Download or read book The Origin of Chinese Characters written by Kihoon Lee and published by Algora Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origins of Chinese Writing written by Paola Demattè and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the evidence for Chinese writing in the late Neolithic (3500-2000 BCE) and early Bronze Age (2000-1250 BCE) periods. Chinese writing is often said to have begun with little incubation during the late Shang period (c. 1300-1045 BCE) in the middle-lower Yellow River Valley area as a sudden independent invention. This explanation runs counter to evidence from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Mesoamerica that shows that independent developments of writing generally undergo a protracted evolution. It also ignores archaeological data from the Chinese Neolithic and early Bronze Age that reveals the existence of signs comparable to Shang characters. Paola Demattè takes this data into account to address the issue of what writing is, and when, why, and how it develops, by employing a theory of writing that does not privilege language as a prime mover. It focuses instead on visual systems of communication as well as ideological and socio-economic developments as key elements that promote the eventual development of writing. To understand the processes that led to primary developments of writing, The Origins of Chinese Writing draws from the latest research on the early writing systems of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Mesoamerica, and other forms of protowriting. The result is a novel and inclusive theoretical approach to the archaeological evidence, grammatological data, and textual sources, an approach that demonstrates that Chinese writing emerged out of a long process that began in the Late Neolithic and continued during the Early Bronze Age.
Download or read book The Chinese Typewriter written by Thomas S. Mullaney and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Chinese characters triumphed over the QWERTY keyboard and laid the foundation for China's information technology successes today. Chinese writing is character based, the one major world script that is neither alphabetic nor syllabic. Through the years, the Chinese written language encountered presumed alphabetic universalism in the form of Morse Code, Braille, stenography, Linotype, punch cards, word processing, and other systems developed with the Latin alphabet in mind. This book is about those encounters—in particular thousands of Chinese characters versus the typewriter and its QWERTY keyboard. Thomas Mullaney describes a fascinating series of experiments, prototypes, failures, and successes in the century-long quest for a workable Chinese typewriter. The earliest Chinese typewriters, Mullaney tells us, were figments of popular imagination, sensational accounts of twelve-foot keyboards with 5,000 keys. One of the first Chinese typewriters actually constructed was invented by a Christian missionary, who organized characters by common usage (but promoted the less-common characters for “Jesus" to the common usage level). Later came typewriters manufactured for use in Chinese offices, and typewriting schools that turned out trained “typewriter girls” and “typewriter boys.” Still later was the “Double Pigeon” typewriter produced by the Shanghai Calculator and Typewriter Factory, the typewriter of choice under Mao. Clerks and secretaries in this era experimented with alternative ways of organizing characters on their tray beds, inventing an input method that was the first instance of “predictive text.” Today, after more than a century of resistance against the alphabetic, not only have Chinese characters prevailed, they form the linguistic substrate of the vibrant world of Chinese information technology. The Chinese Typewriter, not just an “object history” but grappling with broad questions of technological change and global communication, shows how this happened. A Study of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute Columbia University
Download or read book Writing and Literacy in Early China written by Feng Li and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emergence and spread of literacy in ancient human society an important topic for all who study the ancient world, and the development of written Chinese is of particular interest, as modern Chinese orthography preserves logographic principles shared by its most ancient forms, making it unique among all present-day writing systems. In the past three decades, the discovery of previously unknown texts dating to the third century BCE and earlier, as well as older versions of known texts, has revolutionized the study of early Chinese writing. The long-term continuity and stability of the Chinese written language allow for this detailed study of the role literacy played in early civilization. The contributors to Writing and Literacy in Early China inquire into modes of manuscript production, the purposes for which texts were produced, and the ways in which they were actually used. By carefully evaluating current evidence and offering groundbreaking new interpretations, the book illuminates the nature of literacy for scribes and readers.
Download or read book Kingdom of Characters Pulitzer Prize Finalist written by Jing Tsu and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 What does it take to reinvent a language? After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology. Kingdom of Characters follows the bold innovators who reinvented the Chinese language, among them an exiled reformer who risked a death sentence to advocate for Mandarin as a national language, a Chinese-Muslim poet who laid the groundwork for Chairman Mao's phonetic writing system, and a computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup from the floor of a jail cell. Without their advances, China might never have become the dominating force we know today. With larger-than-life characters and an unexpected perspective on the major events of China’s tumultuous twentieth century, Tsu reveals how language is both a technology to be perfected and a subtle, yet potent, power to be exercised and expanded.
Download or read book Chinese Script written by Thomas O. Höllmann and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brisk and accessible history, sinologist Thomas O. Höllmann explains the development of the Chinese writing system and its importance in literature, religion, art, and other aspects of culture. Spanning the earliest epigraphs and oracle bones to writing and texting on computers and mobile phones today, Chinese Script is a wide-ranging and versatile introduction to the complexity and beauty of written text and calligraphy in the Chinese world. Höllmann delves into the origins of Chinese script and its social and political meanings across millennia of history. He recounts the social history of the writing system; written and printed texts; and the use of writing materials such as paper, silk, ink, brush, and printing techniques. The book sheds light on the changing role of literacy and education; the politics of orthographic reform; and the relationship of Chinese writing to non-Han Chinese languages and cultures. Höllmann explains the inherent complexity of Chinese script, demonstrating why written Chinese expresses meaning differently than oral language and the subtleties of the relationship between spoken word and written text. He explores calligraphy as an art, the early letter press, and other ways of visually representing Chinese languages. Chinese Script also provides handy illustrations of the concepts discussed, showing how ideographs function and ways to decipher them visually.
