![齊書11](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/%E9%BD%8A%E6%9B%B811.jpg)
Ming or Song is a category of
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are thousands o ...
s used to display
Chinese character
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' ...
s, which are used in the
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
,
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
and
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
languages. They are currently the most common style of type in print for Chinese and Japanese.
Name
The names ''Song'' (or ''Sung'') and ''Ming'' correspond to the
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
when a distinctive printed style of
regular script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
was developed, and the
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
during which that style developed into the Ming typeface style.
[Kinkido Type Laboratory - Home]
→ ●知る: 漢字書体 In Mainland China, the most common name is ''Song'' (the Mainland Chinese standardized Ming typeface in
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
being named ''SimSun''). In
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
, ''Ming'' is prevalent. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, “''Song'' typeface” () has been used but “''Ming'' typeface” () has increased currency since the advent of
desktop publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online c ...
. Some
type foundries
A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Mono ...
use "Song" to refer to this style of typeface that follows a standard such as the
Standard Form of National Characters
The ''Standard Form of National Characters'' or the ''Standard Typefaces for Chinese Characters'' () is the standardized form of Chinese characters set by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Lists
There are three lists o ...
, and “Ming” to refer to typefaces that resemble forms found in the
Kangxi dictionary
The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing d ...
.
* Chinese: ;
Jyutping
Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK), an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme. The LSHK advocates for ...
: Sung3tai2/Ming4tai2
* Japanese: ;
rōmaji
The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as .
Japanese is normally written in a combination of logographic characters borrowed from Ch ...
: Minchōtai
* Korean:
**
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
: ;
Hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...
: ;
Revised Romanization
Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Min ...
: Myeongjoche
**
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
: ;
Hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...
: ;
Revised Romanization
Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Min ...
: Batangche
Characteristics
Characteristics of Ming typefaces include the following:
* The basic structure of
regular script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
* Thick vertical strokes contrasted with thin horizontal strokes
* Triangles at the end of single horizontal strokes, called (, literally "fish scales") in Japanese, comparable to
serif
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ...
s. These are a print analog of the slight dot caused by pausing one's brush ( ), the "pause technique", used to reinforce the beginning or ending of a stroke, which is characteristic of
regular script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
.
* Overall geometrical regularity
Possessing variable line weight and characteristic decorations at the end of lines similar to
serif
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ...
s, this type style is comparable to Western
serif typeface
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ( ...
s, as opposed to
East Asian gothic typeface
In the East Asian writing system, gothic typefaces (; ja, ゴシック体, goshikku-tai; ko, 돋움, dotum, ''godik-che'') are a type style characterized by strokes of even thickness and lack of decorations akin to sans serif styles in Weste ...
s which are comparable to Western
sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...
.
Variations
Often there are different ways to write the same Chinese character; these are collectively referred to as
variant Chinese character
Variant Chinese characters (; Kanji: ; Hepburn: ''itaiji''; ; Revised Romanization: ''icheja'') are Chinese characters that are homophones and synonyms. Most variants are allographs in most circumstances, such as casual handwriting. Some contexts ...
s. Some of the differences are caused by character simplification, while others are purely
orthographic differences such as stroke styling. The styling of the strokes used in old Ming typefaces came from the style used in the ''
Kangxi Dictionary
The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing d ...
''.
In mainland China, the modern standardized character forms are specified in the ''
List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese
The ''List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese'' () is a list of 7,000 commonly used Chinese characters in Chinese. It was created in 1988 in the People's Republic of China.
The ''List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese'' ...
''. Some characters in the list differ from the Kangxi forms solely because they are
Simplified while others differ because they use a different variant or orthography.
In Taiwan, the
Standard Form of National Characters
The ''Standard Form of National Characters'' or the ''Standard Typefaces for Chinese Characters'' () is the standardized form of Chinese characters set by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Lists
There are three lists o ...
specifies the modern standardized forms. Unlike the mainland standard, the Taiwan standard uses mostly preexisting character forms but reference back to the style of
regular script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
and reform Ming typefaces based on regular script style extensively, which had attracted criticism from many peoples.
After the postwar
kanji reforms in Japan, most of the Kangxi style characters were called (old style), while the reformed characters were called , causing newer dictionaries to either incorporate both styles or omit the Kangxi styles. In Korea, most typefaces use the Kangxi forms.
There are differences between print and script forms of many Chinese characters, just as there are differences between
copperplate and most people's handwriting. Some of these differences are persistent and specific to a style, but others may be no more significant than variations between individual typefaces. None of these variations usually hinder reading.
