The Chinese writing system is a special language in today’s world of alphabet scripts. Instead of a few dozen letters, it has thousands of complex signs, or characters, that represent words and sounds. This extremely complicated language is the primary writing system for hundreds of millions of people. The first recognizable form of Chinese writing dates from 3,500 years ago, but arguments have been made that its origins lie much deeper in the past than proven. Scholars conveniently have divided different styles of Chinese writing into a number of “scripts.”
The first four phases of Chinese writing includes Oracle Bone Script, Greater Seal, Lesser Seal, and Craftly Script. These phases cover about 1,500 years of Chinese history and show the evolution from a confusing, pictographic writing script to the system used today containing thousands of characters. The earliest form of Chinese writing used from the Middle to Late Shang dynasty, or 1500 to 1000 BCE, is called “Oracle Bone Script.” This script was written on turtle shells and animals bones, commonly used in the royal Shang court, also referred to as “oracle bones.” These bones were heated until cracks would appear. By interpreting the pattern of the cracks, Shang court officials would make predictions of future events, hence giving the name “oracle bones” to these animal bones. The shape of these characters are often described as pictographic because they resemble stylized drawings of objects they represent. The “Greater Seal” stage of writing took place from the Late Shang to the Western Chou dynasties, or 1100 to 700 BCE. Unlike Oracle Bone Script, which was carved on bones, Greater Seal script appeared on cast bronze vessels. The overlap in time of the first two periods could mean they were the same writing script. They are categorized in separate periods because although the scripts appear different the varying surfaces they were written on may have affected the visual effect of these scripts. Moving on, script in the “Lesser Seal” time period is thought of as the most direct link from ancient chinese script to modern, unsimplified Chinese script. These characters are more stylized and less “pictographic” than the periods before them, they also display use of radicals similar to modern Chinese. This script has remained in use over time and continues to be today in calligraphy and seals. Writing from the later “Clerkly Script” time period was used by government bureaucrats. It most likely appeared in 500 BCE, but became widely used in the Qin and Han dynasties. Bureaucrats then needed a fast and efficient script to handle state matters so this script was brought into effect. The marked difference between this script and the “Lesser Seal” script is that “Clerkly Script” characters have less strokes and a more flowing style, easier to write with brushes and pens.
The shape of “Clerkly Script” characters are almost identical to modern Chinese characters. Over time, characters were often standardized to remove regional variations, and these standard characters are, for the most part, the same characters written in the present. Therefore, it can be said that Chinese writing reached its peak in this time period, until developments in the 20th century. Chinese writing after this period evolved due to a trend of increasingly cursive scripts. These new scripts are used primarily in calligraphy.
Standard Script, which appeared at the end of the Han dynasty or 220 CE, is essentially the traditional script used today, except in the People’s Republic of China. It is very similar to “Clerky Script,” but slightly more cursive and contains hook-like elements at the corners and end of strokes. Running Script, can be considered a cursive version of “Standard Script.” When using this writing strokes are often merged into one, especially sequential dots or two strokes perpendicular to each other. Grass Script, the most cursive Chinese script, appeared during the Qin dynasty. The shape of its characters often do not resemble the corresponding “Clerky Script” or “Standard Script” character because some strokes are merged into one and others are not used at all.
A very important change in Chinese writing, since the standardization in the Qin dynasty, occurred in the middle of the 20th century. In 1949, the People’s Republic of China introduced simplified characters, or jiantizi, to be used in place of the traditional “Standard Script” characters. In addition to the People’s Republic of China, Singapore also adopted this script. However, other Chinese-speaking places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and various Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the Americas rejected this new system and continued to use the traditional script. This comes as no surprise because tradition is extremely important in Chinese culture, and just because the simplified script carried political undertones was not enough. As the oldest writing system in East Asia, the Chinese writing system became the inspiration and the basis for many other East Asian writing systems, some prominent and still in use, while others having faded away. Together these writing systems are called the Sinitic family of scripts, including Japanese, Korean, Jurchen, Khitan, Tangut, Vietnamese Chu Nom, Nushu, and Yi Scripts.
Chinese has evolved drastically over time yet has managed to keep its core, which is why it is one of the most continuously used writing systems in the world. Whatever the obscure initial phase of written Chinese was, its appearance during the Shang dynasty already exhibited sign of a very complex system. Given its immense time depth, the Chinese writing system has clearly been constantly changing. After the early evolution during the Shang dynasty, the script continued to evolve. Visually it became increasingly more linear, more stylized and less resembling of the natural objects. It also grew in complexity, as the innovations of radicals and phonetic complements continued to be applied to form new words and sounds.