Evolution of Chinese Characters

[@ABChinese]

Hey guys! Did you notice the new style? No music, no sound effects, (almost) no jokes. Do you like this style or do you prefer my older style with some music, sound effects and jokes? Also don't forget to check out Surfshark! This is a product I actually use and endorse because it's the lowest priced, high quality VPN on the market: surfshark.deals/ABCHINESE

[@kentbolland5814]

DEFiNITELY no music - much, much better to not have music playing

[@BusasGaming]

I'm always of the mind, if you like it the people will like it. So do what you love!

[@QuizmasterLaw]

One correction: When Cangjie created the characters, the night thereafter the demons wailed: because they could no longer cheat men! It was not man's arrogance, but their capacity not to be cheated which made them cry.

[@nathankiss2486]

Not really sure about the differences to be honest. All the videos I've watched from you I've enjoyed

[@vlc9513]

Jokes and sound is good, serious style narative also good, but a mix betweenis the best in my opinion. Is very simple: when you feel a paragraph is serious keep it that way, when you feel you should insert a joke, do it please, that means you felt it was the right time for that. I loved it when you inserted the " you dishonor our family" when you said the other video you didn't know about some coal simbols and meaning. That was a very good and funny joke, because was based also on a real way of perception of chinese people. So was a very inteligent and right spotted one. So I repeat myself: where you feel/want to insert a joke, by all means do it! When you feel is serious, leave it serious. Mix them as you see fit. Both in a single video or diferent videos diferent styles, depend on the subject

[@sion3455]

It just blows my mind how a 3+ thousand y.o. writing is still used in the modern world. And this's why I don't understand people who refuse to learn characters while learning chinese 'cause to me, characters are the most fiscinating part about chinese language

[@ABChinese]

It's the most fascinating but also the hardest part of the language

[@loudintrovert]

Yes same here. I started learning because of the curiosity in the Chinese characters.

[@akyena21]

我同意, how can you learn Chinese without learning characters? I mean why?😅😅😅😅

[@loudintrovert]

@@akyena21 No idea! Really

[@Ge1Ri4]

Just stumbled onto this channel for the first time. I'm interested in Chinese language, shufa, and culture because I study taijiquan. Looking forward to watching this video!

[@rongwu-sj9ws]

Nice video. As an ordinary Chinese person who hasn't specifically studied ancient texts, I can only recognize less than 20% of the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) characters. Those who have studied calligraphy have a much stronger ability to read and write Qin Dynasty characters because they repeatedly emulate the excellent calligraphy works of their Qin Dynasty ancestors. However, the ability to identify Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) characters has greatly improved. I estimate that an average non-illiterate person can recognize at least 50% or more. Chinese characters were fully standardized by the time of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). Modern Chinese people, as long as they are not illiterate, can read and write Tang Dynasty characters fluently-because, in reality, it is modern writing. Although the People's Republic of China introduced simplified Chinese characters after its establishment, leading to some ancient characters being forgotten, we can still read them. In fact, when visiting historical sites in Vietnam, South Korea, or Japan, there is no need for a tour guide. Chinese tourists can read inscriptions or plaques without any obstacles.

[@mattzenuka]

This video is great. I've been studying Japanese for 14 years and I've been specifically studying sinograms for the past year. I'm tired of crappy videos about sinograms that underestimate the audience and just talk about how "sinograms are little drawings". I've read a lot of material in Japanese (unfortunately I don't know Chinese) and I've been thinking about opening a KZbin channel in Spanish (my native language) talking about sinograms. A real channel! A channel like yours! I'll say it again: this video is really great, you know a lot. You're an inspiration to me.

[@EinChris75]

Im currently learning Japanese. Japanese uses Chinese characters for lots of words, because China already had a very advanced script when Japan realized they needed one. So they "borrowed". This is video exactly the explanation I was hoping to get.

[@xuexizhongwen]

The vast majority of languages borrowed scripts from others. Only a handful of languages use scripts that were invented specifically for that language. For example, the Latin script wasn't invented for English!

[@HansWurst1569]

@@xuexizhongweneven better the latin script wasnt invented for latin but based on greek. And greek script wasnt invented for greek but based on phoenician and phoenician based on local middle eastern seal scripts :)

[@xuexizhongwen]

@@HansWurst1569 Yes, exactly. Phoenician script came from Proto-Sinaitic, which in turn was derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

[@danielzhang1916]

China was one of the first to invent writing in Asia, not surprising that other countries borrowed it

[@efun1234]

nihongo dewa, kanji to iu koto ga arimasu. ningen no naka de wa kanji ga sukijanai hito mo arimasu. hoka no hito wa kanji ga daisukidesu yo. itsumo omottemasu: kanji no kawari ni roumaji wo tsukaetara dou narimasu ka. Kou no you na koto

