Chinese Calligraphy History (6) Mysterious disappearance of Shell-Bone Script

Mysterious disappearance of Shell-Bone Script

Shell-Bone Script is the oldest script. The earliest physical shells or bones with Shell-Bone script characters discovered was back to Shang Dynasty, about 3600 years ago. We can believe that the Shell-Bone script was created much earlier than 3600 years ago.

At that time, people didn’t write on the Shell or Bone with brush and ink, they carved pictograph characters on the shells or bones. They didn’t have brush and ink. Shell-Bone script was used for divination at that time. People wrote inscription on shells or bones, then put them on fire, after burning them for some time, they looked for the cracks. People believed that the cracks on burned shells or bones with inscription could tell good or bad luck. People made decision based on the explanation of the cracks.

However, all facts above had not been known for more than 3500 years. The Shell-Bone script had just disappeared without any trace. They didn’t show any signs for more than 3000 years, people didn't know there was an oldest script exist  until 1899 when Mr. Yirong Wang (王懿荣）, a famous epigraphy expert, noticed some mysterious carved marks on shells and bones in Chinese medicine he bought for his illness. He was very familiar the ancient characters. He was attracted by the carved marks, and soon found that at least some of the marks were meaningful characters, he could understand the rest. After his discovery was made to public, more experts started to study the marks on old shells and bones. People finally realized that those marks on old shells and bones were the oldest Chinese characters, many of them were similar as the modern characters.

Because those characters were on shells or bones, so people called them Shell-Bone Script.

After the discovery of the Shell-Bone Script, many Chinese experts have put much of their enthusiasm and efforts on finding the shells and bones with mysterious characters, and how to explain the meaning of each characters. After more than a century, according Wikipedia (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/甲骨文), about 150,000 piece of shells and bones have been found.  There are total about 4,500 Shell-Bone script characters, about one third of them have been understood, and interpreted. It is big achievement.  

The above table is some known Shell-Bone script characters.

Even though they are clear to experts, but people may still have problem to recognize them all. It will be more difficult for non Chinese speakers. However, some are so clear, every one could understand. For example, in the third row from the top, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th from left are character 車 （car, vehicle) . You can see the wheels. In the fifth row for top, the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th are all character 齒 (tooth, or teeth). You can see many teeth in a mouth. In the sixth row from top, the 4th, 5th characters are character 蟲 (insect). 

As people have put big efforts on figuring out the meaning of Shell-Bone script characters, little or no attention has been paid to the mystery of disappearing of shell-bone script. Occasionally someone asked the question, few people responded. What did happen to cause Shell-Bone script disappearing? No one has answered the question. By my knowledge, there is no any seriously study on this topic ever. We found 150,000 pieces shells and bones with the characters, there may be more pieces not found yet, and even more were destroyed during 3500+ years. Why so many pieces of shells and bones with characters had disappeared for 3500 years, even no any record mentioned in history documents? What happened?


The shells and bones with Shell-Bone script characters disappeared, but the late scripts - Small Seal, Bronze (characters on Bronze), Clerical, Standard scripts all have some degree similar as Shell-Bone script. Otherwise experts would have been impossible to figure out and interpret the Shell-Bone script characters. So even though Shell-Bone script physcially disappeared but they passed their "genes" to late scripts, which is mystery too.

Above characters from top to bottom: Sun, Moon, Car, Horse. 
The script types from left to right: Shell-Bone, Bronze, Small Seal, Clerical, Standard
We can see all late scripts are some degree similar with the Shell-Bone script.

As people have put big efforts on figuring out the meaning of Shell-Bone script characters, little or non attention has been paid to the mystery of disappearing of shell-bone script. Occasionally someone asked the question, few people responded. What did happen to cause Shell-Bone script disappearing? No one has answered the question. By my knowledge, there is no any seriously study on this topic ever. We found 150,000 pieces shells and bones with the characters, there may be more pieces not found yet, and even more were destroyed during 3500+ years. So many pieces shells and bones with characters disappeared, even no any record in any history documents. What happened? 

It is very important for us to find out the reason why. If we can breakthrough the puzzle, we may have to rewrite Chinese history especially on Chinese culture, and Chinese calligraphy. I hope that Chinese government and history experts pay more attention to this topic.

