汉语是一种很古老的语言。大量文献记载说明，汉字起源于新石器时代(the Neolithic Age)仰韶文化时期，最早的汉字已有近4000年的历史。汉字在其漫长的发展史中演化出不同的书写形式，例如篆书(seal script)、隶书(officialscript)、楷书(regular script)和行书(cursive handwriting )。中国书法家笔下的汉字往往以字形的夸张取得艺术效果，例如一些旅游胜地的石刻碑文。

　　参考翻译:

　　Chinese Characters

　　Chinese is a very old language. A host of documentalrecords shows that Chinese characters originated inYaoshao Culture Period of the Neolithic Age, and itsearliest characters date back to nearly 4,000 yearsago. During their long history of development, Chinese characters have evolved into manydifferent script forms, such as seal script, official script, regular script and cursivehandwriting. Chinese calligraphers usually render their Chinese characters in a way that isexaggerated in form to yield artistic beauty, such as those in stone inscriptions seen at sometourist resorts.

　　1.汉字:可译为 Chinese characters,注意不要把 character与characteristic混淆。

　　2.不同的书写形式:可译为different script forms或者different handwriting forms。script意为“手写体;手迹，笔迹”。

　　3.中国书法家:译为Chinese calligraphers,注意calligrapher的拼写。

　　4.取得艺术效果:“艺术效果”在此可引申为“艺术美”，翻译为artistic beauty;“取得艺术效果”可理解为“产生艺术美”。

　　5.石刻碑文:翻译为stone inscriptions。