If wanting to learn Chinese Calligraphy, you’d better learn about the development of Chinese Character. Chinese Character, just from jiaguwen, used in Shang Dynasty (about the 16th –11th century B.C.), has a long history, over 3000 years. Generally, we think jiaguwen the oldest Character because it is the earliest, mature and systematic Chinese Character we found, today. In the long history, Chinese Character comes down in the continuous line, although the scripts change as the times. The scripts of Chinese Character are made up of jiaguwen, jinwen, xiaozhuan, lishu, caoshu, xingshu, kaishu and so on, but kaishu and xingshu are used often, now.
Jiaguwen
This kind of Chinese character is the one discovered from the remains of shang Dynasty. Because these Characters were carved or written on the tortoise shells and the bones, it was called jiaguwen. It is the oldest Chinese character, we found. The square turning is the main way of writing (or carving), and smooth turning is rare. Its lines are thin mostly.
