01/06/2015
During my stay in Bangor I learnt some Mandarin and how to form some of their Chinese characters.
As one kind of the most ancient characters, Chinese characters have played a significant role in the development of Chinese culture. Originally, ancient Sumerian and ancient Egyptian symbols existed, but only Chinese characters remain today.
Based on pictographs, Chinese characters combine shapes with sounds and connotations to form unique, block-shaped characters that carry meaning.
Archaeological researchers discovered many such signs carved on earthenware excavated from Banpo Village in Xi'an City and Jiangzhai Village in Lintong. The etchings were carved 6,000 years ago. More than 4,000 years ago, people living in Tai'an area of Shangdong Province also carved signs on earthenware.
The character "旦"(dàn),meaning dawn, for instance; the sun (日) rises upwards, crossing the mountains and passing through cloud layers to tell people a new day has begun. It is safe to say that the earthenware signs are the first Chinese characters, which originated from drawings.
The most sophiscated and earlist Chinese characters are the inscriptions on tortoises shells and animal bones called Jiaguwen(甲骨文) of the Shang Dynasty (17th-11th century BC) that resemble drawings. To date, China has unearthed 150,000 pieces of an animal bone and tortoise shell, including more than 4,600 distinctive Chinese characters, among which more than 1,700 have been identified. The inscriptions on bones and shells consist of phrases and simple sentences, providing much insight into the Shang Dynasty. Modern Chinese characters top 60,000 among which about 3,000 are commonly used.
Picture 2: Water
Picture 3: China
Picture 4: man
Picture 5: panda cat ( The Chinese don't like bears so they call pandas cats )