Where did Chinese Characters Come From Hanzi Origin Simply Explained

How's it going everyone? Welcome back, I'm Leo. Today we are going to talk about something ancient, Chinese characters, 汉字. Did you ever wonder how this stuff started? First up, the naughty beginning. So back in the day, before emojis, people used rope knots to remember stuff. Big knot for yo, a bear ate my cousin. Small knot for I owe Ming three goats. Imagine your grandma's shopping list looking like a macrame project. Why is there 15 knots on this string? Oh, that's just my supermarket receipt. But here's the problem. Knots don't say who ate your cousin. Was it a bear? A really hungry squirrel? A guy named Ming who's bad at knots? This is why we upgraded to writing. And next up, the tally stick theory. We call this kind of carving qi ke method. Imagine using bamboo or wooden sticks, carving notches to record numbers. One notch, two notch, three little notches, like the world's slowest calculator. It's like ancient Venmo. Split the stick, you get a receipt. I owe you five cows. But imagine losing your stick. There's a story about a guy who found a stick with carvings and thought he'd hit the jackpot. I'm rich, look at all these notches. Turns out it was someone's grocery list. Three turnips, one set chicken. Not exactly a jackpot, buddy, but it did keep traders honest. You split the stick in half, and only matching halves prove the deal. And then let's fast forward to oracle bones, ancient text carved on turtle shells. Basically, the original Twitter, but twittering to guts. People in Shang Dynasty carved questions on turtle shells. Will it rain tomorrow? Crack the bone, check the answer. They judge the result from the crack. 100% drama, 50% accuracy. The bone says no rain, but why am I wet? I think there must have been so much misunderstanding, because people used to believe that cracks on oracle bones were caused by gods. However, these cracks were more like scribbles, as illegible as a doctor's handwriting today. Lord, this says buy milk or invade Mongolia. Yes. Anyway, 50% of the time, it works every time. And then the Cangjie legend. Let's meet Cangjie, legendary inventor of writing. According to legend, this dude was the Yellow Emperor's historian and had four eyes. So basically, he looked at animal tracks. Legend says he saw bird footprints and went, yo, let's turn that into words. Then he did it for everything. Sun, a circle with a dot. Moon, a crescent. River, flowing water. I personally believe in Cangjie legend. His story feels like a myth, but it makes sense. Chinese characters grew from everyday life. Still, Cangjie wasn't alone. Creating Hanzi was a group project. Think generations of people brainstorming together. So those are the four theories how Chinese characters originated. Which one do you think makes more sense? Welcome to share your thoughts in the comment. If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like and subscribe. I'm Liu. See you next time. Bye for now.