Chinese character etymology

[SunDaYu]

I'm currently doing research on Chinese character etymology, specifically on the Bronze and Seal script eras. Does anyone have any good recommendations for information on these eras? I did a google search and after about 3 hours I still didn't find abundant information.

Any recommendations?

[Don_Horhe]

http://www.chineseetymology.org/

[Daan]

Are you only looking for websites or would books be alright too? There are quite a few books on this subject, both in English and in Chinese. I don't have time now to list them all, but if you want me to, I could do that tomorrow.

[SunDaYu]

Something I could access online would be great. I'm looking for more general information on each era, not the specifics of individual characters.

I found the first website mentioned and it's good, but it's not enough. The page spends more time on interesting facts and specifics rather than an overview.

I should also add that it would be great if in English.

[leeyah]

it would be great if in English

Perhaps you can find some information here >>The Development of Chinese Script & Calligraphy styles

[SunDaYu]

Thanks leeyah! I found a little bit

I guess I'll have to focus on the differences in the styles during each era. There seems to be more information on that. I guess you can't really say much more about Bronze era characters except that they were written on bronze, lol.

I might just have to change my approach.

[Daan]

There's plenty to say about them, but I don't really know if there are any good online resources. You could write for ages about how characters were formed (the introduction of phonetic elements was roughtly contemporary with bronze script), what writing meant in those times, how accurately texts represented spoken language in those days, and much more.

As I said, there are quite a few books on such subjects, in English and in Chinese, but I would be hard-pressed to come up with related websites. What was your initial research question, if you don't mind my asking?

[SunDaYu]

No real question actually. I was told to research oracle bones, bronze inscriptions and seal script and come up with a cohesive paper describing the styles. This is a progressive paper and when my teacher feels like I have thoroughly researched each era we move on to the next.

And since I'm in the middle of China getting English books would be hard. I could probably find something in Chinese and try to translate it, but that's far beyond my level. I can barely handle middle school stories according to my teacher, lol

[Hofmann]

Hehe...chinaknowledge.de actually gets a lot of things right. However, one should still read it with caution.

[Daan]

Ah, I see. Well, as I said, I don't really know if there are any good websites on this subject. What little I know of it I learnt from books in Europe...are you sure your local university library doesn't stock at least some English titles on the subject?