Note: Update information

1, Amazing Chinese Characters blog has changed name to Learn Chinese with Pictography, and changed its URL address too, the new URL is

Learn Chinese with Pictography.blogspot.com/

2, Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy blog has changed name to Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy, and the new URL is

Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy.blogspot.com/

You are welcome to access the new sites for Chinese learning. Please update your bookmarks.

Chinese Calligraphy History (5) Chinese Indicative characters - 指事字

Indicative characters

We have discussed how ideogram characters could express the non pictography abstract meanings with two or more pictography characters. There are another characters which could do the same: Indicative characters, e.g.

Shell bone script for Up, and Down

The short line on top is Up, the short line on bottom is Down. The short lines are indicator or pointer, which tells the point or position the character emphasizes.

Shell bone script for Root, and Tip

There is a dot on character Wood (tree). The dot in the middle low position is Root, the dot in the middle high position is Tip. The dots are indicator or pointer.

The shell bone script for Sweet is

The short line in Mouth is something Sweet.

The bronze script for Foot is

The dot is in a leg, the distance from the ground to the dot right below the knee is one Foot (Chinese Foot).

The shell bone script for Inch is

A short line right below a hand means that the distance between that point to the wrist is one Inch.

The shell bone script for Trunk (朱）is

A dot is the middle of the trunk of a tree. 

So the short lines, dots, circles are all indicators of the characters.They are meaningful and understood. But they are not pictogram and ideogram, similar but not the same. They are called Indicative characters.

I don't know how many indicative characters in Chinese, but should be very few. I don't have exactly number, but I think not more than 30.

However, the above indicative characters evolved to forms dramatically different.

The clerical script for Up

the bottom curve becomes straight line, the vertical line is new.

The clerical script for Down

 the top curve becomes straight line, the vertical line is new, and the short horizontal line becomes a diagonal.

The clerical script for Root

The clerical script for Tip

The dots in both characters become horizontal lines, the one in Tip is long, not like indicator or pointer anymore.

The clerical script for Foot

The dot is disappeared, not Indicative character anymore.

The clerical script for Inch

Difficult to see a hand.

The clerical script for Trunk

The dot becomes a long horizontal line. The meaning of the character becomes Red, the original meaning is changed to be 株，a Wood radical on the left.

The fact is that most people don't know indicative characters very well. They are few, and less important in comparison with other characters. But they are different and special.

Chinese Calligraphy History (3) Why was pictogram characters changed to non-pictogram characters?

I had not thought this question before I was asked a few years ago. There is no any answer for it, even no discussion on this question online or in books. What I think is that the Chinese Characters were first used as symbols for divination, not a language. The symbols were drawn differently by different people, e.g.

All above are shell bone script (3000+ ago) of Vehicle.

All above are shell bone script of Toot.

All above are shell bone script of Fish.

As more and more communication of write were needed, the multiple version of one character made confusions. To better communicate among people, the unification of characters was needed. So the first Emperor (259 BC - 210 BC) ordered to unified characters into Small seal script by Minister Si-Li.

The Vehicle became

The Tooth became

The Fish became

The Small seal script was the official script, any other forms were wrong, and not allowed to be used in official documents.

Small seal script is formed by smooth curves, symmetric, and beautiful, but less pictography than Big seal script or Shell bone script, which is the cost of unification of characters. Because language requires standardization, not artistry.

Chinese characters continued this trend to clerical script (Han Dynasty, about 2000 years ago to current), in which

is Vehicle

is Tooth.

is Fish.

Most curve lines disappeared, more straight lines, which is easy for everyone to write quickly. But most of pictography has been lost.

Unlike Small seal script from the Emperor and government in very short time, Clerical script was from ordinary people gradually evolved in hundreds years, accepted by government later on, so it lasts long, and still popular now. Small seal script was only limited in government documents at that time, and not popular. It is only used for seal characters, and calligraphy artworks.

Chinese characters continued to change to standard script (Tang Dynasty, 618 - 907) and song typeface (Song Dynasty, 960 - 1276),

Vehicle

Tooth

Fish

All above simplified song typeface lost most of original pictography, but the straight strokes let people write them easier and a little bit faster because the number os strokes is reduced. However, students have no idea where the characters are from, why they should be written in these forms? So they have to memorize them.

