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Guwen Yuanjian
Gǔwén or Ku-wen (古文 "ancient writing") may refer to: * one of the two additional forms included in the '' Shuowen Jiezi'', an ancient Chinese dictionary * Chinese characters, ancient forms ** Chinese bronze inscriptions ** Oracle bone script ** Seal script * Old Texts, versions of Chinese classics held to have been transcribed from recovered manuscripts * Classical Chinese, the language of the classic literature of ancient China ** Classical Chinese grammar * Classical Prose Movement The Classical Prose Movement () of the late Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty in China advocated clarity and precision rather than the florid ''pianwen'' () or parallel prose style that had been popular since the Han dynasty. Parallel prose had a ... of the Tang and Song dynasties in China * '' Guwen Guanzhi'', an anthology of essays written in literary Chinese {{disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuowen Jiezi
''Shuowen Jiezi'' () is an ancient Chinese dictionary from the Han dynasty. Although not the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary (the '' Erya'' predates it), it was the first to analyze the structure of the characters and to give the rationale behind them, as well as the first to use the principle of organization by sections with shared components called radicals (''bùshǒu'' 部首, lit. "section headers"). Circumstances of compilation Xu Shen, a Han Dynasty scholar of the Five Classics, compiled the ''Shuowen Jiezi''. He finished editing it in 100 CE, but due to an unfavorable imperial attitude towards scholarship, he waited until 121 CE before having his son Xǔ Chōng present it to Emperor An of Han along with a memorial. In analyzing the structure of characters and defining the words represented by them, Xu Shen strove to disambiguate the meaning of the pre-Han Classics, so as to render their usage by government unquestioned and bring about order, and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji''. Chinese characters in South Korea, which are known as ''hanja'', retain significant use in Korean academia to study its documents, history, literature and records. Vietnam once used the '' chữ Hán'' and developed chữ Nôm to write Vietnamese before turning to a romanized alphabet. Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world. By virtue of their widespread current use throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as their profound historic use throughout the Sinosphere, Chinese characters are among the most widely adopted writing systems in the world by number of users. The total number of Chinese characters ever to appear in a dictionary is in the tens of thousands, though most are graphic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Bronze Inscriptions
Chinese bronze inscriptions, also commonly referred to as bronze script or bronzeware script, are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on ritual bronzes such as ''zhōng'' bells and '' dǐng'' tripodal cauldrons from the Shang dynasty (2nd millennium BC) to the Zhou dynasty (11th–3rd century BC) and even later. Early bronze inscriptions were almost always cast (that is, the writing was done with a stylus in the wet clay of the piece-mold from which the bronze was then cast), while later inscriptions were often engraved after the bronze was cast. The bronze inscriptions are one of the earliest scripts in the Chinese family of scripts, preceded by the oracle bone script. Terminology For the early Western Zhou to early Warring States period, the bulk of writing which has been unearthed has been in the form of bronze inscriptions. As a result, it is common to refer to the variety of scripts of this period as "bronze script", even though there is no single such script. The term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oracle Bone Script
Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millennium BC, and is the earliest known form of Chinese writing. The vast majority of oracle bone inscriptions, of which about 150,000 pieces have been discovered, were found at the Yinxu site located in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province. The latest significant discovery is the Huayuanzhuang storage of 1,608 pieces, 579 of which were inscribed, found near Xiaotun in 1993. They record pyromantic divinations of the last nine kings of the Shang dynasty, beginning with Wu Ding, whose accession is dated by different scholars at 1250 BC or 1200 BC. Oracle bone inscriptions of Wu Ding's reign have been radiocarbon dated to 1254–1197 BC±10 years. After the Shang were overthrown by the Zhou dynasty in c. 1046 BC, divining with milfoil became more common, and a much smaller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seal Script
Seal script, also sigillary script () is an ancient style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of the Zhou dynasty bronze script. The Qin variant of seal script eventually became the standard, and was adopted as the formal script for all of China during the Qin dynasty. It was still widely used for decorative engraving and seals (name chops, or signets) in the Han dynasty. The literal translation of the Chinese name for seal script, (), is 'decorative engraving script', a name coined during the Han dynasty, which reflects the then-reduced role of the script for the writing of ceremonial inscriptions. Types The general term seal script can be used to refer to several types of seal script, including the large or great seal script ( ; Japanese ; Korean ; Vietnamese ) and the lesser or small seal script ( ; Japanese ; Korean ; Vietnamese ). Most commonly, without any other clarifying term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Texts
In Chinese philology, the Old Texts () refer to some versions of the Five Classics discovered during the Han Dynasty, written in archaic characters and supposedly produced before the burning of the books. The term became used in contrast with Modern Texts or New Texts (今文經), which indicated a group of texts written in the orthography currently in use during the Han dynasty. Historical sources record the recovery of a group of texts during the last half of the 2nd century BC from the walls of Confucius’s old residence in Qufu, the old capital of State of Lu, when Prince Liu Yu (d. 127 BC) attempted to expand it into a palace upon taking the throne there. In the course of taking the old wall apart, the restorers found versions of the ''Classic of History'', '' Rites of Zhou'', '' Yili'', ''Analects of Confucius'' and ''Classic of Filial Piety'', all written in the old orthography used prior to the reforms of the Clerical script. Hence, they were called “old texts”. Term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literary language writing"), is the language of the classic literature from the end of the Spring and Autumn period through to the either the start of the Qin dynasty or the end of the Han dynasty, a written form of Old Chinese (上古漢語, ''Shànɡɡǔ Hànyǔ''). Classical Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese that evolved from the classical language, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. Literary Chinese was used for almost all formal writing in China until the early 20th century, and also, during various periods, in Japan, Ryukyu, Korea and Vietnam. Among Chinese speakers, Literary Chinese has been largely replaced by written vernacular Chinese, a style of writing that is similar to modern spoken Mandarin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Chinese Grammar
Classical Chinese grammar is the grammar of Classical Chinese, a term that first and foremost refers to the written language of the classical period of Chinese literature, from the end of the Spring and Autumn period (early 5th century BC) to the foundation of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC), or in a broader sense, to the end of the Han Dynasty (AD 220). The term "Classical Chinese" is also often used for the higher language register used in writing during most of the following centuries (a register generally referred to by sinologists as "Literary Chinese"); however, this article focuses on the grammar used in the classical period. The present article uses modern Mandarin character readings following common practice among scholars, even though it is also possible to read Classical Chinese using the literary readings of other modern Chinese varieties (as commonly done in Hong Kong, where Cantonese readings are generally used), or even using a reconstruction of character readings belo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Prose Movement
The Classical Prose Movement () of the late Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty in China advocated clarity and precision rather than the florid ''pianwen'' () or parallel prose style that had been popular since the Han dynasty. Parallel prose had a rigid structure and came to be criticized for being overly ornate at the expense of content. The aim of the guwen stylists was to follow the spirit of pre-Han prose rather than to imitate it directly. They used elements of colloquial language to make their writings more direct. The movement also had political and religious aspects, as Confucian scholars tried to combat the influence of Taoism and Buddhism on the emperors. Some also saw it as an effective tool to expose the reality of corruption and weakness in the central government. The first great promoters of the movement were Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan who were not only great writers but also great theorists, providing the foundation of the movement. Both were enthusiastic to promote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
