Study On The Pictographic Characters In The Inscriptions On Bones And Tortoise Shells

Firstly of all, the current research situation of the Inscriptions on Bones and Tortoise Shells is summarized in the present thesis. The insufficiency in the research and its reasons arc also presented. Additionally, on the basis of "Dictionary of Inscriptions on Bones and Tortoise Shells", 878 Inscriptions on Bones and Tortoise Shells with unambiguous syntax, phonetics and semantics are selected and analyzed in the subsequent chapters. From Chapter 2 to Chapter 4, the orientation, configuration, and aesthetic features of the Inscriptions on Bones and Tortoise Shells are discussed. The orientation contains human and human body, man-made things, animals, plants, and astronomical geography. Alone-pictograph, combined pictograph, half-combined pictograph, contrast pictograph and onomatopoeic pictograph, which correlate to configuration, are presented. The aesthetic features are expressed in three forms: shape beauty based on pictograph, conception beauty by means of meaning expression and strength beauty demonstrated by carving. Chapter 5 introduces the stagnant development of Pictographic characters and its development trend from hypotaxis to parataxis during the development of Chinese Characters. Simultaneously, the advantages and disadvantages of the pictograph as a script creation pattern are presented. From the above discussion, it can be concluded that, pictograph is the basis of Chinese Character, but the degree of systematization is low. Therefore, pictograph is not a highly-productive script creation pattern.