Commons:Ancient Chinese characters project
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 Hello!Welcome to the Ancient Chinese characters project, which plans to eventually provide a large set of high quality images of Ancient Chinese characters. This illustration set will be freely usable to make educational books, websites, and calligraphic historical explanations. You are free to use the graphics we have made so far and we invite you to join us in our work. The work is divided in twelve subcategories: (click blue links to browse)
 Public domain images that you can use freelyOf course, you can use all them for your own website. All this work is in the public domain. Legally, you can do what you like, but the moral conditions of use are that you state:
 Objectives, current newsThe aim of the project is eventually to provide examples for all characters available in Ancient Chinese script. The 214 radicals have already been completed. Current project focuses on (these categories are not exclusive):
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 Active on the projectWe need you ! Active contributors : Your contributions are welcome to expand this set !  Want to help?You can help by uploading historical version of a characters. Available Ancient Chinese Character sources are :
Please see our Tutorial to create new files, and use the template {{ACClicense}} when uploading. Add new Ancient Chinese Characters to the database by uploading (when available) :
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| (P.S. Would you like to provide a bit of encouragement to this team and this free project?) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Naming conventions[edit]
- Our overall naming conventions. More dots for priority. Full page contains explanations.
| Type | Minimal definition | Dominant objective | Time periods | Old convention | New convention | Example | Coverage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Images showing stroke order | ||||||||
| •••• | 楷書 / 楷书 kǎishū | Row of grey to black chars with directional hints | teaching | web era | 馬-bw.png | 馬-bw.svg* |  |
9•1,066•71 |
| •• | 楷書 / 楷书 kǎishū | Black to red progression | teaching | web era | 馬-red.png | 馬-red.svg* |  |
17•241•34 |
| •••• | 楷書 / 楷书 kǎishū | Animated calligraphy | teaching | web era | 馬-order.gif | 馬-order.gif ** |  |
7•581•27 |
| •• | 黑體 / 黑体 hēitǐ | Animated with directional arrows, on hēitǐ (Sans-serif) characters | teaching | web era | — | 馬-order (Sans-serif).gif ** | 0•12•0 | |
| • | 楷書 / 楷书 kǎishū | Animated by stroke | teaching | web era | 馬-sbs.gif | 馬-sbs.gif ** |  |
4 |
| Do not use “m”, “t”, or “j” freely in filenames above. We use them such : "m" for "modern", "t" for "traditional", "j" for Japanese, etc. <ed> | ||||||||
| Images showing writing styles | ||||||||
| •• | 金文 jīnwén>Shang | Casted bronze scripts, Shang period | 1300–1046 BCE | 馬-s.svg | 馬-bronze-shang.svg |  |
210 | |
| •••• | 甲骨文 jiǎgǔwén | Knife carved oracle scripts | 1300–1046 BCE | 馬-oracle.svg | 馬-oracle.svg |  |
4,836 | |
| •••• | 金文 jīnwén | Casted bronze scripts, Western Zhou period | 1046–771 BCE | 馬-bronze.svg | 馬-bronze.svg |  |
1,432 | |
| • | 甲骨文 jiǎgǔwén>Western Zhou | Knife carved oracle scripts, Western Zhou period | 1046–771 BCE | — | 馬-oracle-zhouyuan.svg | N/A | 13 | |
| •• | 金文 jīnwén>Spring and Autumn | Casted bronze scripts, Spring and Autumn period | 771–476 BCE | 馬-sa.svg | 馬-bronze-spring.svg |  |
373 | |
| •• | 金文 jīnwén>Warring States | Casted bronze scripts, Warring States period | 476–221 BCE | 馬-w.svg | 馬-bronze-warring.svg |  |
315 | |
| ••• | 簡帛文字 jiǎnbówénzì | Brush on slip or silk scripts by Chu state | 476–221 BCE | — | 馬-silk.svg |  |
221•63 | |
| ••• | 簡牘文字 jiǎndúwénzì | Brush on slip scripts by Qin state | 476–221 BCE | — | 馬-slip.svg |  |
258 | |
| •••• | 篆 > 小篆 xiǎo zhuàn | Normalized zhuan scripts by Qin dynasty and some Han dynasty zhuan scripts, collected by Shuowen | 221 BCE–220 CE | 馬-seal.svg | 馬-seal.svg |  |
3,256 | |
| •• | 籀文 zhòuwén | Script from Shizhoupian by late Western Zhou, collected by Shuowen | 221 BCE–220 CE | 馬-zhou.svg | 馬-zhou.svg |  |
16 | |
| •• | 古文 gǔwén | Script from Zuo zhuan by Warring States, collected by Shuowen | 221 BCE–220 CE | 馬-ancient.svg | 馬-ancient.svg |  |
100 | |
| • | 奇字 qízì | Similar to variants, collected by Shuowen | 221 BCE–220 CE | — | 馬-odd.svg | N/A | 2 | |
| •• | 隸書 / 隶书 lìshū | Early ancient clerical script to be specific, collected by Libian | 221 - 134 BCE | — | 馬-clerical.svg |  |
