Preface 6
The Dawn of Civlization 8
The Graphic Characters of the River Civilization 10
The Fate of the Graphic Characters of the River Civilization 15
Using Pictures to Express ldeas 18
The Origin of Han Characters 22
Legends from Ancient Times 24
Discovering the Origins of Han Characters 28
The Evolution of Han Characters 34
Ancient Drawing-like Characters 36
The Development of Modern Characters 54
The Main Aspects of the Development of Han Characters 65
The Formation of Han Characters 70
The Development of the"Six Categories" 72
How Han Characters were Formed 76
The Form and Structure of Modern Han Characters 96
The Square Form of Han Characters 102
The Mystery of Modern Han Characters 106
Pictographic Elements in Modern Han Characters 108
The Use of Pictographic Elements in Modern Han Characters 116
Han Characters and the Chinese Language 122
Why Han Characters are Well Suited to the Chinese Language 124
Han Characters Are the Basic Structural Units of the Chinese Language 127
The Word-making Ability of Han Characters 128
Han Characters Bridge the Gap Between Dialects and Eras 131
The"Sinosphere" 133
Chinese History Told in Han Characters 140
China in Ancient Times 142
China's Ancient Civilization Shown Through Han Characters 155
The Art of Han Characters 192
The Calligraphic Art of Han Characters 194
Famous Calligraphic Treasures 199
Commercial-art Han Characters 207
The Seal Art of Han Characters 215
Stepping into the Information Age 222
The Computerization of Han Characters 224
Fears and Worries for Han Characters in the lnformation Age 229