In the long history, Chinese gradually evolved from artistic symbols to standardized characters. Finally, Chinese characters completed the change from pictographic symbols  to non pictographic language characters. From the view of language, it is good because it is easy to write, it reduced the confusion. But from the view of art, it has lost most artistic pictography.

However, we could see the evolution of the characters in 3000+ years. Even song typeface has some pictography left, just not much.

Chinese Calligraphy History (2) Traditional Chinese characters are pictograph

3, Traditional Chinese characters are pictograph

It is said that there are 264 pure picto-gram characters, about 4% of Chinese characters. Even though the Picto-gram characters are not much, but they are the fundamental base of Chinese characters because most of other characters are formed by combining them or have partial of them.

Some Americans asked me if Chinese has “letters”, some thing like ABCDE….. to build Chinese characters according to the pronunciation. The answer is NO. Chinese characters have nothing to do with pronunciation, each character has its own structure. Then I was asked another question “ How many are there Chinese characters?”, my answer is “I don’t know exactly, but there may be close to 100,000. The common used characters are about 3,000 , which is enough for daily life”. People think that 3,000 is still too much. How do Chinese remember so many characters? The ancient Chinese made about 200+ pictogram characters, then used them to create most other characters. So if you know the 200+, you will understand most other characters. It is not as difficult as people think. However, Chinese have gradually ignored the pictogram in the characters, they learnt Chinese by memorizing, which makes learning Chinese to be very boring and difficult.

This article is not teaching you Chinese but revealing the beauty of calligraphy. Let us take some pictogram characters.

Door, a traditional Chinese character.

Character 門 has not changed for at least 3000 years. It is still used in Tai Wan, and most of the world except mainland China, where simplified characters are used, door is 门, which is less pictgram.

The simplified Chinese was created orinigal in cursive script because calligraphists wanted to write fast, so they simplified the characters. But since 1919, many Chinese thought that Chinese is too complicated, has disadvantage in comparison with English or other spelling languages. So Chinese needed to be simplified. 1950s China simplified some characters. It is said total about 400+, most accepted the characters in cursive script. Because as I mentioned above, most Characters are combination of pictogram or contain pictogram, thousands characters have been influenced.

Many experts feel that the simplified Chinese created more problems than benefits. One argument is that simplified Characters lost the pictogram. So more and more people use traditional Chinese.

The above is a briefly discussion about traditional/simplified Chinese or characters. Because calligraphy is rooted in traditional Chinese, shell-bone, clerical, standard scripts are all traditional characters; running script has some simplified characters, cursive script uses simplified characters most.

Water,  from top to bottom: shell-bone script, small seal script, clerical script (there is no simplified, or simplified and traditional are same)

Sun, from left to right: shell-bone script, small seal script, clerical script (there is no simplified too)

Moon, from left to right: shell-bone script, small seal script, clerical script (there is no simplified too)

Fish the order is same as above: shell-bone, small seal, clerical.

Child  order is same as above 

We can see, all character above, Water, Sun, Moon and Fish, are from very pictography(shell bone and small seal script) to not much pictography(clerical script) as time past.

I was asked "Why did Chinese change the characters away from pictography?". Very good question. I will answer it in next post.

(to be continued)

Chinese Calligraphy History (1) Uncover the beauty of the Chinese picto-calligraphy

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1, Traditional Chinese Calligraphy emphasizes the beauty of neatly arranged many characters, or the elegant cursive style with multiple characters. 

Chinese Calligraphy has more than 3000 years old. Many Chinese characters were pictogram, picture-alike. Many are still pictogram, but many have changed to become non-pictogram. 

Chinese Calligraphy is a combination of language and art at the beginning, but as time past, the picture-alike curves of characters evolved to straight lines to avoid confusion as a role of language, the beauty of art has been hided.  It is more difficult for people to see the beauty of Chinese Calligraphy as individual characters. Traditional Chinese calligraphy emphasizes heavily on the beauty from the neatly arranged multiple characters in standard script or clerical script, or the running script or cursive script in more flexible order, not the beauty of the individual pictograph.

- Yi Ying Monument, Han Dynasty (202 B. C - 220), Clerical script

- Lan Ting Xu, Jin Dynasty (226-420), Running Script

2, Uncover the beauty of the Chinese picto-calligraphy

It is a big missing or incomplete for Chinese calligraph without the beauty of the individual pictograph. Because the pictograph was the ancient Chinese orinigal way to discribe the world they thought. The individual character contains their philosophy. But if we write too many of the characters together, we can't not see these any more.