[@brighthorse6981]

This is how I understand why Chinese characters are called "漢字Hanzi"（kanji or hanja in Japanese or Korean）, because Chinese characters in the modern sense are actually originated from clerical script（隸書）, and “隸書” was defined as the official script in the Han（漢） Dynasty. So they were called 漢（Han）字（characters）=hanzi

[@xingchen9807]

因为写这个文字的人是汉人

[@ulyssis]

@@xingchen9807我觉得上面的说法有道理，您的这种说法很站不住脚。

[@xingchen9807]

@@ulyssis 隶书在秦朝就是官方文字，并强制性全国推广，那为什么不叫秦字？

[@Abeturk]

Yeğ / Yüğ = upper, superior Yeğ-mek > Yemek (to eat)= to add on oneself, to include in one's essence, Yeğ-im> Yem= provender, fodder >Yemiş= fruit Yüğ-le-mek > yeğlemek = to keep on top of others, make it relatively superior, ~to prefer Yüğ-ka-yer-u > yukarı =(which side is on top) = Up Yüğ-ce > yüce = superior in level /sublime Yüğ-ce-al-mek > yücelmek = to achieve superiority in level Yüğ-sü-ek > yüksek = high Yüğ-sel > yüksel = exponential , superlative Yüğ-sü-al-mek> yükselmek = to rise to a high level, to ascend Yüğ-sük > yüzük =(ring)= jewelry worn on the finger top Yüğ-sü-en-mek > yüksünmek= to feel slighted / take offended Yüğ-ük > yük =(load)> taken on, carried over Yüğ-ün > yün =(wool)> the feathers that on sheep Yüğ-üt > yiğit =(valiant)> superior in character Yüğ-gen > yüğen /yeğen =(nephew)> which is kept superior, held in high esteem, valued, precious (yüen > yen 元) Yüğ-gen-cük > yüğençüğ >yinçi (inci) =(precious little thing)> pearl , 珍珠 Yüğengi >yengi> yeni =(new)> it's coming on top, coming after Yüğenge > yenge =(brother's wife)> who's coming after, added to the family later (new bride) Yüğ-üne /Yeğ-ine > yine/ gene =again /over and over > yeniden = anew /once more Yüğ-en-mek> yenmek = to overcome, to cope with, to subdue Yüğ-en-el-mek > yenilmek= to be overcome, to be subdued, to show weakness Yüğengil > yengil =remaining on top, light, weak Şan= Glory, splendor 單于 > Şan-Yüğ =Exalted glorious Yormak=to tire= to arrive over someone (too many). (too much) to go onto (Yörmek)> Örmek=(to operate on something), to weave on top , to wrap around (Yörümek)> Yürümek= to go over something, to wander around (yöre=precincts) (yörük=nomad) Yürümek= to walk (yürü=go on) Yülümek=to go by slipping over something Yalamak= to lick >~to take swiping/ by scraping on something off Yolmak= to pluck=to pull by snatching off, tear off (~flatten the top) Yılmak=to throw down from the one's own top (~get bored), to hit the ground from above (yıldırım=lightning…yıldız=star) Yurmak= to pull onto, cover over (yur-ut>yurt=tabernacle) (yur-gan>yorgan=quilt) Yırmak=to bring it on top of, to take it off (yırışmak>yarışmak= to race> to overcome each other) (Yır-et-mak)>Yırtmak= to tear= to get it inside-out or bottom to top (by pulling from both sides) (~tide over, get rid of it) Yarmak= to split, to tear apart= go vertically from top to bottom, separate by cutting off Yermek=to pull down ,pull to the ground Germek=to tense= to pull it in all directions > Sermek= to spread it in all directions Yıkmak= to demolish= overthrow , take down from top to bottom, turn upside down Yığmak= to stack= put on top of each other, dump on top of each other (yığlamak=shed tears over and over, cry over) Yağmak=get rained on, get spilled on / to pour down from above Yakmak= to burn out=purify by heating and removing matter , reduce its volume Yoğmak=make condensed=to tighten and purify, narrow by turning, get rid of volume (~get dead) Yoğurmak= to knead=tighten and thicken , reduce volume, bring to consistency (Yogurt= thickened milk) Yuğmak=to purify squeezing to clean (Yuğamak>yıkamak= to wash) Yiv = sharp, pointed (yivlemek= sharpen the tip) Yuvmak=to squeezing thin out, narrow (yuvka>yufka= thin dough) (yuvka>yuka=thin, shallow) (yuvuz>yavuz=thin, weak, delicate) Yuvarlamak=to round off=narrow by turning (yuva (smallest shelter)= nest) (yavru (smallest)= cub ) Yummak=to shut by squeezing, close tightly (Yumurmak=make it closes inward) (yumruk=fist) (yumurta= egg)

[@kunzhang8977]

The Most convincing theory during my research is that While Buddhism introduced into China at Han dynasty, it is first time that Chinese people encounter a complete foreign language which bring the need to come up a reference of Chinese language during translation. 汉文、汉言、汉字 are all most obvious choice.

