Read History with Jack 5 - The Egyptian Hieroglyphics

古埃及象形文字

    在距今五千多年前，苏美尔有了自己的楔形文字。在大约公元前3200年时，苏美尔的楔形文字传到了埃及，影响到了埃及自己的象形文字的发展。据推测，古埃及的象形文字总共有几千个字符，因此并不比中文难学。古埃及的象形文字分为三种：圣书体，僧侣体，和通俗体。来吧，看看古埃及的圣文字有多么美！

       然而，这么漂亮的象形文字，最终却消失了。从公元前525年开始，埃及先后被波斯、希腊、罗马、阿拉伯人统治，古埃及文明面临着前所未有的冲击。在罗马统治时期，基督教开始扩张，基督徒变得越来越多。在宗教和文化的冲突中，古埃及人最终放弃了自己的宗教信仰，神庙被遗弃，象形文字再无人识得。随着后来埃及被阿拉伯人占领，到公元12世纪，埃及已经普遍使用阿拉伯语。据统计，现代埃及有百分之九十四的人口是穆斯林，百分之六的人口是基督徒。曾经辉煌无比的古埃及文明就此淹没在浩渺的历史长河中，在这里我深深为他们感到遗憾。

一千多年过去了，再无人识得的古埃及象形文字能否重见天日？1799年，拿破仑进攻埃及，士兵们抢走了一切能抢的东西，这其中就有那块著名的罗塞塔石碑。现在，这块宝贵的石碑藏于大英博物馆中，并且是大英博物馆的镇馆之宝。这块石碑上面刻着三种文字，分别是古埃及圣书体，通俗体，和古希腊文。这块石碑是埃及托勒密王国的托勒密五世的登基诏书。自从罗塞塔石碑被挖掘出来后，有许多学者试图去破译它上面的文字，但都失败了。最终，一位叫商博良的学者和语言学家破译了石碑上的文字，也至此打开了破译古埃及圣书体的一扇大门。

罗塞塔石碑

古埃及的象形文字没有成功流传下来，而同样是象形文字的中国汉字却从古至今一直不停演变，延用至今。这有可能是因为两个因素：第一，中国的地理位置很棒，很少受外族入侵与影响。第二，中国的文化有着自身强大的根基，几乎所有中国人都热爱自己的文化，热爱自己的文字。还有，我觉得中国人爱美，象形文字太美了，我们中国人写字就像画画一样，画了几千年也画不腻！感受一下我们优美的象形文字吧！

最早的甲骨文

王羲之《兰亭序》（唐摹本）

怀素《自叙帖》

Egyptian Hieroglyphics

   Around 5000 years ago, the Sumerians invented their cuneiform. In 3200 B.C, the cuneiform influenced Ancient Egypt’s development of hieroglyphics. According to some studies, there were thousands of letters and words which made the hieroglyphics very hard to learn. In addition, the hieroglyphics had three different categories: Egyptian hieroglyphs, hieratic, and demotic script. Let’s view the beauty of the hieroglyphics!

   However, the hieroglyphics suddenly disappeared after Christianity began to spread quickly around the globe. From 525 B.C,Ancient Egypt was ruled first by Persia, then Greece, then Roman, and ultimately Arabic. The great culture of Ancient Egypt faced a very disastrous impact. During the Roman Period, Christianity became so strong that Ancient Egypt gave up their religion and hieroglyphics, thus nobody would know how to read and write this writing system for about 1000 years. In 12^thCentury A.D, Ancient Egypt was conquered by the Arabs. The Egyptians started using the Arabic language and Muslims dominated most of the Egyptian society. According to a research, 94% of the population of Egypt was Muslim, and only 6% were Christians. The once great civilization of Egypt disappeared in history, and I feel pity for it.

   But 1000 years later, the Egyptian hieroglyphics finally got a chance to appear in Europe. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt, and the soldiers took and robbed everything. The items they sent to Europe included the famous Rosetta Stone. Today, this precious stone tablet was preserved in the British Museum. This stone piece was the imperial edict of Ptolemy V and was carved in three different writings: Hieroglyphics, Demotic Script, and Ancient Greek. Since it was discovered, many scholars tried to decipher and decode the hieroglyphics but failed. But finally, a French scholar,Jean-Francois Champollion, spent many years deciphering the hieroglyphics, which opened the door to the decoding of it.

 TheRosetta Stone

    The Egyptian hieroglyphics didn’t manage to exist for about 1000 years, but the Chinese hieroglyphics evolved and was still used today. This is because that China’s geography is superior to Egypt’s geography, thus China is merely attacked by outsiders. Moreover, China has a very strong cultural foundation. Nearly all the Chinese people love their culture, love their hieroglyphics. Furthermore, I think that Chinese people like everything that contains beauty. The hieroglyphics of China are very delicate, so we write characters like we are drawing them. Let’s the view the beauty of the hieroglyphics!

The earliest Oracle Bone Inscription

WangXiZhi’s “Preface of the Orchid Pavilion”

HuaiSu’s “Zixutie”