SectionⅤ Project [原文呈现][读文清障]The development of Chinese characters①The Chinese language differs from② Western languages in that③, instead of an alphabet④, it uses characters ⑤which stand for⑥ ideas, objects or deeds⑦
Chinese words are formed by putting together different characters
In many cases⑧, a single character can also make up⑨ a word
The history of the Chinese language can be examined by looking at how these characters developed
Chinese writing○ began thousands of years ago
According to⑪ an ancient story, a man named Cang Jie⑫ invented⑬ Chinese writing
One winter day while he was hunting⑭, he saw the tracks⑮ of animals in the snow and observed that the appearance⑯ of each one was different
Then he had the idea ⑰that he could use different shapes to represent⑱ different objects