---
title: "The Evolution of Chinese Characters: Oracle Bone, Seal, Clerical and Regular Script, With Pinyin"
description: "How Chinese writing changed over 3,000 years, script by script: oracle bone 甲骨文, bronze 金文, seal 篆书, clerical 隶书, regular 楷书, running 行书 and cursive 草书, how characters are made (六书), simplified and traditional, and 36 words with pinyin and sound."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-scripts"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

Free · 36 words

# Chinese scripts through history

[Print as flashcards](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-flashcards?level=mine&words=%E7%94%B2%E9%AA%A8%E6%96%87%20%E9%87%91%E6%96%87%20%E5%A4%A7%E7%AF%86%20%E5%B0%8F%E7%AF%86%20%E7%AF%86%E4%B9%A6%20%E9%9A%B6%E4%B9%A6%20%E6%A5%B7%E4%B9%A6%20%E8%A1%8C%E4%B9%A6%20%E8%8D%89%E4%B9%A6%20%E5%85%AD%E4%B9%A6%20%E8%B1%A1%E5%BD%A2%E5%AD%97%20%E6%8C%87%E4%BA%8B%20%E4%BC%9A%E6%84%8F%20%E5%BD%A2%E5%A3%B0%20%E9%83%A8%E9%A6%96%20%E5%81%8F%E6%97%81%20%E7%AC%94%E7%94%BB%20%E6%B1%89%E5%AD%97%20%E7%AE%80%E4%BD%93%E5%AD%97%20%E7%B9%81%E4%BD%93%E5%AD%97%20%E7%AE%80%E5%8C%96%E5%AD%97%20%E5%BC%82%E4%BD%93%E5%AD%97%20%E4%BB%93%E9%A2%89%20%E6%AE%B7%E5%A2%9F%20%E7%A7%A6%E5%A7%8B%E7%9A%87%20%E6%9D%8E%E6%96%AF%20%E7%AB%B9%E7%AE%80%20%E6%AF%9B%E7%AC%94%20%E5%8D%B0%E7%AB%A0%20%E7%8E%8B%E7%BE%B2%E4%B9%8B%20%E4%B9%A6%E6%B3%95%20%E5%AD%97%E4%BD%93%20%E5%AE%8B%E4%BD%93%20%E9%BB%91%E4%BD%93%20%E4%BB%BF%E5%AE%8B%20%E6%B1%89%E8%AF%AD%E6%8B%BC%E9%9F%B3)

Speed

## Chinese scripts, oldest to newest

| | In Chinese | When | What it looks like |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Oracle bone script | 甲骨文 jiǎgǔwén | Late Shang dynasty, about 1250–1050 BC | Thin, angular pictures scratched on turtle shells and ox bones for divination |
| Bronze script | 金文 jīnwén | Shang and Zhou dynasties | Rounder, heavier pictures cast into bronze bells and vessels |
| Large seal script | 大篆 dàzhuàn | Zhou dynasty, before 221 BC | The scripts of the Zhou and its states, each region writing its own way |
| Small seal script | 小篆 xiǎozhuàn | Qin dynasty, from 221 BC | Even, curving lines of one width, set as the one script for the empire; still carved on seals |
| Clerical script | 隶书 lìshū | Han dynasty, 206 BC–AD 220 | Flat, wide characters with a flared stroke: the first that looks like Chinese today |
| Regular script | 楷书 kǎishū | From the end of the Han, settled in the Tang | Every stroke separate and square: the script of print, and of learners |
| Running script | 行书 xíngshū | From the Han; 王羲之 in the 300s | Strokes run into each other: everyday handwriting |
| Cursive script | 草书 cǎoshū | From the Han | Whole characters in a few sweeps of the brush; hard to read without training |
| Simplified characters | 简体字 jiǎntǐzì | Mainland China, from 1956 | Regular script with fewer strokes, as in 马 for 馬; used in mainland China and Singapore |

## The scripts, oldest to newest

jiǎ甲gǔ骨wén文

oracle bone script

jīn金wén文

bronze inscriptions (on ancient Chinese bronzes)

dà大zhuàn篆

large seal script

xiǎo小zhuàn篆

small seal script

zhuàn篆shū书

seal script

lì隶shū书

clerical script (style of calligraphy)

kǎi楷shū书

regular script (Chinese calligraphy)

xíng行shū书

running script (cursive style of calligraphy)

cǎo草shū书

cursive script (calligraphy)

## How characters are made

liù六shū书

the six categories of Chinese characters

xiàng象xíng形zì字

pictogram; pictographic character

zhǐ指shì事

simple ideogram (one of the six categories of Chinese characters)

huì会yì意

compound ideogram (one of the six types of characters)

xíng形shēng声

pictophonetic (character formation)

bù部shǒu首

radical (of a Chinese character)

piān偏páng旁

radical or component of a Chinese character

bǐ笔huà画

stroke (of a Chinese character)

