2023届高三英语一轮复习中国传统文化之文字主题阅读训练（含答案）.docxVIP

The Origins and Evolution of Chinese Characters 导读： 本文探讨了中国汉字的起源和演变历程。汉字是世界上最古老的书写形式之一，历史可以追溯到三千多年前的商代甲骨文。汉字从最初的象形文字逐渐演化为表示抽象概念的文字，并经历了多个朝代的标准化和改革。现代汉字不仅在中国广泛使用，还被应用于日本和韩国等国家。文章介绍了汉字演化的历 史，反映了中国文化的发展和演变。了解汉字的起源和演变历史可以深入了解中国这个古老文明的丰富性和复杂性。 Chinese characters, also known as Han characters, are one of the oldest forms of writing in the world, with a history spanning over 3,000 years. They are used to represent the Chinese language, which is spoken by over one billion people worldwide. In this article, we will explore the origins and evolution of Chinese characters. Origins of Chinese Characters The earliest known Chinese characters are found on oracle bones, which were used in divination during the Shang Dynasty (1600 BCE – 1046 BCE). These characters were primarily pictograms, representing concrete objects such as animals and tools. Over time, the characters became more abstract and began to represent ideas and concepts. The Evolution of Chinese Characters During the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BCE – 256 BCE), the use of Chinese characters became more standardized. The characters were grouped into six categories based on their function, including pictographs, self-explanatory characters, associative compounds, pictophonetic compounds, mutually explanatory characters, and phonetic loan characters. During the Qin Dynasty (221 BCE – 206 BCE), the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, ordered the standardization of the Chinese script. This resulted in the creation of the small seal script, which was more uniform and easier to read than previous scripts. This script was later replaced by the clerical script during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). The clerical script was used for official documents and inscriptions on bronze vessels. It was eventually replaced by the regular script, which is the most commonly used script today. The regular script was developed during the Han Dynasty and is characterized by its straight lines and evenly spaced strokes. Today, Chinese characters a