characters in the Unicode character set
• Chinese Character Test: Online test helps you estimate how many Chinese characters you recognize. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's
• IRG Page
• IRG working documents – many big size pdfs, some of them with details of CJK extensions
• Welcome To Mojikyo Institute! — big size downloadable Mojikyo program files
• Hanzi Browser: Chinese Character reference searchable by semantic/phonetic component
• Chinese Characters: Suggestions about How to Learn Chinese Character
• Stroke order for Chinese characters: Official website for stroke order for Chinese characters