How much do you know about Chinese characters?

There are five things to know about Chinese characters:

1. Origin and evolution: Chinese characters originated from ancient pictures and symbols, and experienced the evolution from Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, Da Zhuan (Wen Shu) and Xiao Zhuan to official script, cursive script, regular script and running script. At first, Chinese characters were mainly pictographs, that is, they expressed meaning by describing the shape of things, and then gradually developed into a writing system with ideographic and phonological functions.

2. Structure and modeling: the structure of Chinese characters is stable and diverse, including both single words and combined words. The structure of compound words can be divided into left and right structure, up and down structure, enclosing structure and semi-enclosing structure. Each Chinese character has its own unique shape, conveying different emotions and meanings. These structural features make Chinese characters visually rigorous, solemn, changeable and beautiful.

3. Classification and word formation methods: Chinese characters can be classified according to their structure and meaning, mainly including six types: indication, pictographic characters, pictophonetic characters, knowing, transliteration and borrowing. Pictophonetic characters are the largest number of Chinese characters, which are composed of pictophonetic characters and phonetic characters. This word formation not only expresses sound but also meaning, which makes Chinese characters have high flexibility and accuracy in expressing meaning.

4. Cultural significance: Chinese characters are an important part of China culture and the essence of Chinese civilization. They have recorded and passed on thousands of years of history and culture, and they are an indispensable link to maintain the various dialect areas of the Han nationality. Chinese characters not only reflect the way of thinking and life of ancient China people, but also reflect the values and mental outlook of the Chinese nation.

5. Practical application: Chinese characters are ubiquitous in daily life, appearing in books, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, slogans and other aspects, providing people with information and knowledge. In addition, Chinese characters also play an important role in business activities, such as shop signs, advertisements, product names and so on. All need to be named and publicized in Chinese characters. Chinese characters play a vital role in China society and are an important part of China people's culture and life.