Chinese-Characters-and-Chinese-Culture

TheChineseCharactersandtheChineseCultureShangTuo商拓FromtheSouthwestJiaotongUniversityofChina§1TheOriginandtheDevelopmentofChinesecharacters§1.1TheOriginofChinesecharactersWrittenlanguageisavisualsymbolsystemwhichisbasedonthespokenlanguage,sothecharacter’sfunctionistoconvertthespokenlanguageontothewrittenone.Asallothercharactersintheworld,theChinesecharactersrecordstheChineselanguageavailablyfromthebeginning.AndhowdoesChinesecharactersrecordChineselanguage?TheChinesecharactersrepresentsthespeechconstituentofChinesebyit’swrittenform,soithasthreeelements:figure,soundandmeaning.PerhapsthecorrespondencebetweentheChinesecharactersunitsandspeechconstituentisaconfusion:sometimesoneunitrepresentsaChineseword,sometimesitisamorpheme,andothertimeitisasyllable.link.1.docBeingthemostlong-livedoneofallcurrentcharacters,Chinesecharacterssystemhasbeensurvivingfromagetoage.whileotherantiquatedcharactersintheworld,suchasHieroglyphicinancientEgypt,CuneiforminMesopotamiaetc.,havebeendisusedforalongtime.WhenwastheChinesecharactersborn?Itisdifficulttoreachaconvincedconclusionatpresent.Accordingtoarchaeologicalevidence,therudimentoftheChinesecharactersappearedinthelateprimitivesociety.TheChinesearchaeologistsfoundfourpictographicsymbolsfromDawenkourelicsinShandongprovincein1974.Comparingthesymbolswiththeinscriptionsonbones,shellsandbronze,theexpertsconfirmedthekindredrelationbetweenthemfinally.SinceDawenkourelicsismorethanfourthousandyearsold.WeknowthattheChinesecharactershasaverylonghistory.§1.2TheDevelopmentofChinesecharactersFromtheprimitivestagetopresent,theChinesecharactershaschangedgreatlyinmanyfieldssuchasstrokesandfontstyles.Takingonewithanother,theevolutionoffontstyleisnotable,forexample,fromcomplexitytosimplicity,frompictographtoabstractsymbol;andfixedseveralkindsofstrokesstepbystep.FromShangdynasty(1600-1060B.C)toWei&Jindynasty(220-439A.D),TheChinesecharactersunderwentseveralstagesinfontstylesasfollows:字体流变示意图[DevelopmentofChineseCharacters]商[Shangdynasty]1600-1060B.C.西周[earlyZhoudynasty]春秋[laterZhoudynasty]战国[warrior’stime]秦[Qindynasty]汉[Handynasty]魏晋[Wei&Jindynasty]220-439A.D甲骨文[scriptsonbonesorshells]大篆[earlysealcharacters]小篆[latersealcharacters]行书[runninghand]金文[scriptsonbronze]隶书[officialscripts]楷书[regularscripts]AncientcharactersModerncharacters§1.3TheFormationoftheChinesecharacters:“Liushu(六书)”AccordingtothetraditionalChinesephilology,“Liushu”meanssixmethodsofthecharacterformation,including:1.pictographs(象形),2.self-explanatorycharacter(指事),3.associativecomponents(会意),4.picto-phoneticcharacters(形声),5.phoneticloancharacters(假借),6.synonymouscharacter(转注).Actually1-4pertainingtothecharacterformation,and5-6pertainingtousageofcharacter.1.picto-graphs(象形):Formingcharactersbystrokesdescribingtheshapesoftheobjects,Forexample,thecharacters“日(rì)[thesun]”and“月(yuè)[themoon]”lookliketheshapesofthesunandthemoon.link.2.doc2.self-explanatorycharacters(指事):Formingcharactersbyaddingindicativemarkstothepictograph.Forexample,thecharacter“本(běn)[therootofatree]”isexpressedbyaddingapointatthebottomofpictograph“木(mù)[thetree]”.link.3.doc3.associativecomponents(会意):Formingcharactersbycombiningtwoormorecomponents.Forexample,thecharacter“众(zhòng)[crowd]”isexpressedbycombiningthreecomponents“人(rén)[human]”link.4.doc4.picto-phoneticcharacters(形声):Formingcharactersbycombiningthecomponentindicatingthemeaningwiththecomponentrepresentingthesound.Forexample,thecharacter“桥(qiáo)[bridge]”isexpressedbycombiningapicto-component“木(mù)[tree]”withaphoneticcomponent“乔(qiáo)”.link.5.docThepicto-phoneticmethodisthemostproductiveoneamongallcharacterformationsbecauseoftworeasons:ThefirstoneisitenablesChinesecharacterstorepresentbothsoundandmeaningandtoevolveintophonographyeventually;Thesecondoneisthewayinwhichonepicto-componentusuallyassociateswithonesemanticcategorycanformalotofcharacters.Forexample,picto-component“火(huǒ)”representsallpertainingtofire,soitcanformmanycharacterssuchas“烧(shāo)[burn]”,“烤(kǎo)[bake]”.etc;“心(xīn)[heart]”representsallpertainingtomind,soitcanformmanycharacterssuchas“思(shī)[think]”,“恋(liàn)[love]”.etc.§2SomePropertiesoftheChinesecharacters§2.1ChinesecharactersareanideogramessentiallyComparedwithothercharactersintheworld,theChinesecharactersareanideogramessentially:First,theChinesecharacterscorrespondtothesemanticcategoriessystematicallybymeansofitspicto-components,everypicto-componentexpressesameaningclass.Forexample,component“艹(cǎo)”expressesthemeaningclassofgrass,“氵(sāndiǎnshuǐ)”expressesthatofwater,“讠(yán)”expressesspeech.etc.link.6.docSecondly,theChinesecharactersrecordspeechconstituentsanddeterminetheirmeaningbycombiningdifferentpicto-components.Forexample,combiningcomponents“亻(dānrén)[human]”and“言(yán)[speak]”toshowthemeaningofmorpheme(sememe)“信(xìn)”[true,believe];combiningcomponents“木(mù)[wood]”and“斤(jīn)[ax]”toshowthesememe“析(xī)”[separate,divide].etc.2.2TheChinesecharactersaremorphemecharactersSoasweknow,thecharacterscanbedividedintodifferenttypesaccordingtowhatconstituentitrecords,suchassyllabography,alphabeticwriting,et