A Chinese character has a shape, a sound and a meaning. The three go together, so to know a character one must see it, say it and understand it. The written character in turn became the object of calligraphy.
The oracle-bone inscriptions found at Yinxu are the earliest evidence of a mature Chinese writing system, dating from around 1250 BCE.
After the Qin unification in 221 BCE the policy of "same script" was put into effect, and the small seal script made the writing of characters uniform.
In the Eastern Han Xu Shen completed the Shuowen Jiezi, which analyses by the six principles how Chinese characters are built.
Chinese Characters is the class in the chapter on Letters on Chinese writing, how this mature script formed and was put in order. The Yinxu oracle bones are its earliest evidence, after the Qin unification the policy of "same script" standardised writing on the small seal script, and Xu Shen of the Eastern Han completed the Shuowen Jiezi, analysing character structure by the six principles. Chinese characters unite form, sound and meaning and also gave rise to calligraphy.
