A report on Chinese characters and Traditional Chinese characters

Excerpt from a 1436 primer on Chinese characters

Job announcement in a Filipino Chinese daily newspaper written in traditional Chinese characters

Comparative evolution from pictograms to abstract shapes, in cuneiform, Egyptian and Chinese characters

The character {{lang|zh|{{linktext|繁}}}} (Pinyin: {{transl|zh|fán}}) meaning "complex, complicated (Chinese characters)"

The Shi Qiang pan, a bronze ritual basin dated to around 900 BC. Long inscriptions on the surface describe the deeds and virtues of the first seven Zhou kings.

Countries and regions officially using Chinese characters currently or formerly as a writing system:Traditional Chinese used officially (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau)
Simplified Chinese used officially but traditional form is also used in publishing (Singapore and Malaysia)
Simplified Chinese used officially, traditional form in daily use is uncommon (China, Kokang and Wa State of Myanmar)
Chinese characters used in parallel with other scripts in respective native languages (South Korea, Japan)Chinese characters were once used officially, but this is now obsolete (Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam)

A page from a Song dynasty publication in a regular script typeface which resembles the handwriting of Ouyang Xun from Tang Dynasty

The first batch of Simplified Characters introduced in 1935 consisted of 324 characters.

Current (dark green) and former extension (light green) of the use of Chinese characters

The first two lines of the classic Vietnamese epic poem The Tale of Kieu, written in the Nôm script and the modern Vietnamese alphabet. Chinese characters representing Sino-Vietnamese words are shown in green, characters borrowed for similar-sounding native Vietnamese words in purple, and invented characters in brown.

Mongolian text from The Secret History of the Mongols in Chinese transcription, with a glossary on the right of each row

Sample of the cursive script by Chinese Tang dynasty calligrapher Sun Guoting, c. 650 AD

Chinese calligraphy of mixed styles written by Song dynasty (1051–1108 AD) poet Mifu. For centuries, the Chinese literati were expected to master the art of calligraphy.

The first four characters of Thousand Character Classic in different type and script styles. From right to left: seal script, clerical script, regular script, Ming and sans-serif.

Variants of the Chinese character for guī 'turtle', collected c. 1800 from printed sources. The one at left is the traditional form used today in Taiwan and Hong Kong,, though may look slightly different, or even like the second variant from the left, depending on your font (see Wiktionary). The modern simplified forms used in China,, and in Japan, 亀, are most similar to the variant in the middle of the bottom row, though neither is identical. A few more closely resemble the modern simplified form of the character for diàn 'lightning', 电.

Five of the 30 variant characters found in the preface of the Imperial (Kangxi) Dictionary which are not found in the dictionary itself. They are 為 (爲) wèi "due to", 此 cǐ "this", 所 suǒ "place", 能 néng "be able to", 兼 jiān "concurrently". (Although the form of 為 is not very different, and in fact is used today in Japan, the radical 爪 has been obliterated.) Another variant from the preface, 来 for 來 lái "to come", also not listed in the dictionary, has been adopted as the standard in Mainland China and Japan.

The character 次 in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. If you have an appropriate font installed, you can see the corresponding character in Vietnamese:.

Cumulative frequency of simplified Chinese characters in Modern Chinese text

Kanji for 剣道 (Kendo), pronounced differently from the Korean term 劍道 (Kumdo), or the Chinese words 劍道 (jiàndào; it is more common to use the expressions 劍術 jiànshù or 劍法 jiànfǎ in Chinese).

Taito, "the appearance of a dragon in flight"

Traditional Chinese characters are one type of standard Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese.

- Traditional Chinese characters

Simplified forms of certain characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia; traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and, to some extent, in South Korea.

- Chinese characters

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The first batch of Simplified Characters introduced in 1935, later retracted in 1936, consisted of 324 characters.