Download or read book The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System written by William G. Boltz and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1994 (hardcover now out of print), this volume has been reprinted in a new paperback format that will make it more attractive and affordable for use in the classroom. The work sketches with extraordinary precision the history of the Chinese writing system from the late Shang (ca. 1200 B.C.) when Chinese characters are first in evidence down to the script's standardization and codification a millennium later in the Ch'in and Han (221 B.C.-A.D. 220). Prof. Boltz takes in part a comparative approach to the origin and early structure and development of Chinese writing, suggesting that in its general principles the process was matched pari passu by the way writing first arose in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and among the Mayas (for example, that the Chinese script records the sounds of words, not ideas). The author also examines the question of why the Chinese script never became alphabetic, in spite of hints of such tendencies in the third and second centuries B.C. Kidder Smith, of Bowdoin College, said of the original publication: "... this book will be highly valued by anyone concerned with the relationships of language to writing, and should become the point of reference for all discussions of these questions as they pertain to ancient Chinese" (Religious Studies Review Vol. 21, No. 4, October 1995).
Download or read book Oxford Bibliographies written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Speaking of Chinese written by Raymond Chang and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2001 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This pleasant, unpretentious account [is] a small stream leading to the ocean of the culture of China."--Scientific American
Download or read book Daily Life in Traditional China written by Charles Benn and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-12-30 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thorough exploration of the aspects of everyday life in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) provides fascinating insight into a culture and time that is often misunderstood, especially by those from western cultures. Here students will find the details of what life was really like for these people. How was their society structured? How did they entertain themselves? What sorts of food did they eat? The answers to these and other questions are provided in full detail to bring this golden age of Chinese culture alive for the modern reader. Based mainly on classical translations from the Chinese themselves, each chapter addresses a specific aspect of daily living in the voices of those who lived during the time. A myriad of interesting details are provided to help readers discover, among other things, what life was like in the city, what homes and gardens were like, how the role's of men and women differed, and the many rituals in which people participated. Detailed descriptions of the clothes and materials people wore, the games they played and the cooking methods they used for specific foods provide readers with the ability to experiment on their own to recreate the time and place, so they can have a better understanding of this intriguing culture.
Download or read book Between Heaven and Earth written by Bo Shi and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A master calligrapher illuminates the fascinating history and development of the characters of the Chinese alphabet.
Download or read book Written on Bamboo and Silk written by Tsuen-hsuin Tsien and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paleography, which often overlaps with archaeology, deciphers ancient inscriptions and modes of writing to reveal the knowledge and workings of earlier societies. In this now-classic paleographic study of China, Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien traces the development of Chinese writing from the earliest inscriptions to the advent of printing, with specific attention to the tools and media used. This edition includes material that treats the many major documents and ancient Chinese artifacts uncovered over the forty years since the book's first publication, as well as an afterword by Edward L. Shaughnessy. Written on Bamboo and Silk has long been considered a landmark in its field. Critical in this regard is the excavation of numerous sites throughout China, where hundreds of thousands of documents written on bamboo and silk--as well as other media--were found, including some of the earliest copies of historical, medical, astronomical, military, and religious texts that are now essential to the study of early Chinese literature, history, and philosophy. Discoveries such as these have made the amount of material evidence on the origins and evolution of communication throughout Chinese history exceedingly broad and rich, and yet Tsien succeeds in tackling it all and building on the earlier classic work that changed the course of study and understanding of Chinese paleography.
Download or read book A History of Writing written by Steven Roger Fischer and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the earliest scratches on stone and bone to the languages of computers and the internet, A History of Writing offers an investigation into the origin and development of writing throughout the world. Illustrated with numerous examples, this book offers a global overview in a format that everyone can follow. Steven Roger Fischer also reveals his own discoveries made since the early 1980s, making it a useful reference for students and specialists as well as a delightful read for lovers of the written word everywhere.
Download or read book My First Book of Chinese Calligraphy written by Guillaume Olive and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-09-18 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My First Book of Chinese Calligraphy is a fun and engaging introduction to one of China's most popular arts and crafts for kids. Calligraphy—the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a pen or brush—has been around for thousands of years. In this fun calligraphy for kids book, readers will follow along with Mimi, an eight year old, who takes her first steps towards learning this magical art. Dive in, and explore: The Evolution of Chinese Writing—how Chinese characters first began, thousands of years ago, and how they have evolved The Order of the Strokes—learn how to write the strokes in the correct order The Radicals—what are they, and how to unlock their secrets The Four Treasures of Calligraphy— the four essential tools to get started Movements and Position—how to master your mind's focus, your breathing and even how to move The Five Styles of Calligraphy—Zhuan Shu (seal), Li Shu (clerical), Kai Shu (regular), Cao Shu (cursive), and Xing Shu (running) The Eight Strokes— how to draw the 8 strokes; with them, you can write anything Writing a Character in Calligraphy—create an entire character in calligraphy
Download or read book Early Chinese Writing written by Frank Herring Chalfant and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origin and the Development of the Chinese Writing System written by William G. Boltz and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Chinese characters their origin etymology history classification and signification written by and published by . This book was released on 1927 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