## Simplified and traditional

hàn汉zì字

Chinese character

jiǎn简tǐ体zì字

simplified Chinese character

fán繁tǐ体zì字

traditional Chinese characters

jiǎn简huà化zì字

simplified Chinese character

yì异tǐ体zì字

variant character

## Writing through history

cāng仓jié颉

Cangjie (legendary inventor of Chinese characters)

yīn殷xū墟

Yinxu (ruins of the Shang capital near Anyang)

qín秦shǐ始huáng皇

Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BC), first emperor of China

lǐ李sī斯

Li Si (Qin dynasty chancellor)

zhú竹jiǎn简

bamboo slip (for writing)

máo毛bǐ笔

writing brush

yìn印zhāng章

seal; stamp

wáng王xī羲zhī之

Wang Xizhi (303-361), famous calligrapher

shū书fǎ法

calligraphy

## Fonts today

zì字tǐ体

font; typeface

sòng宋tǐ体

Song typeface (standard serif Chinese font)

hēi黑tǐ体

boldface; bold type

fǎng仿sòng宋

FangSong (typeface imitating Song dynasty printing)

hàn汉yǔ语pīn拼yīn音

Hanyu Pinyin (romanization of Mandarin)

## How did Chinese characters evolve?

From pictures to strokes. The oldest known Chinese writing is 甲骨文 (jiǎgǔwén), oracle bone script, from about 1250 BC; then came bronze script, 金文 (jīnwén), and seal script, 篆书 (zhuànshū). In the Han dynasty, clerks writing fast with a brush turned the curves into straight, flat strokes, 隶书 (lìshū), and from that came regular script, 楷书 (kǎishū), the characters printed today. The horse, 马 (mǎ), began as a drawing of a horse with a mane, legs and tail; by regular script it was strokes, 馬, and simplified it became 马.

## What is oracle bone script?

甲骨文 (jiǎgǔwén), the writing on 甲 (jiǎ), turtle shells, and 骨 (gǔ), bones. Kings of the Shang dynasty had questions carved on them, about harvests, war, weather or childbirth, then cracked them with heat and read the answer in the cracks. Most were dug up at 殷墟 (Yīnxū), the ruins of the Shang capital near Anyang, after scholars noticed the writing in 1899 on bones sold as medicine. Thousands of different characters have been found, and only part of them can be read.

## What is seal script, and is it still used?

篆书 (zhuànshū). Large seal, 大篆 (dàzhuàn), is the writing of the Zhou dynasty and its states; small seal, 小篆 (xiǎozhuàn), is the script that the First Emperor, 秦始皇 (Qín Shǐhuáng), and his chancellor 李斯 (Lǐ Sī) made the one standard after uniting China in 221 BC. It is still carved on name seals, 印章 (yìnzhāng), and used in calligraphy and logos, which is why it is the script people search for when they want an old-looking Chinese stamp.

## How are Chinese characters made?

Scholars sort them into the six kinds, 六书 (liùshū). Pictures, 象形字 (xiàngxíngzì): 日 sun, 月 moon, 山 mountain, 人 person. Pointers, 指事 (zhǐshì): 上 above and 下 below, a mark over or under a line. Meanings put together, 会意 (huìyì): 休 (xiū), to rest, is a person, 亻, by a tree, 木. And most of all, a meaning plus a sound, 形声 (xíngshēng): 妈 (mā), mother, is 女, woman, for the meaning, and 马 (mǎ) for the sound. The meaning part is usually the radical, 部首 (bùshǒu).

## Who invented Chinese characters?

Legend says 仓颉 (Cāng Jié), the historian of the Yellow Emperor, who had four eyes and made characters from the tracks of birds and animals. In fact they grew over centuries before the oldest writing we have, the oracle bones; earlier marks on pottery may be their beginnings, but nobody can yet read them as words.

## When was Chinese simplified, and what is the difference?

Mainland China simplified characters in the 1950s and 1960s, cutting strokes from the most common ones: 馬 became 马, 龍 became 龙, 書 became 书. Simplified characters, 简体字 (jiǎntǐzì), are used in mainland China and Singapore; traditional characters, 繁体字 (fántǐzì), in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Both are regular script, 楷书, and many characters, like 人 and 山, are the same in both.

## Can’t hear it?

Play uses your device’s Mandarin voice. Edge, Chrome and Safari have one; a browser with none plays each character in our recorded voice instead.

## More on Chinese characters

- [Chinese calligraphy generator](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-calligraphy-generator)
- [Chinese calligraphy](https://mandarinthewild.com/guides/chinese-calligraphy)
- [Traditional to simplified converter](https://mandarinthewild.com/traditional-to-simplified)
- [Stroke order](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order)

Words, pinyin and meanings from our own dictionary; dates from Wikipedia’s Chinese characters, Oracle bone script and Seal script, and the oldest of them are approximate.