Usually, countries around the world start writing horizontally from left to right. However, ancient Chinese people wrote vertically from top to bottom and from right to left. So why is that?
It has a purpose
Writing from right to left has been passed down from ancestors and became a tradition that, despite being inconvenient, had to be followed. It wasn’t until after the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, based on the advantages of Western culture and in line with the international community, that the form of writing Chinese characters gradually changed to horizontal writing from left to right as it is today.
Writing materials
In ancient times, the ancient Chinese used not only tortoise shell and animal bones but also bamboo slips and wooden tablets to write characters and record information.
This method has been circulated from the Dong Chu period to the Wei and Jin periods. It is also recorded that it appeared in the Yin dynasty. According to current records, bamboo slips appeared earliest in the Warring States period because people found them when excavating the tomb of Tang Hao At in Tuy County, Hubei, and the latest is the Wei and Jin period. In ancient times, bamboo slips and wooden tablets were widely used to make books. From important documents such as royal correspondence and personal letters to copies, calendars, and music, all were written on bamboo slips or wooden tablets. These discoveries and studies are considered an important achievement of contemporary academia.
Each bamboo slip is about 1 cm wide and is written in a vertical line. Because bamboo slips can have different lengths, the number of characters written also varies. In addition, there is a type of bamboo slip that is about 2 cm wide, and two lines of characters are written on each slip. This type of slip is called “Lương hàng” (double lines). Typical wooden tablets are wider than these “Lương hàng” bamboo slips, they can be up to 6 cm wide and are actually shaped like a board, so they are also called “Thư bản” (letter boards). These slips are usually bound into books by thread or thorny thread. Slips are bound into books first, and then the characters are written on the slips, leaving the outside of the thread blank, and not writing. Since the manufacture of bamboo slips and wooden tablets is quite complex, and the number of characters written on the slips is limited and not much, it is inconvenient to carry them. Therefore, during the Qin and Han dynasties, thin silk became the most important material for writing characters. People used thin silk to write books, called “silk books”.
Later, with the appearance of paper-making techniques and continuous improvements, bamboo slips and wooden tablets were gradually eliminated. Paper became the most important and popular material for writing.
The characteristics of Chinese characters and the writing habits of the people
From the characteristics of Chinese characters and the physiological habits of people, the natural stroke order of a character is from top to bottom and from left to right. If written horizontally from right to left, when writing the left half, the brush will block the right half of the character, which is both inconvenient for structuring and affects the beauty of the characters.
The final stroke of each Chinese character is located in the middle or lower right, and the final stroke of the previous character is followed by the beginning stroke of the next character. Writing vertically is more convenient for the smooth flow of strokes compared to writing horizontally.
The ancients respected righteousness
Chinese characters are written from top to bottom and from right to left, which also reflects the ancient people’s respect for righteousness. In ancient times, the emperor was the ruler and the father and mother; below were civil and military officials. The right side was considered big and the left side was considered small. “Nothing is better than righteousness” – meaning that the ancients always put righteousness first.
Related to stone inscriptions
Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left. It is said that this is related to the ancient people’s carving on stone. For ordinary people, if you hold a drill in your left hand and a hammer in your right hand, the natural direction of carving is from right to left.
Why did ancient Chinese people write from right to left when everyone else writes from left to right?
Why did ancient Chinese people write vertically from top to bottom and from right to left?
