TheBahasa Chinese written languageCina employstertulis themenggunakan [[Han Chinese|Han]] [[Chinese character|character]]s (漢字/汉字 [[pinyin]] hànzì), whichyang aredinamakan nameddari after thekebudayaan Han, cultureyang tomerupakan whichsumber theydari arebahasa largely attributedini. ChineseHuruf charactersCina appearsepertinya toberasal have originated in thedari [[Shang dynasty]] assebagai [[pictogram]]sdepictingyang concretemenggambarkan objectsbenda nyata. TheContoh² firstpertama examplesdari wehuruf haveCina ofadalah Chinese characters aretulisan/gambaran inscriptions onpada [[oracle bones]], whichyang arekadang² occasionallyberupa sheepdomba [[scapula]] buttetapi mostlyseringkali turtleberupa kura-kura [[plastron|plastrons]] (lower shells) used for [[divination]] purposes. OverDalam theperiode coursezaman of thedinasti [[Zhou Dynasty|Zhou]] and [[Han Dynasty|Han]] dynasties, thehuruf² charactersini becameberubah moremenjadi andlebih morebergaya. stylized.Selain Alsoitu, additionalterdapat componentsjuga werekomponen² addedtambahan soyang thatditambahkan manysehingga charactersbanyak containkarakter onehuruf elementmemiliki thatsatu giveselemen (oryang atleastmemberikan oncetanda gave)(atau adulunya fairlymemberikan goodtanda) indicationuntuk ofpengejaan, thedan pronunciation,sebuah andkomponen another componentlain (theyang so-calleddisebut "radicalradikal") givesmemberikan antanda indicationuntuk ofkategori theartian generalumum categoryyang ofmenunjukkan meaningarti todari whichkata thetersebut. characterDidalam belongs.bahasa In theCina modern Chinese languages, themayoritas majorityhuruf² ofberbasis charactersfonetik are(bunyi) phoneticallydan basedbukan ratherberbasis thanlogografik logographically based(gambaran). AnSebagai examplesebuah wouldcontoh, bekarakter the character for the wordhuruf 按 ''àn'' thatyang meansberarti "tomendorong press down.kebawah", It containsmengandung 安 ''{{a}}n'' (peacedamai), whichyang servesberfungsi assebagai itskomponen phoneticfonetik componentdari kata tersebut, anddan 手 ''shǒu'' (handtangan), thatyang indicatesmenandakan thatbahwa theitu actionmerupakan issuatu frequentlypekerjaan oneyang thatpada isumumnya done using one'smenggunakan handtangan.
Many styles of [[Chinese calligraphy|Chinese calligraphic writing]] developed over the centuries, such as [[Seal Script|zhuanshu]] (篆書, seal-script), [[caoshu]] (草書, grass script), [[lishu]] (隸書, official script) and [[kaishu]] (楷書, standard script).
