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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Overall
Layout of a 1908 Chinese edition of The Secret History of the Mongols. Mongolian text in Chinese transcription, with a glossary on the right of each row

The Secret History of the Mongols

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Oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language.

Oldest surviving literary work in the Mongolian language.

Layout of a 1908 Chinese edition of The Secret History of the Mongols. Mongolian text in Chinese transcription, with a glossary on the right of each row
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Palladius, a Russian monk who was the first person to publish "The Secret History"
The Secret History of the Mongols in the Government building in Ulaanbaatar, Prof. B. Sumiyabaatar
B. Sumiyabaatar (mong.), "The Dictionary of the Mongolian Secret History: Mongolian-Chinese, Chinese-Mongolian dictionary, " A- B", 290 p., 2010, ISBN: 978-99962-842-1-2

The author is anonymous and probably originally wrote in the Mongolian script, but the surviving texts all derive from transcriptions or translations into Chinese characters that date from the end of the 14th century and were compiled by the Ming dynasty under the title The Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty.

De chalcographiae inventione (1541, Mainz) with the 23 letters. J, U and W are missing.

Latin script

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Alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Cumaean Greek version of the Greek alphabet used by the Etruscans.

Alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Cumaean Greek version of the Greek alphabet used by the Etruscans.

De chalcographiae inventione (1541, Mainz) with the 23 letters. J, U and W are missing.
Jeton from Nuremberg, c. 1553
The distribution of the Latin script. The dark green areas show the countries where the Latin script is the sole main script. Light green shows countries where Latin co-exists with other scripts. Latin-script alphabets are sometimes extensively used in areas coloured grey due to the use of unofficial second languages, such as French in Algeria and English in Egypt, and to Latin transliteration of the official script, such as pinyin in China.
The letter with an acute diacritic

Most of the rest of Asia used a variety of Brahmic alphabets or the Chinese script.

The writing on this wall is meant to say "production output will increase multiple times" (产量翻几番), but uses non-standard characters. During the Cultural Revolution, such sights were common as citizens were encouraged to innovate and participate in the character simplification process.

Second round of simplified Chinese characters

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Aborted orthography reform promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Aborted orthography reform promulgated on 20 December 1977 by the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The writing on this wall is meant to say "production output will increase multiple times" (产量翻几番), but uses non-standard characters. During the Cultural Revolution, such sights were common as citizens were encouraged to innovate and participate in the character simplification process.
Traditional characters (left) and their proposed simplifications (right)
A sign reading 仃车往右 ("parking lot to the right"), which uses instead of
A playful name for a restaurant in Shanghai, which says "一佳歺厅" instead of the homophonous standard "一家餐厅."

Rather than ruling out further simplification, however, the retraction declared that further reform of the Chinese characters should be done with caution.

Stele N from Copán, Honduras, depicting King K'ac Yipyaj Chan K'awiil ("Smoke Shell"), as drawn by Frederick Catherwood in 1839

Stele

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Stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument.

Stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument.