[@slavaslava8200]

前几天我看到一个视频，介绍出土的一件唐代（1300年前）的孩子作业，178行，每行20个字，孩子写完作业还题打油诗一首：“写书今日了，先生莫咸池(嫌迟)。明朝是贾(假)日，早放学生归。”神奇的是，这些文字我很轻松的都看懂了，和今天的文字差不多。

[@pxg1773]

可以给下链接吗

[@十四弟少侠]

这有什么，哪首唐诗不是通俗易懂

[@YunLuoShanZe]

​@@pxg1773 出自1967年在新疆阿斯塔那363号墓出土的唐代《论语.郑氏注》，现藏于吐鲁番博物馆。

[@caoting9694]

​@@十四弟少侠难懂的是汉字的写法

[@Kun2024]

汉字，汉隶

[@dottieshields5918]

Thank you another well-organized presentation of this fascinating language! I did not notice that there was no music or graphics. I listened to you.

[@ConsciousConversations]

This is the first video I’ve come across that actually is informative. It is well presented… and all the things. So great. Thank you.

[@kimoanhnguyen7150]

Loving your voice in both English and Chinese. It's clear and easy to hear. Thank you!

[@shuyatai]

好喜歡你的影片，看到用字正腔圓的英文講解中華文化，真是一件很棒的事，也讓我學習很多不會的英文詞彙。👍加油

[@ABChinese]

谢谢你的支持！希望有更多人能了解中国的历史和文化

[@lemonZzzzs]

If the "grass" script is hard to read even by natives without practice, I'd say it's closer to _shorthand_ than to _cursive_ when compared to Latin-based scripts... I agree that the running script is closer to cursive.

[@andyyang5234]

The name "大篆" comes from a compilation of characters by 太史籀 in the Western Zhou dynasty, called《大篆》. The exact contents of 《大篆》were lost, but we know that when 奏始皇 ordered another compilation of characters to unify writing, it was named 小篆 in contrast to 大篆. In modern usage, 大篆 basically comes to mean everything that came before 小箓, up to and including bronze scripts that bear some resemblence, as we're not entirely sure what 《大篆》depicted.

[@ABChinese]

Ahh thank you. No wonder I couldn’t find anything on it

[@weiliao3158]

石鼓文是大篆. 是中國最早成篇的石刻文字. 石鼓文為四言詩. 刻在十座花崗岩石上，因石墩外形似鼓，故稱爲石鼓文。 是極其優雅大氣的字體. 吳昌碩就是寫石鼓文最有名的書法家. 石鼓文及吳昌碩的作品, 書店裏都買得到.

[@balford2112]

Your video was way more detailed and more interesting than an EdX Course i took. I can’t wait to check out your other videos on characters. Thanks so much for your work.

[@ABChinese]

Thanks for the compliment! I love learning more about characters too:D

[@miketacos9034]

It’s just amazing that Chinese writing appears in its recognizable form so suddenly. Like… who made it?? How did they come up with the shapes?? And then standardize them?? It’s truly spectacular!

[@ulyssis]

There is a legendary God, Cangjie (仓颉）, who is regarded to invent the characters. He has been worshipped in China since thousands of years.

[@danielzhang1916]

probably the same way English became standardized over time, people agreed on a certain way of writing and it became widespread after everyone started using it, that's probably the simplest explanation

[@ernesto1476]

After the unification of China by Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the standardization of writing was implemented, and the Clerical Script was promoted nationwide. This event is known as "書同文," which means using the same script for writing.

[@intreoo]

I agree. It amazes me that the Regular Form has had virtually no changes in the past 1500 years. Those literate in Chinese can literally understand the Kanji used in Japan TODAY despite them being imported over 1,000 years ago!

[@YunLuoShanZe]

In Chinese history, if any dynasty was powerful enough, its ruling class would standardize 汉字 for administrative requirements.

[@hkgkiss]

chinese characters are very beautiful.

[@xuexizhongwen]

This was probably my favorite video of yours so far. I basically knew the information already, but it's cool to see it laid out in a presentation like this. I was also happy to hear you mention that people may have written characters on bamboo or other materials that have long since been destroyed. Maybe they were all destroyed in the book burnings of Qin Shi Huang! (Just joking, but... who knows? lol) Also, many of the oracle bones were destroyed (or eaten). And like you said, they were only discovered fairly recently, so who knows what else is waiting to be discovered? I've seen others talk as if Chinese characters are only as old as the examples of them that we know about today. But the truth is we have no idea how old Chinese characters are. Maybe the legend is true, and they really were initially invented by Cangjie at the time of the Yellow Emperor. We just don't know.

