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lesson1: How were Chinese characters created in ancient time? 

The earliest Chinese characters (about 1500 BC) were hieroglyphics, which used pictorial figures to inscribe the physical world. Soon after that, hieroglyphics developed to advanced form ( we call them "zhuan shu"). Years after, came the stage of traditional characters, and at 50's in last century, came the simplification system ( in Mainland China and Singapore) . All the characters in this program are simplification. 

The examples below indicate the three main steps of the evolution of Chinese characters. First column is the meaning in English, second column is the hieroglyphic and the last column is the modern character.

Chinese characters also call square characters, because in the final stage, all the characters tend to square. Here are some examples.( last column is the pronunciations)

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  This is how ancient Chinese using pictographic to describe natural phenomena.