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

112 related topics with Alpha

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Venn diagram showing the relationships between homophones (blue circle) and related linguistic concepts

Homophone

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Word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning.

Word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning.

Venn diagram showing the relationships between homophones (blue circle) and related linguistic concepts
A sign reads "Trespassers will be shot on site [sic]". Site is a homophone of sight.

Yì, for example, has at least 125 homophones, and it is the pronunciation used for Chinese characters such as 义, 意, 易, 亿, 议, 一, and 已.

Table of General Standard Chinese Characters

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The Table of General Standard Chinese Characters is the current standard list of 8,105 Chinese characters published by the government of the People's Republic of China and promulgated in June 2013.

A classical Yi manuscript.

Yi script

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Umbrella term for two scripts used to write the Yi languages; Classical Yi ( an ideogram script), and the later Yi Syllabary.

Umbrella term for two scripts used to write the Yi languages; Classical Yi ( an ideogram script), and the later Yi Syllabary.

A classical Yi manuscript.
A Yi manuscript from 1814
view table as an image
Trilingual signs, in Chinese, Yi (syllabic script), and Hani (alphabetic) on the Lihaozhai Township government office. Jianshui County, Yunnan. The Yi and Hani texts apparently have a syllable-to-syllable correspondence to the Chinese text.

Although similar to Chinese in function, the glyphs are independent in form, with little to suggest that they are directly related.

List of Graphemes of Commonly-Used Chinese Characters

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The List of Graphemes of Commonly-Used Chinese Characters is a list of 4762 commonly used Chinese characters and their standardized forms prescribed by the Hong Kong Education Bureau.

Folio 9 of manuscript codex Nova N 176

Khitan large script

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One of two writing systems used for the now-extinct Khitan language .

One of two writing systems used for the now-extinct Khitan language .

Folio 9 of manuscript codex Nova N 176

The large script has a few similarities to Chinese, with several words taken directly with or without modifications from the Chinese (e.g. characters 二,三,十,廿,月,日, which appear in dates in the apparently bilingual Xiao Xiaozhong muzhi inscription from Xigushan, Jinxi, Liaoning Province).

, a Chinese character with a high variety of different strokes and which is often used to show some of the strokes. It means "forever" or "permanence".

Stroke (CJK character)

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, a Chinese character with a high variety of different strokes and which is often used to show some of the strokes. It means "forever" or "permanence".
Another classification showing 37 strokes: 8 basic strokes, and 29 complex strokes.
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Eight principle strokes extracted from 永, "eternity" (five basic strokes: D, T, W, P, N and one compound stroke HZG). Enlarge this image to see the red arrows, showing the way of writing of each.

CJK strokes are the calligraphic strokes needed to write the Chinese characters in regular script used in East Asian calligraphy.

Small seal script

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Archaic form of Chinese calligraphy.

Archaic form of Chinese calligraphy.

Before the Qin conquest of the six other major warring states of Zhou China, local styles of characters had evolved independently of one another for centuries, producing what are called the "Scripts of the Six States" (六國文字), all of which are included under the general term "Great Seal Script."

List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese

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The List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese is a list of 7,000 commonly used Chinese characters in Chinese.

19th-century posthumous depiction of Qin Shi Huang at the height of his reign

Qin Shi Huang

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The founder of the Qin dynasty, and first emperor of a unified China.

The founder of the Qin dynasty, and first emperor of a unified China.

19th-century posthumous depiction of Qin Shi Huang at the height of his reign
A portrait painting of Qin Shi Huangdi, first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, from an 18th-century album of Chinese emperors' portraits.
Jing Ke's assassination attempt on Qin Shi Huang; Jing Ke (left) is held by one of Qin Shi Huang's physicians (left, background). The dagger used in the assassination attempt is seen stuck in the pillar. Qin Shi Huang (right) is seen holding an imperial jade disc. One of his soldier (far right) rushes to save his emperor. Stone rubbing; 3rd century, Eastern Han
Qin's unification of seven warring states
Map of the Qin dynasty and its administrative divisions
Bronze swords (jian), Qin dynasty
Imperial tours of Qin Shi Huang
Lifelike terracotta soldier statues from the Terracotta Army, discovered near modern Xi'an, which was meant to guard the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
A posthumous depiction of Qin Shi Huang, painted during the late Qing dynasty
Statue of Emperor Qin Shi Huang in Handan

Perhaps most importantly, the Chinese script was unified.

Table showing Bopomofo in Gwoyeu Romatzyh

Bopomofo

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Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects.

Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects.

Table showing Bopomofo in Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Bopomofo in Regular, Handwritten Regular & Cursive formats
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An example of a Bopomofo keypad for Taiwan
A typical keyboard layout for Bopomofo on computers

The last renaming addressed fears that the alphabetic system might independently replace Chinese characters.