Chinese Calligraphy · Unit 2 · Lesson 5 · 書法 單元二 第五課
Long before paper, people carved characters on tortoise shells and cast them in bronze. In 3D, crack a shell the way Shang diviners did, carve a character, make a rubbing from a bronze ding, and watch a brush write small seal script. Then pull a slider through 3,000 years.
在有紙以前，人們把字刻在龜甲上、鑄在青銅器上。在 3D 裡照商代占卜的方法讓龜甲裂開、刻一個字，從青銅鼎拓下銘文，再看毛筆寫小篆；最後拉一根滑桿，走過三千年。
The earliest Chinese writing that survives on real objects was carved on tortoise shells and animal bones more than 3,000 years ago. Many of those characters began as pictures of things. Over many centuries, the shapes became simpler and more even: carved oracle bone script, bronze script, and then small seal script, the standard of the Qin dynasty.
現存有實物可證的最早漢字，是三千多年前刻在龜甲、獸骨上的甲骨文；其中許多字一開始是東西的圖畫。經過很多個世紀，字形越來越簡單、線條越來越勻稱：刀刻的甲骨文、青銅器上的金文，再到秦朝的標準字體小篆。
3D Model · 3D 模型
Drag to turn, and scroll or pinch to zoom. Choose where the writing is made: on a tortoise shell, in a bronze ding, or with a brush. Choose one of six characters, and each place shows it in that time's script. On the shell, follow four steps: hollows, heat, crack, and carve.
拖曳可以旋轉，滾輪或雙指可以縮放。選字寫在哪裡：龜甲上、青銅鼎裡，或用毛筆寫；再選六個字中的一個，每個地方都用那個時代的字形。在龜甲上可以一步一步看：挖洞、灼燒、裂開、刻字。
Drag to turn · 拖曳旋轉 Scroll or pinch to zoom · 滾輪／雙指縮放
This 3D model needs WebGL, which this browser does not support. The reading, the slider, the game, and the practice pad below still work.
這個瀏覽器不支援 WebGL，無法顯示 3D 模型；下方的課文、滑桿、小遊戲和練字板一樣能用。
A teaching model, not to scale: real oracle bone characters are much smaller, and a real ding is much bigger. In the model, the inscription sits on the bottom of the bowl so it is easy to see. The character forms are our own tracings over public domain reference glyphs.
這是教學用的示意模型，不照實際比例：真的甲骨文字小得多，真的鼎大得多。模型把銘文放在鼎的內底，比較容易看。字形是我們對著公有領域的參考字形自己描的。
Model, character tracings, and the writing engine are drawn and programmed by My Culture Connect. Reference glyphs for the oracle bone, bronze, and seal scripts: Wikimedia Commons, Ancient Chinese Characters Project (public domain). · 模型、字形描線與寫字引擎由人師教育協會自繪、自寫；甲骨文、金文、小篆的對位參考是 Wikimedia Commons「Ancient Chinese characters project」的公有領域字形。
Reading · 英文閱讀
Before there was paper, people in China wrote on hard things. More than 3,000 years ago, in the late Shang dynasty, people carved characters on tortoise shells and animal bones, mostly the shoulder blades of cattle. We call this writing oracle bone script. Taiwan's Ministry of Education calls it the earliest Chinese writing that survives on real objects.
Why carve on shells? The Shang kings asked many questions about what would happen. Diviners cut hollows into the back of a shell or bone and pressed the red-hot end of a wooden stick into them. Cracks appeared on the front, shaped a bit like the character 卜, which means to divine. Then they carved the record beside the cracks: the date, the question, and the answer. Nobody today knows exactly how they read the cracks.
Many early characters began as pictures of things. 日 was the sun, 月 a crescent moon, 山 three mountain peaks, 水 a stream with drops of water, 人 a person seen from the side, and 馬 a horse standing on its tail, with a big eye and a mane. About 1,900 years ago, the scholar Xu Shen called this way of making characters 象形, drawing the shape of a thing, and he gave 日 and 月 as his examples.
Writing was also cast or carved on bronze. In the Shang and Zhou dynasties, words were put on bronze vessels such as the ding, a pot with three legs. These lines are thicker and rounder than carved lines. To study them on paper, people make rubbings: paper is pressed onto the writing and patted with ink, and the sunken characters stay white. The Mao Gong Ding in the National Palace Museum in Taipei holds about 500 characters in 32 lines.
In 221 BCE, the state of Qin united China. The Shiji, a famous history, records that the First Emperor made the writing the same everywhere. Li Si and other officials simplified the older script into a standard form called small seal script, with smooth lines of even width.
After seal script came clerical script, flat and wide (Lesson 6), and then regular script, the way we write today (Lesson 7). In this lesson, crack and carve a shell in 3D, make a rubbing from a bronze ding, and watch a brush write seal script. Then pull the slider to see one character change over 3,000 years.