Stele N from Copán, Honduras, depicting King K'ac Yipyaj Chan K'awiil ("Smoke Shell"), as drawn by Frederick Catherwood in 1839
Stele to the French 8th Infantry Regiment. One of more than half a dozen steles located on the Waterloo battlefield.
The funerary stele of Thrasea and Euandria, c. 365 BC
Stela of Iddi-Sin, King of Simurrum. It dates back to the Old Babylonian Period. From Qarachatan Village, Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan. The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq.
Egyptian hieroglyphs on an Egyptian funerary stela in Manchester Museum
Stele of Arniadas at the Archaeological Museum of Corfu
A bixi-born Yan Temple Renovation Stele dated Year 9 of Zhizheng era in Yuan Dynasty (AD 1349), in Qufu, Shandong, China
Chinese ink rubbings of the 1489 (left) and 1512 (right) steles left by the Kaifeng Jews.
Ogham stone in Ratass Church, Ireland
A sword symbol on a stele at Tiya
King Ezana's stele at Aksum
A victory stele of Naram-Sin, a 23rd-century BC Mesopotamian king.
Princess Nefertiabet's funerary slab stele ({{circa|2575|lk=no}} BC) from Egypt's 4th dynasty
Egyptian grave stela of Nehemes-Ra-tawy, c. 760–656 BC
Stele #25 ({{circa|2500|lk=no}} BC) from the Petit Chasseur in Sion, Switzerland
A neolithic Sardinian menhir ({{circa|2500|lk=no}} BC) recovered at Laconi and assigned to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture
The lunette of the Code of Hammurabi ({{circa|1750|lk=no}} BC), depicting the king receiving his law from the sun god Shamash
Baal with Thunderbolt ({{circa|14th|lk=no}} century BC), an Ugaritic stele from Syria
The Merneptah Stele ({{circa|1200|lk=no}} BC), engraved on the back of a reused stele of Amenhotep III's, with the earliest mention of the name Israel
An unusually well-preserved Greek herm ({{circa|520|lk=no}} BC), used as a boundary marker and to ward off evil
A votive stela honoring the Thracian goddess Bendis ({{circa|400|lk=no}} BC), carved at Athens
A herm of Demosthenes, a {{circa|1520|lk=no}} recreation of the {{circa|280|lk=no}} BC original located in the Athenian market
The Rosetta Stone (196 BC), establishing the divine cult of Ptolemy V
A Buddhist Stele from China, Northern Wei period, built sometime after 583
A rubbing of the Yamanoue Stele (681) in Takasaki, one of three protected steles in Japan
Stele 35 from Yaxchilan (8th century), depicting Lady Eveningstar, the consort of king Shield Jaguar II
The Nestorian Stele (781) records the success of the missionary Alopen in Tang China in Chinese and Syriac. It is borne by a Bixi and forbidden to travel abroad.
Rodney's Stone, a slab cross from Early Medieval Scotland
Sueno's Stone ({{circa|9th|lk=no}} century) in Forres, Scotland, displaying efforts at modern preservation of the Pictish stones
A rubbing of the Stele of Sulaiman, Prince of Xining (1348), bearing the Mani in six languages: Nepali, Tibetan, Uyghur, 'Phags-pa, Tangut, and Chinese.
The Galle stele left by Zheng He on Sri Lanka in 1409 with trilingual inscriptions in Chinese, Tamil, and Persian
Tombstones (funerary stelae) at the Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery, Newport, Rhode Island. Typical inscriptions include the names of the deceased interred under the stones. Ca. 18th century and later.
A disc shaped gravestone or hilarri in Bidarray, western Pyrenees, Basque Country, featuring typical geometric and solar forms, as it was the custom since the period previous to Roman times

Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative, or edifying text.

Stroke order for character 筆 shown by shade going from black to red

Stroke order

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Stroke order for character 筆 shown by shade going from black to red
Stroke order for each component (川 and 頁) of the character 順 shown by shade going from black to red
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The Chinese character meaning "person" (人-order.gif, Mandarin Chinese: rén, Cantonese Chinese: yàhn, Korean: in, Japanese: hito, nin; jin). The character has two strokes, the first shown here in dark, and the second in red. The black area represents the starting position of the writing instrument.
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Traditional {{lang|zh-Hant|門}}, traditional stroke order.
Traditional {{lang|zh-Hant|門}}, PRC stroke order.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stroking Characters - Wenlin Guide |url=http://guide.wenlininstitute.org/wenlin4.3/Stroking_Characters#How_Standard_is_the_Standard_Stroke_Order.3F |access-date=2022-03-08 |website=guide.wenlininstitute.org}}</ref>
Simplified {{lang|zh-Hans|门}}, traditional stroke order, comes from Cursive script.
Simplified {{lang|zh-Hans|门}}, PRC stroke order.

Stroke order is the order in which the strokes of a Chinese character (or Chinese derivative character) are written.

Both the top and bottom lines depict the Korean name Hong Gil-dong, which is a common anonymous name like John Doe. The top line is written as the hangul version (Korean characters), and the bottom as the hanja version (Chinese characters). In both instances the family name Hong is in yellow.

Korean name

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A Korean name (Hangul: ; Hanja: ) consists of a family name followed by a given name, as used by the Korean people in both South Korea and North Korea.

A Korean name (Hangul: ; Hanja: ) consists of a family name followed by a given name, as used by the Korean people in both South Korea and North Korea.

Both the top and bottom lines depict the Korean name Hong Gil-dong, which is a common anonymous name like John Doe. The top line is written as the hangul version (Korean characters), and the bottom as the hanja version (Chinese characters). In both instances the family name Hong is in yellow.
Ban Ki-moon in Davos, Switzerland - the usual presentation of Korean names in English, as shown here, is to put the family name first (Ban is the family name)
Half of South Koreans bear the family name Kim, Lee, Park, or Choi Kim, Gim, Ghim Lee, Yi, Rhee, Yie Park, Pak, Bahk Choi, Choe Jung, Jeong, Chung, Cheong

Early names based on the Korean language were recorded in the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE – 668 CE), but with the growing adoption of the Chinese writing system that was used as the script before the adoption of hangul in the 14th century, these were supplemented by Korean names that were written using Chinese characters, known as Hanja.