[@ABChinese]

Thanks for watching! Yes, the mystery of history is part of what makes it fascinating 😎

[@sarahahmad458]

This channel need more attention! It provides u the best explanation to learn chinese. Thank you for your hardwork!

[@Carno_Yujia]

Awesome video! I began my Chinese learning journey this July and have been fascinated behind the history of each character. Its great to see such a breadth of history behind the Chinese writing system. Whilst it may be considered inefficient, its most certainly got the most style. Cheers ❤

[@mickwang9199]

Writing Chinese characters maybe inefficient, but typing is way better😂😂😂, and the pronunciations maybe changing but normally the meanings of characters don't change as time passes, that's why they can carry histories, people understand articles written by someone who lived thousands of years ago.

[@刘雨-p8v]

❤

[@川川-t5o]

其实甲骨文和金文并非先后的继承关系，而是同一时期同一种文字的不同字体，金文是铭刻在青铜器上的装饰性字体，甲骨文是占卜者用的特殊字体，这有点类似古埃及文字的圣书体和僧侣体。此外，《尚书·多士》中记载“惟殷先人，有册有典”，说明在商朝，竹简作为书写载体已经很普遍，那上面的字一定用着另外的字体，只不过由于年代久远，我们已经无法再看到了

[@TheMadisonHang]

i absolutely love what your doing, your not just translating words, but culture and language grass and running script, just makes me want to say formal vs informal in many ways and this point, english is a broken language, in the sense that everything is so phonetic and disconnected from its origin words are verbatim, in english in part-icular that maybe a result of over education and over academia in the information age learning about other languages and how they are built, reveals alot about english as well this is all, long over due

[@komaichan99]

Im Japanese We have to use the same characters I.e. old style chinese

[@genace]

Interesting content once again. It’s surprising how much the oracle bone examples look like what they represent. I wonder if they would have been easier to learn. I like your new video style too. I think your old style would still work better for less serious videos like app reviews, but this new style feels very appropriate for these historical research-based videos.

[@mouschiu]

Love these videos on the history of the Chinese language! Hope to see more in the future!

[@chazzasimmonite]

My dad really wants me to learn Chinese so I can have opportunities. And I love it when ABChinese posts.

[@ABChinese]

Dang, ya'll are fast 🔥

[@chazzasimmonite]

@@ABChinese you posted at the right time for me 😂😂😂

[@spaghettiking653]

Such a good video. Just 11 unalloyed minutes of delightful historical facts and immersion in this incredible culture.

[@hannibalyin8853]

interesting and brilliant video; next time, would you introduce how we learn "九九乘法表" or "Multiplication table" to our western viewers? It must be interesting, it always fascinates me how a pronunciation difference could lead to such dramatic learning results.

[@yokaxi1011]

九九乘法表就是硬背的，只要你把中文1到10学会就可以开始背了

[@hannibalyin8853]

@@yokaxi1011 Yes, but you can only have that kind of rhyme when you pronounce it in Chinese. You can't do it in other languages.

[@exl5eq28]

Bronze script doesn't come "after" Oracle bone script. They are two parallel system. Bronze script is usually more formal because they are supposed to last very long with the expensive bronze items. While oracle script, written on disposable bones, is casual and simplified.

[@jamessmithers4456]

So so interesting. Tk you

[@德菀礼]

非常有意思，谢谢你的努力！

[@rabbitazteca23]

They all look similar across the ages! Incredible!

[@Adaguflo]

One of the reasons why I wanna learn Chinese is bc I wanna be able to read the characters hahahaha they’re beautiful

[@Iceland2024-5]

as a Taiwanese i speak Chinese and back in grade 1 i made a lore but that not end well so i give up but later in today i came back doing the lore

[@doudouban]

提个改进建议，这种视频应该主要针对外国人，可以把时间用一根线标注出来，从1600BC到现在，告诉观众某种文字是在时间线的某个位置，对应西方某个时期（比如亚里士多德时代，或拿破仑时代），这样会直观得多。毕竟纪年数字对于大部分观众比较抽象。

[@ABChinese]

谢谢你的建议，我觉得还挺不错的嘛～

[@titan146]

Would you have any sources you recommend for further research in this topic? I'm looking into doing my dissertation on the history and influence of the Chinese language.

[@emilyfry2260]

草书，行书和楷书只是不同的写法，存在于一个阶段并不属于演化过程。

[@hainhphu9385]

Are the characters still pronounced the same way both in back then and now?

