Research on the Graphical System of Eastern Five States in the Warring States Period (Series of the History of Chinese Character Formation)

Author: Zhao Xueqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: The Warring States script inherits the bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou dynasties and leads into the Small Seal and Clerical scripts, marking an important stage in the evolution of Chinese characters. This book selects the scripts of the Warring States period from the states of Qi, Yan, Han, Zhao, and Wei as the research subjects, describing the true appearance of the Warring States script and conducting chronological studies, thereby providing a basis for research on the history of Chinese character development. The scripts of the five eastern states of the Warring States period are a significant component of the history of Chinese character development. Through the study of these textual materials, the author discovers that they are systematic in their formation. This system is closely related to the systems of other stages in the development of Chinese characters. The formation system of the five eastern states of the Warring States period can be viewed from three aspects: , their basic components and their proportion in character formation are already quite refined compared to oracle bone and bronze inscriptions; second, in terms of character formation patterns, the proportion of phonetic compounds has increased significantly; third, in terms of the hierarchical structure of Chinese characters, hierarchical structures dominate, while planar structures are rare. These indicate that the formation system of the Warring States scripts of the five eastern states has matured.