三

Unicode: U+4E09

Pinyin: sàn sān

Structure

Related substructures

Precursors

Oracle Bone Script

c. 1300–1050 BCE (Late Shang)

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Inscriptions carved on turtle plastrons and animal bones for divination and record-keeping in the late Shang royal court; the oldest large attested corpus of written Chinese.Wikipedia ->

Bronze Inscriptions

c. 1200–221 BCE (Shang–Zhou; continues into the Warring States)

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Inscriptions cast or engraved on ritual bronzes, especially prominent from the Western Zhou onward; a major source for early political, ritual, and social history.Wikipedia ->

Chu Script

c. 770–221 BCE (Chu, Spring & Autumn–Warring States)

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A regional script tradition used in the state of Chu, best known from brush-written bamboo and silk manuscripts with distinctive local forms.Wikipedia ->

Qin Script

c. 475–206 BCE (Qin, Warring States → Qin dynasty)

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Qin-area character forms attested on bamboo/wood slips (e.g., Shuihudi, deposited 217 BCE), overlapping chronologically with the standardization of seal script and the emergence of clerical tendencies.Wikipedia ->

Small Seal Script

Standardized 221–206 BCE (Qin); developed earlier in Qin

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The standardized seal script promulgated after Qin’s unification, based on earlier Qin seal forms and used as an empire-wide norm.Wikipedia ->

Clerical Script

c. 300 BCE–220 CE (emerged late Warring States/Qin; dominant Han)

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A practical script that evolved from late Warring States/Qin writing; it matured and became dominant in the Han dynasty, favoring faster, more rectilinear strokes.Wikipedia ->

Transmitted Pre-Qin Forms

Pre-Qin forms (≤221 BCE) / late 2nd century BCE onward (Han → later textual transmission)

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Pre-Qin character forms preserved through later textual transmission (often discussed as the 'Old Text' / guwen tradition). Shaped by repeated copying, they can diverge from excavated Warring States materials.Wikipedia ->

Last Modified: 2026-01-29 11:48 UTC