Introduction

Long before characters came into being，language had existed.However，with the voice dying out in the river of history，spiritual activities can only be recorded by a simple form of codes，such as the knot﹣tying.When characters were created，the records of spiritual activities became de﹣tailed and complex.As a chronological discourse system，characters repre﹣sent，record and express the inner world，inventive activities and daily ex﹣perience ofboth the individual and the group.By reading between lines，we can bring back the bygone world，learn about the present and look into the future.With the development of gender aesthetics，the aesthetic standards for men and women polarized greatly，and accordingly there were two dif﹣ferent character systems at the practical level.For instance，in modern Chi﹣nese，characters such as shuai ， jun ， yan ，and yinɡ refer to men only，while li ， jiao ， yan ， hui ， shu （姝）and shu （淑）belong to women.The polarization was not born to be.This book sets to build on the ancient characters ex﹣pressing the concept of“beauty”as the evidence to map the changes in the manners of aesthetics and qualities，from the Pre﹣Qin Era to the Han Dy﹣nasties and later to the Wei and Jin Dynasties.