Simplified Chinese characters

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The slogan 战无不胜的毛泽东思想万岁! (Zhàn wúbù shèng de Máo Zédōng sīxiǎng wànsuì!; Long live the invincible Mao Zedong Thought!), in simplified script, on Xinhua Gate in Beijing.

Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in Mainland China and Singapore, as prescribed by the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters.

Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one of the two standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language.

China

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Country in East Asia.

China (today's Guangdong), Mangi (inland of Xanton), and Cataio (inland of China and Chequan, and including the capital Cambalu, Xandu, and a marble bridge) are all shown as separate regions on this 1570 map by Abraham Ortelius

10,000 years old pottery, Xianren Cave culture (18000–7000 BCE)

Yinxu, the ruins of the capital of the late Shang dynasty (14th century BCE)

China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, is famed for having united the Warring States' walls to form the Great Wall of China. Most of the present structure, however, dates to the Ming dynasty.

Map showing the expansion of Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC

The Qing conquest of the Ming and expansion of the empire

The Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China to defeat the anti-foreign Boxers and their Qing backers. The image shows a celebration ceremony inside the Chinese imperial palace, the Forbidden City after the signing of the Boxer Protocol in 1901.

Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of Republic of China, one of the first republics in Asia.

Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong toasting together in 1945 following the end of World War II

Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the PRC in 1949.

The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests was ended by a military-led massacre which brought condemnations and sanctions against the Chinese government from various foreign countries.

Satellite image of China from NASA WorldWind

Köppen-Geiger climate classification map for mainland China.

A giant panda, China's most famous endangered and endemic species, at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.

Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao of 1044 CE

Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen. Huawei is the world's largest telecoms-equipment-maker and the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, one of the first Chinese spaceports

Internet penetration rates in China in the context of East Asia and Southeast Asia, 1995–2012

The Duge Bridge is the highest bridge in the world.

The Beijing Daxing International Airport features the world's largest single-building airport terminal.

The Port of Shanghai's deep water harbor on Yangshan Island in the Hangzhou Bay is the world's busiest container port since 2010.

A 2009 population density map of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. The eastern coastal provinces are much more densely populated than the western interior.

A trilingual sign in Sibsongbanna, with Tai Lü language on the top

Map of the ten largest cities in China (2010)

Beijing's Peking University, one of the top-ranked universities in China

Chart showing the rise of China's Human Development Index from 1970 to 2010

Geographic distribution of religions in China.
Chinese folk religion (including Confucianism, Taoism, and groups of Chinese Buddhism)
Buddhism tout court
Islam
Ethnic minorities' indigenous religions
Mongolian folk religion
Northeast China folk religion influenced by Tungus and Manchu shamanism; widespread Shanrendao

Fenghuang County, an ancient town that harbors many architectural remains of Ming and Qing styles.

The stories in Journey to the West are common themes in Peking opera.

Map showing major regional cuisines of China

Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players, in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent and was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago.

Long March 2F launching Shenzhou spacecraft. China is one of the only three countries with independent human spaceflight capability.

The Tang dynasty at its greatest extent and Tang's protectorates

Lihaozhai High School in Jianshui, Yunnan. The sign is in Hani (Latin alphabet), Nisu (Yi script), and Chinese.

China topographic map with East Asia countries

Their oracle bone script (from BCE) represents the oldest form of Chinese writing yet found and is a direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters.

In 1956, the government introduced simplified characters, which have supplanted the older traditional characters in mainland China.

A 12th-century Song Dynasty redaction of the Shuōwén Jiězì.

Written Chinese

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Vertical Chinese writing seen on a restaurant sign and bus stop in Hong Kong.

Left: Bronze 方樽 fāngzūn ritual wine container dated about 1000 BC. The written inscription cast in bronze on the vessel commemorates a gift of cowrie shells in Zhou Dynasty society. Right: Bronze 方彝 fāngyí ritual container dated about 1000 BC. An inscription of some 180 Chinese characters appears twice on the vessel, commenting on state rituals that accompanied a court ceremony.

