汉字（拼音：hàn zì，注音符号：ㄏㄢˋ ㄗˋ），又称中文、中国字，别称方块字，是汉语的记录符号，属于表意文字的词素音节文字。世界上最古老的文字之一，已有六千多年的历史。在形体上逐渐由图形变为笔画，象形变为象征，复杂变为简单；在造字原则上从表形、表意到形声。除极个别汉字外（如瓩、兛、兣、呎、嗧等），都是一个汉字一个音节。
Chinese characters (pinyin: hàn zì, phonetic symbols: ㄏㄢˋ ㄗˋ), also known as Chinese, Chinese characters, nicknamed square characters, are Chinese recording symbols, and belong to morphological syllables of ideographic characters. One of the oldest characters in the world, with a history of more than 6,000 years. The form gradually changes from graphics to strokes, pictograms to symbols, and complexity to simplicity; in principle, characters are made from form, ideogram, to pictophony. Except for a few Chinese characters (such as 瓩, 兛, 兣, ft, 嗧, etc.), each Chinese character has one syllable.
现代汉字是指楷化后的汉字正楷字形，包括繁体字和简体字。现代汉字即从甲骨文、金文、大篆（籀文）、小篆，至隶书、草书、楷书、行书等演变而来。汉字为汉民族先民发明创制并作改进，是维系汉族各方言区不可或缺的纽带。现存最早的汉字是约公元前1300年殷商的甲骨文和稍后的金文，西周时演变成籀文，再到秦朝的小篆和隶书，至汉魏隶书盛行，到了汉末隶书楷化为正楷。楷书盛行于魏晋南北朝，至今通行。
Modern Chinese characters refer to the regularized Chinese characters in regular characters, including traditional characters and simplified characters. Modern Chinese characters evolved from oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, big seal (籀文), small seals, to official script, cursive script, regular script, and running script. Chinese characters were invented, created and improved by the ancestors of the Han nationality, and they are an indispensable link to maintain the dialects of the Han nationality. The earliest surviving Chinese characters are the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Shang dynasties around 1300 BC and the later inscriptions. They evolved into 籀文 in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and then to the Xiaozhuan and official scripts of the Qin Dynasty. Block letters. Regular script prevailed in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and is still in use today.
汉字是迄今为止持续使用时间最长的文字，也是上古时期各大文字体系中唯一传承至今者，中国历代皆以汉字为主要的官方文字。在古代，汉字还充当东亚地区唯一的国际交流文字，20世纪前仍是日本、朝鲜半岛、越南、琉球等国家的官方书面规范文字，东亚诸国都在一定程度上自行创制汉字。需要注意的是，日本、朝鲜半岛、越南等国在历史上都深受汉文化的影响，甚至其他语言都存在借用汉语言文字的现象。在非汉语体系中，日本制定了《常用汉字表》，韩国也制定了《教育用基础汉字》，而历史上曾使用过汉字的越南、朝鲜、蒙古等国，现今已废弃汉字。
Chinese characters are the characters that have been used for the longest time so far, and they are also the only ones that have been passed down to the present in the major character systems of the ancient times. Chinese characters have been the main official characters in all dynasties. In ancient times, Chinese characters also served as the only international communication language in East Asia. Before the 20th century, it was still the official written standard language of Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam, Ryukyu and other countries. East Asian countries all created Chinese characters on their own to a certain extent. It should be noted that Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam and other countries have been deeply influenced by Chinese culture in history, and even other languages have borrowed Chinese characters. In the non-Chinese system, Japan has formulated the “Commonly Used Chinese Characters Table”, and South Korea has also formulated the “Basic Chinese Characters for Education”. Countries such as Vietnam, North Korea, and Mongolia that have used Chinese characters in history have now abandoned Chinese characters.