The "Legend" of Chinese Character Visual Art in Chinese Graphic Design (2)

two. Analysis of Creative and Creative Thinking Characteristics of Chinese Characters

The process of the evolution of Chinese character's characters is the long and complex design process of Chinese characters. This process actually continues until today. The discovery of a large number of painted pottery and bronze patterns and symbols has helped us understand the history of the occurrence and evolution of Chinese characters before Oracle from the point of view of art design; it is very important to observe the ability of Hua Xiamin to creatively summarize and express things in two dimensions. helpful.

1. The creation of Chinese characters and "image thinking":

Aristotle said in "On the Mind": "The soul can't think forever without imagery." Archaeological discoveries before the Oracle era were basically limited to patterns and a very small number of symbols, which gave us a definitive testimony to the process of Chinese character-making. Work created a gap that was difficult to overcome. However, this does not affect our study of the ability of the ancestors to generalize and express the creative image of the things in the two-dimensional space. "Object image" and "image" are external images or phenomena of human beings that can be directly captured by the senses. The further development of this ability of prehistoric humans has become an "imagery" thinking ability at a higher level of perception. The "object image", "image", and "image" (I call these "image thinking" in this article) together constitute the thinking medium and tool for the Chinese people to understand the objective world and form a kind of Refined form, induction, and create the image of thinking ability. The richness and variety of colored pottery patterns and the evolution of pattern patterns to the regularity of symbols are precisely the externalization of the rich and vague aesthetic perception of the ancestors before the prehistoric period and the ability of creative imagery.

A large number of Taoist archaeological discoveries of Chinese characters. From which we can easily see the trajectory of the evolution of painting to symbols. In the ancestors' summary and improvement of the existing symbols, and in combination with the new symbol creation, the concept of words slowly and systematically established, and finally the Chinese characters appeared.

Mr. Yan Xigui pointed out: "Chinese characters are based on the pictographic symbols that emerged in the late period of the primitive society, and they have developed and transformed some symbols that were popular in the late period of the primitive society.... Chinese characters form a complete text system, roughly at the time of Xia and Shang Dynasties." . [2] There are many glyphs similar to the Chinese rock painting composition form and the color pottery symbol configuration in Oracle and Jinwen.

From the perspective of the development of Chinese aesthetic psychology, the “characteristic thinking” of the Chinese prehistoric era was first preserved in Chinese characters [3] (P75). In the process of using Chinese characters and improving Chinese characters, this feature is constantly reflected in the "generalization and expression activities of the image of the things in the two-dimensional space" of future generations. The creation of Chinese characters and the use of Chinese characters, and the use of Chinese characters as an artistic expression medium, can be said to be one of the concrete externalized forms of Chinese “image thinking”, and also a kind of creativity guided by Chinese “image thinking” and aesthetic consciousness characteristics. And creativity.

2. Before the advent of the text, the ancestors recorded and communicated information:

Even before Chinese characters were created, Huaxia Xianmin gradually realized that marking symbols (as the predecessor of words) and depicting graphics on the surfaces or planes of objects not only enriched the decorative effect, but also enabled the expression of thoughts and the transmission of information. The means are enriched and make the recorded content more suitable as a memo. A more accurate and rich demand for the transmission and recording of information further stimulates "the ability to creatively summarize and present things in a two-dimensional space."

3. Great design project: The design of Chinese character fonts has not stopped since the appearance of Chinese characters.

This design is part of the Chinese character creation process and represents the design behavior of the textual solution that has been formed in the thinking. This is a thinking activity that summarizes the previous experience of symbol representation and the creation of new performance symbols. From the eyes of modern people, it is an unconscious way of designing a font. The motivation is not how to write the existing text better, but how to create a different from a vague pattern symbol or text painting. Symbol system to accurately transmit information and record thinking. Until such a symbolic system is fully established, the conscious design of systematically designing the Chinese character fonts may be minimal, but it does not rule out the existence of design behaviors for already formed fonts. At present, it can be affirmed that the conscious and systematic design of Chinese character fonts began in the era of Oracle's emergence and is part of the improvement and application of Chinese characters.

At least from the beginning of Oracle, unconscious Chinese calligraphy writing has taken place in conscious font design and layout. Chinese calligraphy is "the most unique and proud art of Chinese civilization" [4] (P35). It sprouted from the moment when the Chinese characters were written. With the maturity of Chinese characters, the writing of Chinese characters also developed from the practical to the artistic pursuit, and gradually completed its own purpose. That is, "decoration, practicality, touching." [4] (P35) The initial writing of Chinese characters was actually part of the process of Chinese character creation, that is, how to externalize the "image" of a Chinese character, and how to use a line to represent a Chinese character. Before calligraphy became an art alone, calligraphy was actually a design art of Chinese characters. Whether it is Oracle, Zhong Dingwen, or the Chinese characters on the tile, the seal, the shabby, or the closed mud, all are Chinese designs for Chinese character fonts (modern type designs, including various Chinese character fonts in computers, are viewed by the calligraphic community. As a new form of expression of Chinese calligraphy. This has accumulated rich fonts for China's flat visual communication design.

4. The carrier of Chinese culture and ideas:

From the “words and beliefs” to today’s “the structure of herringbone is mutual support” and so on, the meaning of Chinese characters to the Chinese is not only written symbols, but also a truth standard contained in the arguments of the source of the words. Moreover, "that is to say, in the collective unconsciousness of the Chinese people, people's thoughts and actions conform to the meaning of literal composition, and they also have a natural and righteous nature."[5] (P125) Truth in the composition of these characters The formation of the intangible standard is rooted in the inheritance of future generations from the worship of the ancestors' Holy Spirit and the inheritance of the philosopher's will and ideas. As a result, activities such as tastes, explorations, and redesigns of Chinese characters' traits have become a manifestation of the awe of the tradition of Chinese history and culture. In the creation process of Chinese characters, which is different from Western languages, Chinese people place their own feelings and ideas about the external world, as well as their own emotional experiences and moral standards, in this block word system.

5. Management awareness of symbols and texts on the surface of objects:

When we look at the patterns of pottery, pottery, and symbols, we cannot but notice that the position of the symbols (or words) on the surface of the pottery has been meticulously emphasized, and the awareness of the position of the symbol has also emerged. The awareness of the placement of business words or symbols in space is the predecessor of literary awareness. Since the creation and use of Chinese characters, the arrangement of words has been used more frequently and consciously.

Throughout the prehistoric China to Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the Chinese people's visual communication in the two-dimensional space has always embodied the characteristics of depiction with the concrete image, the combination of symbols and text elements in patterns and pattern elements. At least from the end of the primitive era, the Chinese have unconsciously integrated the three elements of graphic design into their own cultural creation activities, but this activity is not a graphic design in the modern sense. The emergence of Chinese characters has played a significant role in the visual communication activities of Chinese people in two-dimensional space.

(to be continued)