Questions · 閱讀理解
What did people in the late Shang dynasty carve characters on?
How did the diviners make cracks appear on a shell?
What does 象形 mean, and which two characters did Xu Shen give as examples?
Words & Phrases · 生字及片語
Quick Check · 小測驗
1. How was oracle bone script made?
2. Which character looks like a crack in a shell?
3. Where is the Mao Gong Ding today?
4. In which year did the state of Qin unite China?
5. What is a rubbing?
Six Pictographs · 六個象形字
Each card shows one character in four scripts: oracle bone, bronze, small seal, and regular. Tap Watch it in 3D to see it carved, cast, and written.
每張卡片用四種字體畫同一個字：甲骨文、金文、小篆、楷書。點「在模型中看」，看它被刻、被鑄、被寫出來。
A sun with a mark in the middle. Carved on bone, the circle is made of straight lines and looks almost square. Cast in bronze, it is round again, with a fat dot. In seal script, the dot becomes a line across.
中間有一點的太陽。刻在骨頭上，圓圈用直線刻，看起來幾乎是方的；鑄在青銅上又變圓了，中間是一個胖胖的點；到了小篆，那一點變成一橫。
A crescent moon. The oracle bone form is a curved slice; later forms add lines inside, and the crescent slowly turns into the 月 we write today.
彎彎的月亮。甲骨文是一片彎彎的月牙；後來裡面多了線條，月牙慢慢變成今天寫的「月」。
Three peaks standing on the ground, with the middle one the tallest. The peaks became three vertical strokes on a base.
三座山峰站在地上，中間那座最高。山峰後來變成三豎，站在一條底線上。
A stream in the middle with drops of water on both sides. In regular script, the drops became the strokes on the left and right.
中間一道水流，兩旁是水滴。到了楷書，水滴變成左右兩邊的筆畫。
A person seen from the side, bending forward with an arm hanging down. Two strokes are left in 人.
從側面看的人，身體往前彎、手垂下來。到了「人」字，只剩下兩筆。
A horse standing on its tail: a big eye at the top, a mane along the back, and legs on the left. The Shuowen says 馬 shows the horse's head, mane, tail, and four legs.
一匹站起來的馬：上面是大眼睛，背上有鬃毛，腿在左邊。《說文解字》說「馬」字畫的是馬的頭、鬃毛、尾巴和四隻腳。
Slider · 時間滑桿
Choose a character and pull the slider. Watch it change from a picture to oracle bone script, bronze script, small seal script, clerical script, and the regular script we write today.
選一個字，拉動滑桿：看它從圖畫變成甲骨文、金文、小篆、隸書，一直到我們今天寫的楷書。
Game · 小遊戲
Look at an oracle bone character and choose the modern character. A wrong answer gives you a clue. When you are ready, try the bronze script.
看一個甲骨文，選出今天的字。答錯了會有提示。熟練以後，換金文試試看。
Right on the first try一次就答對0 / 0
Practice Pad · 練字板
Choose a character and trace its small seal script. Seal lines stay the same width, so keep an even, steady speed. After each stroke, the chart compares your press-and-lift curve with the brush's flat one.
選一個字，描寫它的小篆。小篆的線粗細一樣，所以速度要平穩、不快不慢。每寫完一筆，圖上就把你的提按曲線和毛筆平平的曲線比較。
Mouse or finger: slow = thick, fast = thin滑鼠或手指：寫得慢＝粗、寫得快＝細Stylus: press harder for a thicker line觸控筆：越用力線越粗
Your press-and-lift curve · 你的提按曲線
Demo · 示範 You · 你
Stories of Ancient Writing · 古文字的故事
Four short stories about how we found, kept, and explained the oldest Chinese writing.
關於最古老的漢字怎麼被發現、被保存、被解釋的四個小故事。
Discovery · 發現
Oracle bones came from Xiaotun village near Anyang, Henan, and 1899 is usually given as the year they were discovered. A famous story says the scholar Wang Yirong was ill, and writing was spotted on a piece of turtle shell bought as medicine. Historians have shown that this story cannot be trusted; another account says an antique dealer brought Wang twelve pieces. Wang died in 1900, and in 1903 Liu E published the first book of oracle bone rubbings.
