I. Zhu's explanation
1, red
Commonly used to represent red, such as "vermilion", "vermilion" and "vermilion".
2. Mineral name
Cinnabar is an inorganic compound used as a sedative in traditional Chinese medicine.
3. Last name
Zhu is also a China surname.
Second, the evolution of Zhu's characters
The evolution of Zhuzi has gone through different stages, such as Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscription, seal cutting, official script, cursive script, running script and regular script. The word "Zhu" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions refers to this word, and the glyph adds a dot in the middle of the trunk (wood) to indicate the trunk position of the tree. Some Oracle Bone Inscriptions wrote dots as short stripes.
The word "Zhu" in bronze inscriptions evolved from the Oracle Bone Inscriptions glyph, and there are two main ways to write it: one is to turn the short cross representing the red heart in the middle of the trunk into a black spot; The other is to turn it into two short stripes.
In the official script stage, the bronze inscriptions were deformed, which made the branches in the glyphs disappear. When the original meaning of "Zhu" disappeared, seal script was replaced by "wood" and "plant".
In the regular script stage, the shape of "Zhu" basically continued the shape of official script, but it was simplified in writing.
Changes of Zhu font in official script stage;
1, strokes
In terms of strokes, Lishu made some adjustments to the shape of Zhu. It changes the strokes of seal script Zhu from round to square, making the font more square. In addition, Lishu also adjusted the curve of Zhu characters to make it more linear. These changes make the strokes of Zhu characters more concise and standardized.
2. Structure
In terms of structure, Lishu has made some changes to the structure of Zhu characters. It adjusts the stroke connection of Zhu characters to make them more coherent. In addition, the official script also simplifies the structure of Zhu characters, making it more simplified. These changes make the structure of Zhu characters clearer and more concise.
In the official script stage, a series of changes were made to Zhu's shape to make it more square, concise and standardized. These changes not only affected the writing style of Zhu characters, but also had an important impact on the later evolution of calligraphy.