Chinese bronze inscriptions

Chinese bronze inscriptions
Inscription on the Song ding, c. 800 BC
Chinese name
Chinese	金文
Literal meaning	Bronze writing
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jīnwén Bopomofo ㄐㄧㄣ ㄨㄣˊ Wade–Giles Chin1-wen2 Tongyong Pinyin Jin-wún IPA [tɕín.wə̌n] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gāmmàhn Jyutping gam1 man4 Canton Romanization Gem1-men4 IPA [kɐm˥ mɐn˩]
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	鐘鼎文
Simplified Chinese	钟鼎文
Literal meaning	Bell and cauldron writing
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngdǐngwén Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄉㄧㄥˇ ㄨㄣˊ Wade–Giles Chung1-ting3-wen2 Tongyong Pinyin Jhong-dǐng-wún IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.tìŋ.wə̌n] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Jūngdíngmàhn Jyutping zung1 ding2 man4 Canton Romanization Zung1-ding2-men4 IPA [tsoŋ˥ teŋ˧˥ mɐn˩]
Japanese name
Kanji	金文
Hiragana	きんぶん
Katakana	キンブン
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Kinbun Kunrei-shiki Kinbun

Chinese characters
Chinese family of scripts Written Chinese Kanji Hanja Chữ Hán
Historical forms and styles Neolithic symbols in China Oracle bone Bronze Seal (Bird-worm Large Small) Clerical Cursive Semi-cursive Regular Flat brush Typefaces Fangsong Ming Sans-serif
Properties and classification Components Strokes (order) Radical
Collation and standards Character-form standards Jiu zixing Xin zixing Kangxi Dictionary forms (1716) General Standard Chinese Characters (mainland China, 2013) Graphemes of Commonly-used Chinese characters (Hong Kong, 2007) Standard Form of National Characters (Taiwan, 1982) Grapheme-usage standards General Standard Characters (PRC, 2013) Jōyō kanji (Japan, 2010) Other standards Standardized Forms of Words with Variant Forms (PRC, 2002) Nan Min Recommended Characters (Taiwan, 2009) Previous standards Commonly-used Characters (PRC, 1988) Tōyō kanji (Japan, 1946)
Reforms China Clerical reforms Traditional characters Simplified characters (first round second round) Debate Japan Kyūjitai Shinjitai Ryakuji Korea Yakja Singapore Table of Simplified Characters
Homographs and readings Literary and colloquial readings
Variants Graphemic variants Zetian characters
Derived systems Slavonic transcription Nüshu Kana ( Man'yōgana Hiragana Katakana ) Jurchen script Khitan ( Large Small ) Idu script Bopomofo Sawndip Chữ Nôm
Transliteration of Chinese
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Chinese bronze inscriptions, also commonly referred to as bronze script or bronzeware script, are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on ritual bronzes such as zhōng bells and dǐng tripodal cauldrons from the Shang dynasty (2nd millennium BC) to the Zhou dynasty (11th–3rd century BC) and even later. Early bronze inscriptions were almost always cast (that is, the writing was done with a stylus in the wet clay of the piece-mold from which the bronze was then cast), while later inscriptions were often engraved after the bronze was cast.^[1] The bronze inscriptions are one of the earliest scripts in the Chinese family of scripts, preceded by the oracle bone script.