The Yellow Emperor as depicted in a tomb from the mid second century AD. The inscription reads: "The Yellow Emperor created and changed a great many things; he invented weapons and the well-field system; he devised upper and lower garments, and established palaces and houses."

Yellow Emperor

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Deity in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and cosmological Five Regions' Highest Deities.

Deity in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and cosmological Five Regions' Highest Deities.

The Yellow Emperor as depicted in a tomb from the mid second century AD. The inscription reads: "The Yellow Emperor created and changed a great many things; he invented weapons and the well-field system; he devised upper and lower garments, and established palaces and houses."
As depicted by Gan Bozong, woodcut print, Tang dynasty (618-907)
Temple of Huangdi in Xinzheng, Zhengzhou, Henan
The eagle-faced Thunder God (雷神 Léishén) in a 1923 drawing, punisher of those who go against the order of Heaven
Map of tribes and tribal unions in Ancient China, including tribes of Huang Di (Yellow Emperor), Yan Di (Flame Emperor) and Chiyou
Twentieth-century statue of the Yellow Emperor, carved by Ju Ming on display at the National Palace Museum in Taipei
A section of the poem from the Tung Shing
Inquiring of the Dao at the Cave of Paradise, hanging scroll, color on silk, 210.5 x 83 cm by Dai Jin (1388–1462). This painting is based on the story, first recounted in the Zhuangzi, that the Yellow Emperor traveled to the Kongtong Mountains to inquire about the Dao with the Daoist sage Guangchengzi.
Xuanyuan Temple, dedicated to the worship of Huangdi, in Huangling, Yan'an, Shaanxi
One of the two turtle-based steles at Shou Qiu, Qufu, Shandong, the legendary birthplace of the Yellow Emperor
Chi You, the mythical opponent of the Yellow Emperor at the Battle of Zhuolu, here depicted in a Han-dynasty tomb relief
Temple of Huangdi in Jinyun, Lishui, Zhejiang, China
Huangdi Shrine, Xinzheng City, Henan Province
Martino Martini, a seventeenth-century Jesuit who, based on Chinese historical records, calculated that the Yellow Emperor's reign began in 2697 BC. Martini's dates are still used today.

In traditional accounts, he also goads the historian Cangjie into creating the first Chinese character writing system, the Oracle bone script, and his principal wife Leizu invents sericulture and teaches his people how to weave silk and dye clothes.

A page from a Ming Dynasty edition of the Book of Qi

Ming (typefaces)

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A page from a Ming Dynasty edition of the Book of Qi
The characters “明朝體,” literally “Ming Dynasty form,” in a reimpression of old Ming typeface in 1912 by Tsukiji Type Foundry
A page of a publication from Zhejiang in a regular script typeface which resembles the handwriting of Ouyang Xun.
A page of a publication from Chén zhái shūjí pù.

Ming or Song is a category of typefaces used to display Chinese characters, which are used in the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.

Stephen Wootton Bushell's decipherment of 37 Tangut characters

Tangut script

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Logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia dynasty.

Logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia dynasty.

Stephen Wootton Bushell's decipherment of 37 Tangut characters
The Tangut character for "man", a relatively simple character
The Tangut character "mud" is made with part of the character "water" (far left) and the whole of the character "soil"
The Tangut characters for "toe" (left) and "finger" (right), both characters having the same components
Blockprinted page from the Pearl in the Palm found at the Northern Mogao Caves

The Tangut characters are similar in appearance to Chinese characters, with the same type of strokes, but the methods of forming characters in the Tangut writing system are significantly different from those of forming Chinese characters.

Ming China in 1415 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor

Ming dynasty

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Imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.

Imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.