27 | |
| •• | 隸書 / 隶书 lìshū | [Temporary category under discussion] Early ancient clerical script to be specific, collected by Libian |
historical | Actual 221 - 134 BCE | — | 馬-clerical-han.svg | |
51 |
| •• | 隸書 / 隶书 lìshū | [Temporary category under discussion] Modern stylisation of early ancient clerical script |
teaching | Fake 221 - 134 BCE | — | 馬-clerical-qing.svg | 36 | |
| • | 傳抄古文字 Chuánchāo gǔwénzì | Transcribed various ancient scripts before Qin dynasty, collected by Hanjian | none | 馬-hanjian.svg | 7 | |||
| • | 傳抄古文字 Chuánchāo gǔwénzì | Transcribed various ancient scripts before Qin dynasty, collected by Guwen Sishengyun | none | 馬-GWSSY.svg | 7 | |||
| • | 傳抄古文字 Chuánchāo gǔwénzì | Transcribed various ancient scripts before Qin dynasty, collected by Jizhuan Guwen Yunhai | none | 馬-JZGWYH.svg | 12 | |||
| • | 傳抄古文字 Chuánchāo gǔwénzì | Transcribed various ancient scripts before Qin dynasty, collected by Liushutong | 1627–1644 CE | 馬-bigseal.svg | 馬-bigseal.svg |  |
3,628 | |
| New Modern Chinese Characters* | ||||||||
| •• | 草書 / 草书 cǎoshū | Brush on paper's fast script, aka Cursive. | teaching | 43 BCE-present | — (font available) | 馬-caoshu.svg |  |
1 |
| •• | 行書 / 行书 xíngshū | Brush on paper's fluid writing, aka Semi-cursive. | teaching | ca.100 CE-present | — (font available) | 馬-xingshu.svg |  |
3 |
| •• | 楷書 / 楷书 kǎishū | Brush on paper since Han dynasty, aka Regular scripts | teaching | ca. 200 CE-present | — (font available) | 馬-kaishu.svg |  |
8 |
| •• | 宋體 / 宋体 sòngtǐ, 明體 / 明体 míngtǐ |
Printing-blocks scripts. Aka Songti, Mingti. | teaching | 1368 CE-present | — (font available) | 馬-songti.svg |  |
4 |
| • | 明體 / 明体 míngtǐ > 康熙 kāngxī | Printing-blocks scripts in Kangxi dictionary | historical | 1716 CE-present | — (font available) | 馬-mingti-kangxi.svg |  |
0, 215 |
NEW! On dominant objective[edit]
- Styles are artificial groupings along a spectrum of writings. Outside Wikimedia, each style actually gather endless variations by its writers.
- Two opposite objectives are therefor possible on that spectrum:
historical accurate: documents the exact glyph as done by the writers of that time. Various glyph representations of a same character may be uploaded. This is what history, calligraphy enthusiasts, academics look for.teaching principles: represents the implicitly agreed, canonical, idealized, shape-simplified, smoothed principle of a style. This is what fonts do and propagate, and what teachers looks for.
- ACC categories are on this spectrum. Those who do and upload, decide where their category stands.
References[edit]
- Copybook of Common Characters with Kaishu, Lishu, Xinshu, Caoshu, Seal, and Kaishu traditional (pocket format, available on Amazon.com) :
- 細說漢字部首 左民安 ISBN 7801953568
- 高岛谦一 甲骨文字字释综览
- 簡牘名蹟選7：甘粛篇（二）漢2,二玄社, 2009, ISBN 978-4544002478,武威簡·儀禮·士相見, for Han-era manuscripts in clerical script (dated the Xin dynasty in the book)
- 中国法書選3：石門頌,二玄社, 1989, ISBN 978-4544005035, also for clerical script characters.
- Richard Sears's Chinese character etymology site references:
- XuJaGuWenBian 續甲骨文编 by JinXiangHeng 金祥恒. Richard Sears 31,876
oraclecharacters are taken from this source. - JinWenBian 金文编 by RungGeng 容庚. The most accurate book of character samples from the bronze artifacts. Richard Sears 24,223
bronzecharacters are taken from this source. - ShuoWenJieZi 說文解字. The earliest complete 987 copy by XuXuan 徐鉉, clearly printed. Richard Sears 11109 ShuoWen
sealcharacters are taken from this source. - LioShuTong 六書通. A Ming Dynasty collection of non standard seal type characters. Richard Sears 38,596 Liushutong
sealcharacters are taken from this source.
- XuJaGuWenBian 續甲骨文编 by JinXiangHeng 金祥恒. Richard Sears 31,876
- 饒宗頤,曾憲通(1985)楚帛書,中華書局香港分局, ISBN 962-2317081, for the Chu Silk Manuscript, an important source of the Chu script, Warring States.
- 刘钊等编纂. 新甲骨文编. 福州：福建人民出版社, 2014.12. ISBN 978-7-211-06715-2.
- 黄德宽主编；徐在国副主编；江学旺编著. 西周文字字形表. 上海：上海古籍出版社, 2017.10. ISBN 978-7-5325-8493-2.
- 黄德宽主编；徐在国副主编；吴国升编著. 春秋文字字形表. 上海：上海古籍出版社, 2017.09. ISBN 978-7-5325-8233-4.
- 徐在国，程燕，张振谦编著. 战国文字字形表. 上海：上海古籍出版社, 2017.09. ISBN 978-7-5325-8349-2.
- 方勇编. 秦简牍文字编. 福州：福建人民出版社, 2012.12. ISBN 978-7-211-06645-2.
- Sinica Database
- Others
- Fundamentals of Chinese Typography: #1 Fonts Styles (Songti, Fang-Songti, Mingti, Heiti, Kaiti)
- CJK Unified Ideographs Localizations
Priority work[edit]
Priority list for Ancient Chinese Characters. See source code in Module:User:Yug/char-summary.
See also[edit]
The sister-project Commons:Stroke Order Project.