甲骨出自河南安陽附近的小屯村，後人通常把 1899 年當作甲骨文發現的年份。有個有名的故事說，學者王懿榮生病，有人在買來當藥的龜版上看見了字；學者已經證明這個故事不可信。另一種說法是古董商帶了十二片甲骨給王懿榮看。王懿榮 1900 年就去世了，1903 年劉鶚出版了第一本甲骨拓片的書《鐵雲藏龜》。
Taiwan · 台灣
From 1928 to 1937, Academia Sinica's Institute of History and Philology dug fifteen times at Yinxu, the ruins of the late Shang capital near Anyang. Today the institute in Taipei holds more than 25,000 pieces of oracle bones, and its museum shows some of them. In 2006, Yinxu became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
1928 到 1937 年，中央研究院歷史語言研究所在安陽附近的殷墟（商代晚期的都城遺址）進行了十五次發掘。現在位在台北的史語所收藏了兩萬五千多片甲骨，所裡的歷史文物陳列館可以看到其中一些。2006 年，殷墟列入聯合國教科文組織的世界遺產。
The Longest Inscription · 最長的銘文
The Mao Gong Ding is a bronze ding from the late Western Zhou dynasty. Inside its bowl are 32 lines of writing, about 500 characters. The National Palace Museum in Taipei calls it the longest bronze inscription known so far. The Ministry of Education's dictionary counts 497 characters, so we say about 500.
毛公鼎是西周晚期的青銅鼎，鼎腹裡面鑄了 32 行字，大約 500 字。台北國立故宮博物院說它是目前所知最長的青銅器銘文。教育部辭典算的是 497 字，所以我們說「大約 500 字」。
An Old Dictionary · 字典
Around the year 100, the scholar Xu Shen finished the Shuowen Jiezi. It explains 9,353 characters, written in small seal script and sorted into 540 groups. It describes six ways characters were made; drawing the shape of a thing (象形) is one of them, with 日 and 月 as examples. It also says 卜 shows the shape of a heated shell's crack.
大約西元 100 年，東漢學者許慎完成了《說文解字》，用小篆解說 9,353 個字，分成 540 部。書裡說造字的方法有六種（六書），「象形」是其中一種，例子是「日」和「月」；書裡也說「卜」字像燒過的龜甲上的裂紋。
Myth vs. Fact · 常見迷思
✗ Myth · 迷思Every Chinese character is a picture.每個漢字都是一幅畫。
✓ Fact · 事實Only some began as pictures. Xu Shen described six ways characters were made. Many characters join a part for meaning with a part for sound, like 江 and 河, his own examples.只有一部分是從圖畫來的。許慎說造字有六種方法；很多字是「表示意思的部分」加上「表示讀音的部分」，像他舉的「江」和「河」。
✗ Myth · 迷思One man, Cangjie, invented Chinese writing.漢字是倉頡一個人發明的。
✓ Fact · 事實That is a legend. As the Ministry of Education's dictionary says, writing could not be invented by one person; it grew little by little over a long time.那是傳說。教育部辭典說，文字不可能是一個人獨創的，而是先人一點一點累積而成。
✗ Myth · 迷思Scholars can read every oracle bone character.學者已經看得懂所有的甲骨文。
✓ Fact · 事實Not yet. A 2016 UNESCO report counts about 4,400 different characters, and only about 1,400 of them match characters we use today. Other counts differ a little, but many are still a puzzle.還沒有。2016 年聯合國教科文組織的報告說，甲骨文大約有 4,400 個不同的字，其中大約只有 1,400 個對得上今天用的字。各家的數字有些不同，但還有很多字是謎。
✗ Myth · 迷思Ancient characters look nothing like today's.古文字和今天的字完全不像。
✓ Fact · 事實Many keep their shape. 山 still has three peaks, 水 still has a stream in the middle, and 人 still has two strokes. Pull the slider and look for what stays the same.很多字保留了原來的樣子：「山」還是三座山峰，「水」中間還是一道水流，「人」還是兩筆。拉拉看滑桿，找找什麼沒有變。
Remember It · 記憶口訣
Oracle bones were carved, bronze was cast, and seal script has even lines.
甲骨文用刀刻，金文在青銅器上，小篆線條勻稱。
One line down and one line out, like the crack on a shell.
一豎一點，就像龜甲上的裂紋。
Xu Shen's examples of drawing the shape of a thing.
許慎舉的象形字例子。
Qin united China and made the writing the same.
秦統一天下，全國的字寫成一樣。
In the Classroom · 教室提醒
Classroom Activity 1 · 課堂活動一
You need · 準備材料
Steps · 步驟
Ask the class: was it harder to carve a circle or a straight line? Then look at 日 in oracle bone script.
問問全班：刻圓圈和刻直線，哪個比較難？再看看甲骨文的「日」。
Classroom Activity 2 · 課堂活動二
You need · 準備材料
Steps · 步驟
Try 日 in bronze script: a circle with a fat dot in the middle.
試試金文的「日」：一個圓圈，中間一個胖胖的點。
Before and Next · 上一課與下一課
Sources · 資料出處
Dates, names, places, and facts on this page were checked against these sources (October 2026). · 本頁的年代、人名、地名與事實依下列資料查證（2026 年 10 月）。