[@eyeofthasky]

2:27 is a love to say: WROOONG! -- his "name" was not QinShiHuang, that would be like saying the "name" of the president of the US is "Mr. President", that is his title and not a name. his name was Ying Zheng, or with in the western world more common order of last names last: Zheng Ying. "Qin Shi Huang" literally just means "Qin's First Emperor"

[@ABChinese]

Confucius is not his real name either 😂. It's fine to go with the names that people know them as...

[@Ray-qi2tu]

@@freakmoister But that is his name, just not the name that he originally had. Its like getting a name change in modern times. Some other examples are Oda Nobunaga and Genghis Khan, who were originally called Oda Kichihōshi and Temüjin respectively. Also like Qin Shi Huang, Genghis Khan is also a title turned name, meaning something like "Universal Ruler." Not wrong, just another name that they went by.

[@Ray-qi2tu]

@eyeofthasky Qin Shi Huang still counts as a name. He is historically called Qin Shi Huang by many scholars and historians of the past, be they Chinese or not. Plus he is still most commonly called Qin Shi Huang by modern Chinese people. This is basically the equivalent of a modern day name change, just that he was powerful and important enough that the name (his title) stuck around and is respected enough to call him that. This has happened historically with many other important people as well, as explained in my comment above. Its just that in modern times, a name change like this would not stick.

[@SwetPotato]

I think for a channel like this one, it's fine. But if it was a history channel, I would like him to be addressed differently during each phase of his life, for example, when in his youth, ruling Qin as king, and then ruling China as an Emperor.

[@denglinzhiniao]

他那个时代也不会叫他嬴政的，当时姓和氏还是分开的，叫他赵政可能性还大点

[@ToastSandw1ch]

Super interesting! Always love it when you upload

[@cmaven4762]

Love this. Just beginning to understand how long seal script was influential ... and why simplified script is only one step in the journey of Chinese writing ....

[@ednachen4998]

第一個甲骨文的 " 馬 " 字是錯的，那個圖形不是 " 馬 "，那是 " 狼 " ( wolf ) 才對，那些甲骨文研究學者根本搞錯了，第二個金文也是錯的，那個圖形不是馬，那是別種動物

[@jschsu]

Sometimes, I really feel using pictures of Ming Great Wall to represent Qin Great Wall is a bad idea.

[@PnalLilv]

OMG I've been waiting patiently just to watch a new video from your channel you can't imagine how I really enjoy watching your videos!! And no music is much better tbh However I love it when you make random jokes (not too many) on your videos, Just not too serious, nor too comical. Overall, It was an amazing video, keep it up❤ Sending love from Egypt

[@ABChinese]

Sorry to keep you waiting!😭 I don't as much time these days

[@개고기수프]

You Egyptians once had your own hieroglyphics, but unfortunately you were eventually assimilated by other peoples and have forgotten your own language and writing.

[@tomarintomarin9520]

Bro your Chinese is pretty good

[@answerhsiao0610]

I like Chinese handwriting

[@amber.mp4]

i think seal script is my favorite. it's so round and pretty

[@Whitfield369]

Great presentation! Very concise, clear, and informative!

[@isaacbauman8174]

agree由

[@KREPITATION_band]

Love this, evolution of different stuff is super interesting!🔥

[@prasanth2601]

I wonder how many oracle bone characters were there originally. Considering modern Chinese characters are somewhere around 50K or more it's safe to say there maybe twice or thrice the characters we currently discovered.

[@南一梦]

直到甲骨文受到重视和保护，当地人已经使用甲骨做药材30多年，现存的甲骨也是只是最初的百分之一不到，令人非常遗憾

[@资拉拉]

@@南一梦 甲骨文不可能多，古代表达没那么丰富，用不到很多词。

[@kiyoshitakeda452]

Very nice overview of Chinese characters over time. The simplified characters of today are a challenge. Older script are more easily recognizable. Understand why this was done, but still miss the more traditional characters. Thank you enjoyed.

[@xuexizhongwen]

What do you mean you miss them? They still exist.

[@fd2361]

@@xuexizhongwen I believe Kiyoshi meant that simplified Chinese characters have strokes missing or "simplified too excessively" that it is difficult to see the continual revolution of a character. Some characters are combined into one like surnames for example leading to confusion. Lots of major Chinese languages like Cantonese, Hokchew, Taiwanese use unique characters simplified characters can not represent. It is like gaps are created everywhere that it is easier to understand older scripts refer to certain things and know why one character has part of this character combined with the other.

[@SOPPI_srn]

Very cool video. Helps me with learning Chinese

[@user-tx8jt9qx9r]

I like Seal scrip look great and I thorough China government not allow citizens use VPN no?

[@dalao2yang]

。。。。fake news man..... anyone can use VPN. University even have free VPN for students....

[@jchrisssinshs5058]

Actually, it is technically illegal with some exemptions (university students, companies doing international business, etc.) However, the law is not strictly implemented for 99.9% of individual VPN users. So it's kinda shady, but yeah the risk does exist.