History
China
The
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...
industry from the
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
reached an apex in the
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
,
during which there were three major areas of production:
*
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
, where publications imitated the
regular script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
of
Ouyang Xun
Ouyang Xun (; 557–641), courtesy name Xinben (), was a Chinese calligrapher, politician, and writer of the early Tang dynasty. He was born in Hunan, Changsha, to a family of government officials; and died in modern Anhui province.
Achievements ...
*
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
, where publications imitated the regular script of
Yan Zhenqing
Yan Zhenqing (; 709–785) was a Chinese calligrapher, military general, and politician. He was a leading Chinese calligrapher and a loyal governor of the Tang dynasty. His artistic accomplishment in Chinese calligraphy is equal to that of the ...
*
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
, where publications imitated the regular script of
Liu Gongquan
Liu Gongquan (), courtesy name Chengxuan (), was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, and politician who lived during the late Tang dynasty. Liu Gongquan was especially famous for regular script () and was one of the 4 calligraphic masters of regular ...
When Song lost control of northern China to the
Jin (金) dynasty, its capital was moved to
Lin'an (modern
Hangzhou
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...
), where there was a revival of printing, especially literature from Tang left in what was conquered by the Jin Dynasty. Many publishers were established in Lin'an, including ''Chén zhái shūjí pù'' () established by Chen Qi (),
from which publications used a distinct style of regular script with orderly, straight strokes. Modern typefaces of this style are classified as
imitation Song typeface
Imitation Song is a style of Chinese typefaces modeled after a type style in Lin'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. They are technically a type of regular script typeface. It is the standard typeface used in official government documents texts i ...
s (). In the
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
, the straightening of strokes in a reprint of a publication from Lin'an started a shift to what became the basis of the Ming style.
File:浙江姓解1.jpeg, A page of a publication from Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
in a regular script
Regular script (; Hepburn: ''kaisho''), also called (), (''zhēnshū''), (''kǎitǐ'') and (''zhèngshū''), is the newest of the Chinese script styles (popularized from the Cao Wei dynasty c. 200 AD and maturing stylistically around the ...
typeface which resembles the handwriting of Ouyang Xun
Ouyang Xun (; 557–641), courtesy name Xinben (), was a Chinese calligrapher, politician, and writer of the early Tang dynasty. He was born in Hunan, Changsha, to a family of government officials; and died in modern Anhui province.
Achievements ...
.
File:菊澗小集終頁.jpg, A page of a publication from ''Chén zhái shūjí pù''.
Japan
![Mintyotai](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Mintyotai.svg)
are the most commonly used style in print in Japan. There are several variations in use, such as the textbook style and the newspaper style.
The creator of modern Japanese movable-type printing,
Motoki Shōzō (or Motogi), modeled his sets of type after those prevailing in China, having learned an electrolytic method of type manufacturing from the American
William Gamble in 1869. Motoki then created, based on Gamble's frequency studies of characters in the Chinese
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, a full set of type with added Japanese characters; in addition to Chinese and Latin characters, Japanese text uses the syllabaries
hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''.
It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" originally as contrast ...
and
katakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...
.
Korea
In Korean, a similar category of typefaces for the Korean alphabet
hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
was called ''myeongjo'' (the Korean reading for the same Chinese characters "") until recently, influenced by the Japanese term. A Ministry of Culture-sponsored standardization of typography terms in 1993 replaced ''myeongjo'' with ''batang'' (""), the Korean word for “foundation” or “ground” (as opposed to “figure”), and is the current term for the typeface.
Ming typefaces in computing
Technically, only
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' ...
can be printed in a Ming typeface. However, most modern typefaces (that is, digital typefaces) often also include
kana
The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...
glyphs in a matching style, usually in a precise style resembling handwriting with a brush. Modern Ming typefaces also incorporate
Roman type
In Latin script typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 15th century, based on the pairing of inscriptional ...
glyphs for Latin characters, letterlike symbols, and numbers. In its modern role comparable to that of western serif typefaces, both kana and Latin characters are usually part of a complete typeface.
Ming typefaces are used officially by the government of China, Japan and Korea.
See also
*
East Asian gothic typeface
In the East Asian writing system, gothic typefaces (; ja, ゴシック体, goshikku-tai; ko, 돋움, dotum, ''godik-che'') are a type style characterized by strokes of even thickness and lack of decorations akin to sans serif styles in Weste ...
*
Chinese calligraphy
Chinese calligraphy is the writing of Chinese characters as an art form, combining purely visual art and interpretation of the literary meaning. This type of expression has been widely practiced in China and has been generally held in high est ...
References
Further reading
www.kinkido.net– some information on Chinese typefaces, including Ming typefaces.
External links
/nowiki> Fonts]typefaces included with Mac OS and Windows
differences between some Ming typefaces
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ming (Typeface)
Chinese-language computing
Chinese type styles