In order to uncover the beauty of the Chinese characters, I have explored back to original Chinese character expressions, tried to emphasize the picture-alike of the characters to restore the original pictogram. At the same time, I tried to modify some pictograph or non-pictograph characters to create meaningful new pictogram for a new impression of the characters. My goal is to make Chinese characters easy to understood, not only the Chinese can appreciate, but the non Chinese speakers could enjoy. 

Mountain, (Written by Lewei Shang), from top to bottom: Shell-Bone script, Small seal Script, Clerical Script.
Note: Shell-Bone Script is the oldest script, popular in 3000-4000 years ago, Small seal script was popular in 2000 - 2500 years ago, Clerical Script was popular in 2000 years ago, but it is still used widely nowadays. 

Fish, (Written by Lewei Shang), from top to bottom: Shell-Bone script, Small Script, Clerical Script.

to be continued

Note: Update information

1, Amazing Chinese Characters blog has changed name to Learn Chinese with Pictography, and changed its URL address too, the new URL is

Learn Chinese with Pictography.blogspot.com/

2, Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy blog has changed name to Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy, and the new URL is

Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy.blogspot.com/

You are welcome to access the new sites for Chinese learning. Please update your bookmarks.

Why Chinese say "买东西"（buy east-west） instead of “买南北” （buy north-south）?

In the early of 1980s, when I was a senior in Peking University, in Beijing, China, I took a course called “Chemistry History”.  It talked about how the ancient Chinese made elixir, paper, fireworks, etc.  It was good for our Chemistry students to learn the development of chemistry.  It was an elective course, but the content was interesting, so most students enrolled.  It was held once a week, for 2 hours each time.
One day at the beginning of the course, the instructor said to us “When you meet someone, you may be asked ‘Where have you been?’.  You will answer: ‘I just went to buy some east-west’. Why do we say “买东西（buy east-west）”, but not “买南北（buy north-south）”？

He started to explain the story behind ‘east-west”.
In ancient China, people thought that the universe is made from five elements: 金木水火土.

In English, these are: Gold, Soil, Water, Fire, and Wood.  The five elements are located in five directions:  东西南北中. In English, these are: East, West, South, North, and Center.  Wood is in the East, Gold is in the West, Fire is in the South, Water is in the North, and Soil is in the Center, right under our feet.

However, Gold doesn’t mean gold only. It includes everything which is made from metals, or contains metals, such as a knife, car, gun, pan or plow.  Similarly, Wood includes everything which is made from wood, and everything from plants, such as furniture, houses, grains, vegetables and fruits.   In ancient times, all of these were merchandise, and people had to buy them.  But South, North, and Center, or in English, Fire, Water, and Soil were free at that time.  No one paid for those.  Therefore, people in ancient times bought “East-West”, not “North-South” and Center.

Even though Fire, Water, and Soil became valuable, and people eventually have to pay for, “买东西（buy east-west）” has become a standard phrase for Chinese.

We human beings have been buying “East-West” for thousands of years.  However, as I mentioned above, we need not only to buy “East-West” like cars made of metals; tables, chairs, fruits, vegetables and grains made of wood; we also have to buy “North-South” like gas, electricity, water, drink, etc., because the “North-South” products are not free any more.  Things are more expensive.  The most expensive thing is a house, which is built on the land and belongs to the Soil, or the Center.  Many people can afford “East-West” but can’t afford the “Center”.  If some ancient Chinese people had woken up today, they would have been shocked by the price of land.  Nowadays, all East-West-North-South-Center are valuable.  Nothing is free.

You will have all the “Gold-Wood-Water-Fire-Soil”, or, you bought all “East-West-North-South-Center”.  I have rented for years, no land, and no house. The American dream is for me is still a dream.

Note: Update information

1, Amazing Chinese Characters blog has changed name to Learn Chinese with Pictography, and changed its URL address too, the new URL is

Learn Chinese with Pictography.blogspot.com/

2, Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy blog has changed name to Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy, and the new URL is

Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy.blogspot.com/

You are welcome to access the new sites for Chinese learning. Please update your bookmarks.