The Background to Chinese Characters sole survivors of the world’s

China, an ancient civilization with thousands of years of continuous history, has left many cultural relics. Archaeological excavations have revealed not only that China is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, but also that “the Chinese have created the single most extensive and enduring civilization in the world. Their language spoken and written in the same forms over nearly four thousand years, binds their vast country together and links the present with the past, expressing a unified culture unmatched elsewhere”, as described in the introduction provided at the British Museum. This is not only a miracle of the history of world writing systems, but also a key factor in Chinese civilization.

Actually, as a Chinese, when you stand in the National Museum of Chinese Writing in Anyang, Henan Province, you will be so proud of Chinese characters, especially because this is the only “living language” surviving from ancient times to today in the history of human civilization. As the historical witness of that in the history of world civilization,there have only been a few instances of the creation of writing systems, such as the “Sumerian Cuneiform Script in Western Asia, Hieroglyphics in Egypt and the Harappan Script of India, and Chinese Oracle-four Bone inscription as four great ancient scripts. They are all important signposts of early civilization. However, the first three scripts have disappeared for various reasons. Only Chinese characters, because of their spirit of changing with the times and tolerating differences, still exist in today’s world as the Museum describes in its preface.

 In short, Chinese characters are the sole survivors in the history of world.

qingquang

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