The origin of Chinese characters

  Chinese characters are one of the earliest written languages in the world with a history of 6,000 years. The prototype and development Chinese characters can be traced from the inscriptions on primitive painted pottery. During the Shang Dynasty, the inscriptions on turtle shells and animal bones are similar to present day Chinese characters. Chinese calligraphy as a fine art has many styles, such as Zhuan Shu (seal script), Li Shu (official or clerical script), Xing Shu (running script), Kai shu (standard script), Cao Shu (cursive script) and etc. There have been an innumerable amount of master calligraphers throughout the different periods of Chinese history.

马           Horse

Bronze script chin wen 15th - 11th centuries B.C.E.	Oracle-bone script chia ku wen 12th - 11th centuries B.C.E.
Large-seal script da chuan c. 8th century B.C.E.	Small-seal script hsiao chuan 2nd century B.C.E.
Clerical script li shu 2nd century C.E.	Standard script k'ai shu since c. 4th century C.E.
Running script hsing shu since c. 4th century C.E.	Cursive script ts'ao shu since c. 4th century C.E.