The History of the

Chinese Writing System

and Four Treasures of
the Studio
By: Tyler Lu
Mandarin 8

Part One
The

History of Chinese Writing System

The Meaning of

in a English translation means simplified characters.

The Chinese language is one of the oldest in the world and throughout time
the language gradually evolved to make writing characters simpler to learn,
but the biggest change resulting in simplified Chinese characters we know
today took place in the 1950s.

The largest change occurred during the 1950s b because at this time China
was a republic and the government wanted to standardized writing in the
Chinese mainland.

Out of the 40,000 Chinese characters only 2,000 have been simplified, that is
only 5 percent of the Chinese characters.

The Meaning of

As stated in the name simplified characters usually have less strokes than the
traditional character, but this does make the two character hard to
distinguish as similar due to the decrease in strokes.

The history of simplified Chinese character took place in two phases, the first
phase occurred from 1956-1964 and the second phase took place in 1977, but
was not formally accepted until 1986.

The Meaning of

Traditional Chinese characters are categorized as a logographic type of

writing.

This form of writing has existed in the Chinese culture since the fifth century,
during the Han dynasty.

Unlike other types of writing logographs do not stand for a certain sound in
speech but it stands for a specific object that it is suppose to resemble.

Traditional Character have more stroke then simplified characters which

make them hard to learn, for example the traditional character for horse in
ten strokes and the simplified character for horse is only three strokes.

The Meaning of

Early records form the Han dynasty retell that Han scholars already started
simplifying many characters ranging from 1 to 64 strokes were simplified into
1 to 12 basic strokes.

The earliest records of traditional characters were written on the back of

tortoise shells and bones in 1400 BC.

Today there is more than 100,000 different types of characters and it is said
that a well educated person knows 4,000 to 5,000 characters and it is said
that you need to know 2,000 character to be able to read the newspaper.

Part 2
Four

Treasures of the Studio

The Meaning of

The four treasures of the studio were paper, brush, ink stick, and a ink stone.
Every detail form the ink brush and paper were all taken into consideration
when writing, because good paper will have a good presentation, a good
brush will make the calligraphy strokes look defines]d, and good ink will make
the characters bold and visible.

The literary traditions of using the four treasures of the studio has been
pasted down for more than 2,000 years back in the Han Dynasty.

The discovery of the four treasures of the studio was a revolution for the
Chinese culture because it allowed writing to become a art which evolve into
poetry and unlocked new ways in recording history.

The Meaning of

In ancient China the four treasure of the studio was not only used so you will
be able to write but it also allowed the person to have a pleasurable time
when writing and will allow them to connect with their inner thoughts.

Bibliography

1. http://mandarin.about.com/od/characters/a/simplified_characters.htm

2. http://www.omniglot.com/chinese/simplified.htm

3. http://mandarin.about.com/od/chineseculture/a/traditional.htm

4. http://www.art-virtue.com/basics/1-treasures.htm

5. http
://www.asianbrushpainter.com/blog/knowledgebase/the-four-treasures/

Videos

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi3JJ6ZBwDc

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyyZcCqp6TA

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-htyFTYKf7g