Tomb of Fu Hao, c. 1200 BC, containing some 200 bronze vessels with 109 inscriptions in oracle bone script of Fu Hao's name.

Written Chinese comprises Chinese characters used to represent the Chinese language.

In the 20th century, written Chinese diverged into two canonical forms, simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese.

In the traditional Chinese character 媽 mā "mother". The left part is the radical 女 nǚ "female". The character is the semantic component of a phono-semantic compound (}, and the right part, 馬 mǎ "horse", is the phonetic component.

Radical (Chinese characters)

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A Chinese radical or indexing component is a graphical component of a Chinese character under which the character is traditionally listed in a Chinese dictionary.

For instance, in traditional writing, the character 金 jīn is written 釒(that is, with the same number of strokes, and only a minor variation) as a radical, but in simplified characters is written 钅 as a radical.

A packet of Shin Ramyun, the Chinese character, meaning "spicy", is prominently reflected

Hanja

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The Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, an annual record of the Joseon Dynasty throughout its entire history, was written in Classical Chinese

This Korean War propaganda leaflet created by the US Army as part of Operation Moolah uses Hangul–Hanja mixed script.

Hanja (Hanja:, ), alternatively known as Hancha, is the Korean name for a traditional writing system which consists of Chinese characters that has been incorporated and used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.

Because Hanja never underwent any major reforms, they are similar to kyūjitai and traditional Chinese characters, although the stroke orders for some characters are slightly different.

Zhongguo Guanhua, or Medii Regni Communis Loquela ("Middle Kingdom's Common Speech"), used on the frontispiece of an early Chinese grammar published by Étienne Fourmont (with Arcadio Huang) in 1742

Standard Chinese

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Dialect of Mandarin Chinese that emerged as the lingua franca among speakers of Mandarin and other varieties of Chinese in the 20th century.

Distribution of Mandarin subgroups in mainland China, as of 1987

Distribution of Chinese dialect groups, including Mandarin (light brown), as of 1987

A poster outside a high school in Yangzhou urges people to "Speak Putonghua to welcome guests from all around, use the language of the civilized (Putonghua) to give your sincere feelings".

Relative pitch contours of the four full tones

There is no explicit official intent to have Standard Chinese replace the regional varieties, but local governments have enacted regulations (such as the Guangdong National Language Regulations) which "implement" the national law by way of coercive measures to control the public use of regional spoken varieties and traditional characters in writing.

Chinese characters were traditionally read from top to bottom, right to left, but in modern usage it is more common to read from left to right.

Left: "Chinese character" in Traditional Chinese. Right: "Chinese character" in Simplified Chinese

Chinese family of scripts

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The Chinese family of scripts are writing systems descended from the Chinese Oracle Bone Script and used for a variety of languages in East Asia.

Ox scapula inscribed with Oracle Bone Script, the ancestor of the Chinese family of scripts

An example of Chinese bronze inscriptions, on a bronze vessel dated to the early Western Zhou period, 11th century BC

Katakana with man'yōgana equivalents (segments of man'yōgana adapted into katakana shown in red, retroactive, ye, yi, and wu not present)

Development of hiragana from man'yōgana (retroactive, ye, yi, and wu not present)

Bronze edict plate with Tangut characters

They include logosyllabic systems such as the Chinese script itself (or hanzi, now in two forms, traditional and simplified), and adaptations to other languages, such as Kanji (Japanese), Hanja (Korean), Chữ Hán and Chữ Nôm (Vietnamese) and Sawndip (Zhuang).

Kyūjitai

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Kyūjitai (舊字體/旧字体) are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written characters used in Japanese.

However, in Japan fewer and less drastic simplifications were made: for example, "electric" is still written as "電" in Japan, as it is also written in Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan, which continue to use traditional Chinese characters, but has been simplified to 电 in mainland China.