[@jamessmithers4456]

everyone uses a VPN. Here in Italy the government censors for example some Russian websites. So we all use a VPN for example to access Sputnik. I learned the dames when i was in France and UK earlier during the summer

[@kuatkongket8893]

You need to add in the simplified Mandarin script.

[@metalluster]

从没见过有人把草书翻译成grass script的😅

[@helenwade8299]

I hope to decipher the characters on the bone in AnYang museum😊

[@ABChinese]

I do too 😂

[@helenwade8299]

@@ABChinese Good luck to both of us😁

[@davidhandel5894]

grass script looks like doctor's handwriting to me

[@Barong-AliTalib]

It's when people say u I'm the best writer and then pop up as a grass.

[@InsaaniatDost]

💥💥💥💥💥 they look very similar to mohanjo daro script of indus valley civilization..... amazinggggg, 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@mimine2973]

what happens if I am in china and I want to use union pay card for it?

[@TheMadisonHang]

@10:00 oh no, how did hydro-glyphics get there

[@redhongkong]

new research mentioned that we might have misunderstood Qin dynasty. it might not have been "ruthless tyrant" as we were told. it might only be a ruthless tyrant to the following dynasty as they were gonna replace Qin, and they need to make up some propaganda to justify their throne. but almost all the changed made by Qin get passed down and used by following dynasty ruler. they certainly approved everything Qin changed is good/better.

[@directxxxx71]

Without Qin Huandi, China might be today's Europe with 29 small countries, or like today's India with thousands of writing systems and languages

[@elleem3951]

I agree 💯

[@caoting9694]

我的头像其实也是 甲骨文

[@schatz_burg]

Great and informative video as always! But could you find out which Chinese language variation is the closest to original ancient Chinese spoken language (that has/have survived up until today)? It’d be a very interesting topic for your channel and many people will want to see it!

[@jackliu498]

This will be a difficult and more complex task. For original spoken language, much have been lost during evolution and hard to find official record. The typical ancient spoken Chinese had five tones, which transformed to four (Mandarin) nowadays. Some local dialects in Shaanxi/Gansu Province as well as some pronunciation of Cantonese can still find trace of the lost fifth tone. For most part of Northern China, people can roughly understand each other although they speak different dialects. For the Southern China, the dialects varies from one place to another. And in some remote areas people cannot understand each others' spoken language in places some 50km apart.

[@schatz_burg]

@@jackliu498 Right, the multiple barbarian invasions to China did a lot of things. Not to mention the “cULtuRaL ReVoLuTioN” which put the final nails to the coffin.

[@johnvoidman6616]

2:54 picture is kinda weird considering Qin Dynasty is way earlier than the Manchurian's annex of China

[@malagebide]

不了解中国历史不要乱说话，会冒犯很多人！

[@bananaana1860]

Why is it that western/English perspective of Qin Shi Huang is always biased towards a negative view. While the Chinese perspective on him (by indie creators) is more balanced. Acknowledging his efforts that forever changed china’s history(unified currency and a standard language)while also pointing out his extreme efforts to achieve his goals. Almost no historical Chinese figure is mentioned positively in English. And it wasn’t until I improved my chinese comprehension that I noticed the biases. (By comparing the two perspectives)

[@ABChinese]

Because Chinese people are very proud of their culture so there’s some bias. It seems natural to me. This is why if you say anything remotely bad about Chinese history or culture, people will get mad at you online… I would know because I’ve done it. 😂😂😂 I didn’t read much on Qin Shi Huang, but the “Western” sources did paint him as a tyrant, although they do recognize that his standards unified China and was very influential for centuries to come. It’s just that we can’t overlook how many people he killed, how much culture he destroyed in order to maintain his power.

[@quach8quach907]

2:36 You mistranslated 中国 = Middle Kingdom A more correct translation is 中国 = Central Kingdom It's my own translation, and it is the best.

[@Barong-AliTalib]

中国 it's like USA calling themselves they center of the universe. 😂

[@Aluenvey]

Blessing in discuise, sense Im learning Japanese, so I am curious about Kanji and how it evolved out of Chinese script. I am wondering what the advantages of pictographic chinese over something like a Latin Script that became Romaji elsewhere.

[@smlie986]

只需要认识4500个汉字就可以无限造词，而不像英语新出现一个事物就要重新创造一个新得英文单词

[@crying.observer]

Bro i need help 😭 my WeChat account is blocked

[@Anthony-hh3dl]

😂

[@crying.observer]

@@Anthony-hh3dl 🙂

[@communismwithgiggles2515]

Man he's handsome...

