Written Chinese (Chinese: 中文; pīnyīn: zhōngwén) comprises the written symbols used to represent spoken Chinese and the rules about how they are arranged and punctuated. These symbols are commonly known as Chinese characters (traditional/simplified Chinese: 漢字/汉字; pinyin: hànzì). Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary. Rather, the writing system is roughly logosyllabic; that is, each character generally represents either a complete one-syllable word (see logogram) or a single-syllable part of a word. The characters themselves are often composed of parts that may represent physical objects, abstract notions,[1] or pronunciation.[2]
Written Chinese is considered to be one of the world's oldest active, continuously used writing systems (cf."History of the Alphabet" citation below). Many current Chinese characters have been traced back to the 商 Shāng Dynasty about 1500 BCE, and the process of creating characters probably began some centuries earlier.[3] Chinese characters were standardized under the 秦 Qín dynasty (221–206 BCE).[4] Over the millennia, these characters have evolved into well-developed styles of Chinese calligraphy.[5]
Despite historical changes in pronunciation, Chinese speakers in disparate dialect groups can communicate in writing.[6] Some of the characters have also been adopted as part of the writing systems in other East Asian languages, such as Japanese and Korean.[7][8] Literacy requires the memorization of a great many characters: Educated Chinese know about 4,000,[9][10] while educated Japanese know about half that many.[8] The large number of Chinese characters has in part led to the adoption of Western alphabets as an auxiliary means of representing Chinese.[11]
漢字，亦稱中文字、中国字、國字，是漢字文化圈廣泛使用的一種文字，屬於表意文字的詞素音節文字[1]，漢字為上古時代的華夏族人所發明創製並作改進，目前确切歷史可追溯至約公元前1300年商朝的甲骨文。再到秦朝的小篆，發展至漢朝才被取名為「漢字」，至唐代楷化為今日所用的手寫字體標準——楷書。汉字是迄今为止连续使用时间最长的主要文字，也是上古时期各大文字体系中唯一传承至今的文字，期間東亞諸國都有一定程度地自行創製漢字.
漢字是維繫中國南北長期處於統一狀態的關鍵元素之一.
現代漢字，在中文體系大致分成繁體中文與簡體中文兩個體系。前者主要用於香港、澳門以及台灣地區，而後者主要用於中國大陸以及新加坡、馬來西亞等東南亞國家，一般來講，繁簡兩個體系的使用者都能在短期內適應並能看懂另一體系的文字，並無太大的溝通障礙。日本和韩国則是另行各自製定了官方的漢字使用規範，而漢字在越南和朝鲜已不再具有官方規範地位。
書體
| 甲骨文 | 金文 | 大篆 | 小篆 | 隷書 | 楷書（繁） | 楷書（簡） |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
繁簡體漢字的比較
筆畫
西方人和華人本身都提出了很多漢字拉丁化方案，比如：
漢語拼音方案是使用最廣且被聯合國接受的汉字拉丁化方案。
