The Evolution of Written Structure of Radicals

Although many radicals used in modern Chinese originated in ancient China, the written forms of the modern radicals differ dramatically from their ancient forms. This is because throughout different stages of Chinese history the entire Chinese writiing system has undergone great stylistic changes.

From its conception to today the Chinese writing system, along styles: Oracle bone inscription, bronze vessel inscription, seal script, official style, and regular style.

The first three styles, Oracle bone inscription, bronze vessel inscription, and seal script are classified together as ancient scripts pictographic forms. We refer to the official and regular styles as modern strokes of the modern scripts diminish the pictographic characteristics of the characters. Therefore, modern Chinese script is not a pictographic writing system, rather, it is a system of abstract symbols composed of strokes. Consider, for example, the historical evolution of the radical:

Oracle Bone Inscription: Bronze Vessel Inscription: Small Seal Style: Regular Style:

While the original character looked like a picture of an eye, the pictograph became more and more stylized and abstract, until a reader could no longer guess its meaning.

#Hanzi #Radical