A report on Chinese characters

Excerpt from a 1436 primer on Chinese characters
Comparative evolution from pictograms to abstract shapes, in cuneiform, Egyptian and Chinese characters
Ox scapula with oracle bone inscription
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.
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:.
Zhé, "verbose"
Zhèng (unknown meaning)
alternative form of Taito
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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).
Nàng, "poor enunciation due to snuffle"
Taito, "the appearance of a dragon in flight"
Biáng, a kind of noodle in Shaanxi

Chinese characters are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese.

- Chinese characters
Excerpt from a 1436 primer on Chinese characters

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Books of Zhuang language

Zhuang languages

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The Zhuang languages (autonym: Vahcuengh, pre-1982: Vaƅcueŋƅ, Sawndip: 話僮, from vah, 'language' and Cuengh, 'Zhuang'; ) are any of more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adjacent parts of Yunnan and Guangdong.

The Zhuang languages (autonym: Vahcuengh, pre-1982: Vaƅcueŋƅ, Sawndip: 話僮, from vah, 'language' and Cuengh, 'Zhuang'; ) are any of more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adjacent parts of Yunnan and Guangdong.

Books of Zhuang language
Sites surveyed in Zhang (1999), subgrouped according to Pittayaporn (2009): N, M, I, C, B, F, H, L, P
Zhuang Sawndip manuscript
the 81 symbols of the Poya 坡芽 Song Book used by Zhuang women in Funing County, Yunnan, China.

Sawndip is a Chinese character-based system of writing, similar to Vietnamese chữ nôm. Some Sawndip logograms were borrowed directly from Han characters, whereas others were original characters created from the components of Chinese characters.

Proportion of languages used at home by residents aged 6 or over in Taiwan in 2010, sorted by birth year. The chart shows the tendency that speech communities of Taiwanese local languages are shifting to speak Mandarin.

Taiwanese Hokkien

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Variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about 70%+ of the population of Taiwan.

Variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about 70%+ of the population of Taiwan.

Proportion of languages used at home by residents aged 6 or over in Taiwan in 2010, sorted by birth year. The chart shows the tendency that speech communities of Taiwanese local languages are shifting to speak Mandarin.
Taiwanese tones, close to Taipei values.
Schema of the tone sandhi rules in Taiwanese.
A selection of literary works (original and translated) in Taiwanese, in several orthographies.
An issue of the Taiwan Church News, first published by Presbyterian missionaries in 1885. This was the first printed newspaper in Taiwan, and was written in Taiwanese, in the Latin orthography Pe̍h-ōe-jī.
Japanese–Taiwanese Dictionary, using the orthography in kana
Pe̍h-ōe-jī inscription at a church in Tâi-lâm commemorating Thomas Barclay.
A collection of translations of the Bible in Taiwanese. Top left, Today’s Taiwanese version; top right, the Red-Cover Bible; bottom, Barclay's translation.
A copy of Barclay's Amoy translation, opened to the Proverbs.
A page from the Red-Cover Bible
A decree (1955) banning the use of Pe̍h-ōe-jī, a Latin orthography for Taiwanese, in church.
Distribution of Hokkien dialects in Taiwan: Quanzhou dialect predominant Zhangzhou dialect predominant Both Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects

Until the late 19th century, Taiwanese speakers wrote mostly in Classical Chinese, although songbooks using Han characters are attested from the 1820s.

Red-crowned cranes in Hokkaido, Japan. Currently an endangered species, they were plentiful throughout the East Asia region in the Neolithic period and were hunted for meat; their wing bones were used to make the Jiahu flutes.

Jiahu

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The site of a Neolithic settlement based in the central plain of ancient China, near the Yellow River.

The site of a Neolithic settlement based in the central plain of ancient China, near the Yellow River.

