The legend of Chinese characters
​In ancient times, humans had no form of modern speech. Thoughts and ideas were expressed through hand and body movements. The earliest human words were monophonic utterances, such as "yi", "ah", "wow", "ha", etc., which then developed into diphthongic words. The earliest text came in the form of small pictures.​
Cang Jie, a legendary figure in Chinese mythology, was the god of language in Taoism and the alleged creator of primitive hieroglyphs in ancient China. He was born different, and his interest in the world only grew as he got older, and he began to think about problems and explore changes throughout the universe.
When he looked up, he couldn't help but notice the gleaming figures of the Sun, Moon and the Stars. When he lowered his head, he examined the pattern on the turtle's back, the form of birds and animals' feathers, and the twists and turns in the scenery of the mountains and rivers. Observing these natural phenomena, he painted on the palm of his hand, and from these pictograms, words eventually emerged.
The creation of "Character" by Cangjie has made a great contribution to the formation of modern Chinese characters.
Cang Jie's outstanding achievements include his extensive collection of folk pictographs and characters, as well as more systematic hieroglyphics, all of his own design. Cangjie played a crucial role in the creation of Chinese characters, ending the ignorant era of relying on bare pictures to relay events to others, inaugurating a new era in the evolution of human beings in China.
In the glittering scrolls of Chinese ethnic groups, Cangjie is a figure that appears mainly in myths and legends. No matter if we look at his representation in mythology, ethnology or folklore, we can clearly interpret that he was a holy figure in ancient times. He is known as "The Four Eyes of Dragon" (as shown in the picture below). It is said that he had a broad dragon face and four bright eyes. As a baby, he liked to think outside the box, which made him interesting and divergent.
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Once the first words were written, human beings inevitably started to walk down the path, turning from wilderness to civilized life.
The actual origin of Chinese characters
Later, after millions of years of evolutionary advancement, it was in the late neos era (about 100,000 years ago) that the primary human language emerged. By the time of Sui-Ren Shi, human language had become incredibly rich. But at this time, there were no written words. if there is something important to remember. You had to rely on memory, placing down a trigger to remind you of the time, such as a stack of stones. The importance and contents of the memory are gauged by the size, number, method and position of the stones, respectively representing different things. This approach is cumbersome, unmanageable, and easily damaged.
Later, Yentze shi, the earliest female chiefess in ancient Chinese legends, is believed to be the first grandmother of the Chinese people, who lived around 6487 years ago. After establishing a consanguine alliance with the Sui-Ren Shi family, their descendants invented the "knot rope chronicle". Knotting records were made by twisting flexible bark into strings, and then hanging dozens of strings in a neat arrangement, making various knots at the top. Big events are represented by larger knots, smaller events by littler knots, all knotted in order of time. In order to record more ideas, descendants also used natural dyes to colour the strings various hues. Each colour represented a different subject so that the memories they retained could be clearer. As the knot record was more convenient and easier to maintain, it replaced the pile ,ethod.
the forms of chinese characters
Of course, the forms of Chinese characters has evolved over a long period of time, in the history it has appeared in succession oracle bone script, JinWen, XiaoZhuan, clerical script, cursive script, regular script, running script with their own characteristics of the font. (no specific analysis here)
Since ancient times, there has been a saying that "calligraphy and painting share the same origin". This is because the earliest source of writing is like painting. The origin of Chinese characters is the original picture, the "picture" form used by primitive people to express themselves in life. Slowly from the original picture into a "symbol". They are orderly and regular, with the characteristics of simple characters, which scholars think may be the bud of Chinese characters.
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Of all the countries in the world, only Chinese culture has been continuously passed down, and only our "Chinese characters" are the only characters in the world that have been continuously evolved from ancient times. Chinese characters are important tools for carrying culture. Throughout world history, Chinese characters have been used as the parent characters for other later inventions, such as Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, to record their languages. The Japanese still use a mixture of kanji and kana. There is no character in the world like Chinese characters that have gone through the vicissitudes of life and remain young forever. The words of the holy book written in ancient Egypt 5,000 years ago are among the earliest human writings. But it died, and the recorded culture of ancient Egypt was deeply buried. Sumerian cuneiform writing also dates back 5,000 years. But it also died after 330 AD. Other famous characters that have fallen in history include Mayan and Boromian. The Chinese character is not only enduring, the world's forest of characters, but also continue to develop, and more and more influence.