[@luisroden1631]

Super interesting video - 非常好

[@delinquenter]

Das chinesisches "Gras Skript" ist einfach nur das Gegenstück zu der russische Handschrift im Vergleich zu dem Rest von Europäischer Schreibschrift.

[@_DeadBeat_]

can you review "The Discovery of Genesis" by CH Kang and Ethel R Nelson, interesting book about ancient chinese hanzi

[@saitamapose]

漢字は美しい。学習するのは大変ですが。

[@supermariozzzzzzzzzz1403]

谢谢兄弟！ 你好聪明！我爱你！

[@西门庆南宁]

Chinese characters are the most perfect writing system for human beings. As long as you learn4,000 Chinese characters, you will have no problem reading, writing and communicating. Unlike English, there are so many words that you can’t finish them in a lifetime.

[@jayg6138]

Chinese idioms though hhhh

[@RaphaelAlbarnoz]

Shang dynasty is a legendary dynasty not a historic dynasty

[@Braveplantt]

YES, i know traditional chi ese and "im so smart" 「我很博大精深」 lol (just a joke, we still use traditional in taiwan, hong kong and macau, and we always have a joke about love without a heart hehe)

[@gabrielgracenathanana1713]

Do you really love with your heart, not your brain 😂 😂 ? I really dislike the joke, so cheap and no brain 😂

[@erix1603]

Bro post more calligraphy writing already😢

[@ABChinese]

I have no time these days 😭😭😭 But I glad you enjoyed those! They’ll come back…

[@erix1603]

How I wish you could see my Characters ❤. Although I'm HSK2 but I've learnt a lot thanks to you🤝and me I guess😅.

[@ABChinese]

@@erix1603 You can send me pics of your writing on Instagram!

[@MsFancia]

grass scripts is like doctor's handwriting 😆😆😆almost no ordinary people could read them.

[@MeshaMesho]

Thank you for your effort, I appreciate it 💙

[@scaramuss]

This single handedly made me want to learn chinese lol

[@NancyBearings]

wow thank you sir, your videos is awesome.

[@MichailAgustusSolomonic]

Question! Is there Hanzi/Kanji which resemble latter "O"? (Exclude dots or just accentuation) If there's none, then why Chinese civilization ignore or hates it?

[@ABChinese]

Great question! Modern Chinese does use 〇 sometimes as "zero", although 零 is more common. In the historical sense, the character 日 looked close in the Oracle bone and bronze script phase (see: www.zdic.net/zd/zx/jw/日). But one of the big changes from seal script to clerical script is that writing became more linear for ease of writing. So the rounded strokes of seal script became straight lines.

[@MichailAgustusSolomonic]

@@ABChinese I really curious and maybe you can make a video for this. When "〇" listed in modern Hanzi? And why before that(adaptation of 〇 into Hanzi) there's no one proposed it into Hanzi list? I guess that maybe from start Hanzi is only compatible with chiseling/strokes method(only for bones, casting surface and also bamboo scroll), but Chinese also invent paper and use it for documentation. So why tho no full circle Hanzi on the list? I'll wait your new content about this~😁👍🏼

[@ABChinese]

I don't think that's worth a whole video...

[@MichailAgustusSolomonic]

@@ABChinese I'm sorry if I sound demanding and forgive me for begging for video but still I really curious about "is there any of full circle Hanzi" or radicals Hanzi which compound a word(in Hanzi) which full circle in form?(beside dots, accentuate or just 〇) I rarely seen another one of those rather just 〇 but never a compound of a Hanzi word or just radical inside a circle and again always I wonder, why?

[@mewsuen2325]

@@MichailAgustusSolomonic We don't write full circle in Hanzi. Round parts may appear in the Oracle Bone Script and Bronze Script, but they gradually disappeared after the appearance of Seal Script, because in the Seal Script era, people wrote a lot with brushes, which are not suitable for drawing circles. Some nearly round parts found in Seal Script are actually spliced in two strokes, first the left side and then the right side, such as the character of 絲 in seal script. P.S.: Ancient readers would draw circles to mark sentences, equivalent to full stops, because there was no punctuation in ancient writing. You can search 句讀 to see the pictures.

