''Libian'' was a gradual, systematic simplification of

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

forms during the 2nd century BC, by which the

Chinese writing system Written Chinese is a writing system that uses Chinese characters and other symbols to represent the Chinese languages. Chinese characters do not directly represent pronunciation, unlike letters in an alphabet or syllabograms in a syllabary. Rathe ...

transitioned from the

seal script Seal script or sigillary script () is a Chinese script styles, style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of bronze script during the Zhou dynasty (1 ...

character forms promulgated during the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

(221–206 BC) to the

clerical script The clerical script (), sometimes also chancery script, is a style of Chinese writing that evolved from the late Warring States period to the Qin dynasty. It matured and became dominant in the Han dynasty, and remained in active use through t ...

characters associated with the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

(202 BC220 AD), through the process of making omissions, additions, or transmutations of the graphical form of a character to make it easier to write. ''Libian'' was one of two conversion processes towards the new clerical script character forms, with the other being ''

liding ''Liding'', sometimes referred to as ''lixie'', is the practice of rewriting ancient Chinese character forms in clerical script, clerical or regular script. ''Liding'' is often used in Chinese Textual scholarship, textual studies. Terminolo ...

'', which involved the regularisation and linearisation of character shapes.

Process

The earlier seal script characters were complicated and inconvenient to write; as a result, lower-level officials and clerics gradually simplified the strokes, and transitioned from writing with bowed

ink brush A Chinese writing brush () is a paintbrush used as a writing tool in Chinese calligraphy as well as in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese which all have roots in Chinese calligraphy. They are also used in Chinese painting and other brush pain ...

es to using straight ink brushes, which both improved ease of writing. The complexity of characters can be reduced in one of four ways: * Modulation (): The replacement of character components with an unrelated component. For example, the ancient bronze script form of 'to shoot arrows' was written as , however the left-side component became replaced with 'body' during the transition to clerical script writing. * Mutation (): Some characters undergo modulation so suddenly that no clue hinting at the original form can be found in the new form. For example, the transition from the seal script character 'spring' to the clerical (and by extension, modern) form completely drops any hints of the original component, instead replacing it with which seemingly has zero basis in relation to the original component. * Omission (): The complete omission of a character component. For example, the clerical script form of 'to write' (

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...

: ) completely omits the phonetic component at the bottom of the seal script form . * Reduction (): Simplifies character components to a form with fewer strokes. For example, the ancient form of ACC-s05903

'celestial being' had the complex phonetic component simplified into , creating the clerical form . One consequence of the ''libian'' transition process is that many

radicals Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

formed as a result of simplifying complex components within seal script characters—for example, characters containing 'heart' on the side had the component simplified into , as seen in and , and these newly-formed radicals are still used in modern-day Chinese writing as the fundamental basis for constructing and sorting Chinese characters.

Process

References

Citations

Example lexemes

Works cited