Red-crowned cranes in Hokkaido, Japan. Currently an endangered species, they were plentiful throughout the East Asia region in the Neolithic period and were hunted for meat; their wing bones were used to make the Jiahu flutes.
Gudi flute found at Jiahu, on display at the Henan Museum
Examples of Jiahu symbols

Some of the markings are quite similar to later Chinese characters; two of the most intriguing marks appear to be similar to later characters for eye (目) and sun (日).

Naxi scripture using the Geba syllabary (Yunnan Nationalities Museum in Kunming, Yunnan, China)

Geba syllabary

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Syllabic script for the Naxi language.

Syllabic script for the Naxi language.

Naxi scripture using the Geba syllabary (Yunnan Nationalities Museum in Kunming, Yunnan, China)

Some glyphs resemble the Yi script, and some appear to be adaptations of Chinese characters.

Qiu Xigui

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Chinese historian, palaeographer, and professor of Fudan University.

Chinese historian, palaeographer, and professor of Fudan University.

In 2012, the Collected Works of Qiu Xigui (裘锡圭学术文集), comprising six volumes and three million characters, was published by Fudan University Press.

Vietnam under Chinese rule

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Under the rule of various Chinese dynasties.

Under the rule of various Chinese dynasties.

Chinese characters remained the official script of Vietnam until French colonization in the 20th century, despite the rise in vernacular chữ nôm literature in the aftermath of the expulsion of the Ming.

Double happiness in a circular shape.

Double Happiness (calligraphy)

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Chinese traditional ornament design, commonly used as a decoration symbol of marriage.

Chinese traditional ornament design, commonly used as a decoration symbol of marriage.

Double happiness in a circular shape.
Double happiness on a woven mat
Old matchboxes with double happiness design
A double happiness character on the door ring of Soong Ching-ling's ancestral home in Wenchang, Hainan
A porcelain vase from the Qing Dynasty with double happiness characters
Rice bowl cover decorated with a medallion of the double happiness and longevity (Shou) symbol in the center, from Joseon Dynasty Korea
A Vietnamese wedding decoration, with a double happiness character
Traditional Chinese wedding ceremony, with a double happiness character in the background
Palace of Earthly Tranquility (坤宁宫) of the Forbidden City, with traditional Chinese wedding decorations and a double happiness character in the foreground
Chinese wedding invitation cards with double happiness characters
Chinese wedding invitation card with a double happiness character in the center
Double happiness decorations
Chinese wedding ceremony teaware, with double happiness characters on them
Chinese wedding ceremony teaware
Gold jewelry with double happiness character, Hong Kong
A traditional Chinese wedding reception, with double happiness decoration in the middle

Double Happiness is a ligature, "囍" composed of 喜喜 – two copies of the Chinese characters () literally meaning joy, compressed to assume the square shape of a standard Chinese character (much as a real character may consist of two parts), and is pronounced simply as xǐ or as a polysyllabic Chinese character, being read as 双喜 (shuāngxǐ).

Hokkien

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Southern Min language native and originating from the Minnan region where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China.

Southern Min language native and originating from the Minnan region where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China.

The character for the third person pronoun (they) in some Hokkien dialects, 𪜶 (in), is now supported by the Unicode Standard at U+2A736.

Hokkien dialects are typically written using Chinese characters (漢字, Hàn-jī).

Standard Form of National Characters

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The Standard Form of National Characters or the Standard Typefaces for Chinese Characters is the standardized form of Chinese characters set by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Joël Bellassen in 2017

Joël Bellassen

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Former professor (Professeur des universités) of Chinese at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and the first Inspector General in the field of Chinese Language Teaching at the Ministry of Education (France).

Former professor (Professeur des universités) of Chinese at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and the first Inspector General in the field of Chinese Language Teaching at the Ministry of Education (France).

Joël Bellassen in 2017

He is particularly known for his pedagogical innovation of the 1980s when he conceived methods to teach Chinese language in primary education which included colour-coding Chinese characters to assist memorising of the four tones in Standard Mandarin (first tone: blue; second tone: yellow; third tone: black; fourth tone: red).