Ming China in 1415 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor
Portrait of the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368–98)
Ming China in 1415 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor
The Great Wall of China: Although the rammed earth walls of the ancient Warring States were combined into a unified wall under the Qin and Han dynasties, the vast majority of the brick and stone Great Wall seen today is a product of the Ming dynasty.
A 17th-century Tibetan thangka of Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra; the Ming dynasty court gathered various tribute items that were native products of Tibet (such as thangkas), and in return granted gifts to Tibetan tribute-bearers.
Portrait of the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–24)
The Ming Tombs located 50 km north of Beijing; the site was chosen by Yongle.
A Bengali envoy presenting a giraffe as a tributary gift in the name of King Saif Al-Din Hamzah Shah of Bengal (r. 1410–12) to the Yongle Emperor of Ming China (r. 1402–24).
The Wanli Emperor (r. 1572–1620) in state ceremonial court dress
Tianqi-era teacups, from the Nantoyōsō Collection in Japan; the Tianqi Emperor was heavily influenced and largely controlled by the eunuch Wei Zhongxian (1568–1627).
Spring morning in a Han palace, by Qiu Ying (1494–1552); excessive luxury and decadence marked the late Ming period, spurred by the enormous state bullion of incoming silver and by private transactions involving silver.
An imperial throne carpet with double dragon and seed pearl motif, Ming dynasty, 16th century
Shanhaiguan along the Great Wall, the gate where the Manchus were repeatedly repelled before being finally let through by Wu Sangui in 1644.
The Drum Tower and Bell Tower of Beijing was built in the Yuan and rebuilt in the Ming.
Portrait of the Chongzhen Emperor (r. 1627–44)
Provinces of Ming dynasty in 1409
The Forbidden City, the official imperial household of the Ming and Qing dynasties from 1420 until 1924, when the Republic of China evicted Puyi from the Inner Court.
A portrait of Jiang Shunfu, an official under the Hongzhi Emperor, now in the Nanjing Museum. The decoration of two cranes on his chest is a "rank badge" that indicates he was a civil official of the first rank.
Processional figurines from the Shanghai tomb of Pan Yongzheng, a Ming dynasty official who lived during the 16th century
Ming coinage, 14–17th century
Candidates who had taken the civil service examinations would crowd around the wall where the results were posted; detail from a handscroll in ink and color on silk, by Qiu Ying (1494–1552).
The Xuande Emperor playing chuiwan with his eunuchs, a game similar to golf, by an anonymous court painter of the Xuande period (1425–35).
Detail of The Emperor's Approach showing the Wanli Emperor's royal carriage being pulled by elephants and escorted by cavalry ([[:File:Departure Herald-Ming Dynasty.jpg|full panoramic painting here]])
Lofty Mount Lu, by Shen Zhou, 1467.
Decorated back of a pipa from the Ming dynasty
Poetry of Min Ding, 17th century
Painting of flowers, a butterfly, and rock sculpture by Chen Hongshou (1598–1652); small leaf album paintings like this one first became popular in the Song dynasty.
Ming dynasty Xuande mark and period (1426–35) imperial blue and white vase. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Chinese glazed stoneware statue of a Daoist deity, from the Ming dynasty, 16th century.
Bodhisattva Manjusri in Blanc-de-Chine, by He Chaozong, 17th century; Song Yingxing devoted an entire section of his book to the ceramics industry in the making of porcelain items like this.
Wang Yangming (1472–1529), considered the most influential Confucian thinker since Zhu Xi
A Ming dynasty print drawing of Confucius on his way to the Zhou dynasty capital of Luoyang.
A Ming dynasty red "seal paste box" in carved lacquer.
Map of Beijing in Ming Dynasty
The puddling process of smelting iron ore to make pig iron and then wrought iron, with the right illustration displaying men working a blast furnace, from the Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia, 1637.
Map of the known world by Zheng He: India at the top, Ceylon at the upper right and East Africa along the bottom. Sailing directions and distances are marked using zhenlu (針路) or compass route.
A 24-point compass chart employed by Zheng He during his explorations.
Portrait of Matteo Ricci by Yu Wenhui, Latinized as Emmanuel Pereira, dated the year of Ricci's death, 1610
A cannon from the Huolongjing, compiled by Jiao Yu and Liu Bowen before the latter's death in 1375.
Appreciating Plums, by Chen Hongshou (1598–1652) showing a lady holding an oval fan while enjoying the beauty of the plum.
The Xuande Emperor (r. 1425–35); he stated in 1428 that his populace was dwindling due to palace construction and military adventures. But the population was rising under him, a fact noted by Zhou Chen – governor of South Zhili – in his 1432 report to the throne about widespread itinerant commerce.

Xu Xiake (1587–1641), a travel literature author, published his Travel Diaries in 404,000 written characters, with information on everything from local geography to mineralogy.