[@ywc-zj2ne]

讲的很好👍

[@aofeizhang8735]

对了，你对古汉语有研究吗？你喜欢诗经吗？我业余研究古汉语和上古中国史很多年了

[@西门庆南宁]

汉字是人类最完美的文字，你只要学会4000汉字，阅读书写交流没有问题，而不像英文，单词多到一辈子学不完。

[@winniethexiofficial]

华语其实是很不实用的预言，公认最实际的语言是拉丁文才对

[@winniethexiofficial]

创造汉字其实很麻烦，拼音文字只要把字根拼接出来就好了其组合可以达到最少1.99281489E+28種，而汉字最少只能达到3.71293000E+15種，是非常費力的語言

[@winniethexiofficial]

这也是为什么许多专有名词旁边还要配个英文字母的原因之一

[@YunLuoShanZe]

@@winniethexiofficial 汉语造字复杂，但造词，相比表音文字而言是碾压级的高效。表音文字造词，只能通过极其有限的词根词缀线性组合成词汇，而汉字单字就有足够的信息熵，可以指数级提升组词能力，而且单字高信息熵也能提供理解方面的优势。例如pneumoconiosis，在美国，只有受过高等教育的或专业人士才会无障碍的解读这个词，但是在中国，“尘肺病”言简意赅，根本不需要医学知识就能理解这种疾病的病因以及累及器官。

[@winniethexiofficial]

@@YunLuoShanZe 承上，我仅说明造字的费力而无法说明字词理解的能力；我得强调拉丁文是一个表音文字，在形溯文字方面往往倾向音位堆叠，而不像中文一样能够承受一字多音，这是中文在书写方面略胜西方拉丁文字的优点之一，但我认为就其字词汇量仍无法与拉丁文匹敌，且拉丁文与古希腊语特点之一也就是能拥有大量的抽象词汇，也更因为其是表音文字，就跟能与其他语言结合，创造更多词汇

[@amstaadftw8566]

Have they translated the Oracle Bones? I wonder what people where worried/curious about back then.

[@ABChinese]

What do you mean “translated?” We’ve found 4000 or so oracle bone characters and we know the meaning to 1600. So the rest no one has figured out the meaning yet.

[@Henry-teach-Chinese-in-jokes]

I’ve made many videos teaching Chinese language vividly and in a funny way. I hope you can recommend my videos to those who want to learn Chinese. I hope more people can learn Chinese to get comprehensive firsthand information about China and most likely seek more job opportunities.

[@ZefluteMini]

there are lots of Oracle characters that hasn't been recognized, but lots of those characters could be the names of mountains, rivers, areas, tribes, gods and nations which didn't occur since Shang dynasty, thus impossible to recognize for good.

[@qiangli8839]

Douyin blogger @李右溪, she is an Oracle graduate student, she tells the story of the ancient people of the Shang Dynasty recorded on the oracle bone.

[@xuexizhongwen]

I think you meant "deciphered". Or did you mean translated into English?

[@seanlim222]

You're forgetting 简体字, the simpler and more efficient way to write chinese words in today's world

[@antoniocasias5545]

0:01 that we know of. Oh I wish we knew what it looked like in the axis dynasty

[@MusicLingoZhenrui]

博主太帅了

[@ABChinese]

你才帅呢

[@MusicLingoZhenrui]

仅次于我😄😁😁@@ABChinese

[@OneStepToday]

The myth of origin of writing is very fascinating, it sounds exactly like the biblical Genesis account where God forbade eating the fruit which symbolizes maturity and intelligence knowledge, because man would become like God, and it was inevitable. Thus, these ancient myths describes the condition of modern man in misery due to its knowledge and cognition, maturity, which brings misery.

[@jiegao574]

视频封面不是一个明显的错误的吗？鱼是牛的意思，牛是鱼的意思，你看那个甲骨文，象形也能看出来，用牛鱼举例不好，从甲骨文看，fish最终应该演变成牛。cow应该演变成鱼。牛角的角，田地的田，后面一是鞭子。我在书上看到的故事的信息传播造成的这个错误，所以，你的视频封面举例特别的不好。

[@4nn1_4nn1gaming]

繁體字今天我們要看繁體字

[@spider4058]

good video

[@dtenca5341]

Xia dynasty moment

[@냠냠-o2n3q]

한국 교과서에도 중국 갑골문자는 내용이 있지만,그 이후는 생략하는 경우가 많은데,이렇게 순서대로 보니 문자 변화 과정이 한눈에 보이네요.

[@arielzhang679]

所以中国人知道汉字是韩国人发明的说法有多可笑😂

[@냠냠-o2n3q]

@@arielzhang679 근거 없는 이야기로 사람들을 현혹 시키는 거죠.만약 어떤 사람이 한자를 한국에서 만들었다는 소리를 하면,멀리 할 것 같네요.

[@月月-g9p]

@@arielzhang679 别把调侃当真，朝鲜族和汉族很像，没有对外发起过战争，自古都是对外防御政策，如果朝鲜在古代不断入侵中国现在很可能就是一家人了😂

[@fc2790]

YOU ARE SO CUTE AS A CHINESE

[@evansyu4257]

i love this

[@南一梦]

书写在中国发展成一门艺术，书法，这是中国最宝贵的艺术

[@EvilHamster428]

Grass script is the best

[@paulskiye6930]

"Imagine eating historical artifacts though" Victorians took note of that with Mummy unwrapping parties😮