China's Henan Strives to Well Present Stories of Chinese Characters in New Era

Henan is home to Jiahu Symbols - the earliest prototypes of writing systems known to humans, and the oracle bone script - the first complete Chinese character system. Li Si, who was born in Henan's Shangcai, helped Qin Shi Huang (the founder of the Qin Dynasty) unify characters by replacing other writing systems with Small Seal Script and forming writing regulations. The province is also the hometown of Xu Shen, a grammatologist native to Luohe, who compiled in his hometown Shuowen Jiezi (which literally means "discussing writing and explaining characters") - the world's first dictionary, summarized the structural laws of Chinese characters and unified the meanings of characters. For thousands of years, the Central Plains has witnessed almost the whole development process of Chinese characters.

The "Character Archway" in the National Museum of Chinese Writing [Photo by Zhang Yuqing]

In the new era, to inherit and preserve the traditional culture and present well the history of Chinese characters, Henan has made efforts in cultural tourism development and scientific research, showing more people the charm of Chinese characters.

Here you can easily find Chinese characters, whether you are at the National Museum of Chinese Writing, Cangjie Temple in Puyang, Xu Shen Cultural Park in Luohe, Anyang Yinxu Cultural Tourism Archaeological Town, or the Hometown of Du Fu in Gongyi.

The Chinese Character Interaction Zone in the National Museum of Chinese Writing [Photo by Zhang Yuqing]

Many scenic spots in Henan have integrated Chinese characters into landscape design, such as the images of Chinese characters during different periods, accompanied by plaques and signs containing details about the structures and meanings of the characters. Thus, visitors can learn more about Chinese characters and traditional culture while enjoying their leisure time.

Boulevard of Chinese Characters in Xu Shen Cultural Park [Photo via the Office of Cyberspace Affairs Commission of CPC Luohe Municipal Committee]

Speaking of scientific research, the Key Laboratory for Processing Oracle Bone Script Information of Anyang Normal University has been working to build an international big data platform for the oracle bone inscriptions. In 2019, the platform known as "Yinqi Wenyuan" was put to use and opened to people around the world for free. Up to now, Yinqi Wenyuan has collected 246 books and articles, as well as more than 20,000 documents concerning the oracle bone script. It has become an important digital resource platform for researchers around the world to study the oracle bone script.

Yinqi Wenyuan, a big data platform for the oracle bone inscriptions [Photo via the Office of Cyberspace Affairs Commission of CPC Anyang Municipal Committee]

According to the statistics by scholars, more than 4,000 oracle bone glyphs have been discovered, about one-third of which have been deciphered and recognized by all experts. In 2016, the National Museum of Chinese Writing launched the "Oracle Bone Script Interpretation Campaign" to call for eligible people from all over the world to decipher the glyphs, encouraging more and more people to join the research of the oracle bone inscriptions, and, as a result, bringing a surge of the oracle bone script interpretation in the whole society.