The Value and Modern Inheritance of the Structure of Ancient Characters

Author: Wang Guiyuan (Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, School of Arts, Renmin University of China)

The ancient Chinese characters have been plugged with the wings of science and technology, and they will shine brilliantly in the new era. This is what a Chinese character researcher hopes to see. The charm and value of ancient characters such as oracle bone inscriptions are mainly reflected in their configuration, and the configuration of ancient characters has a wide range of historical and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the various displays now are just the beginning. in-depth excavation.

First, digging through ancient and modern meanings.

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Many meanings of modern Chinese characters can be traced in the configuration of ancient characters. For example, the oracle-bone glyphs of the character “各” [see Figure 1] are composed of two components. The upper part is a foot with the toes pointing down, representing a person; The whole character looks like a person coming to the entrance of a cave, and the original meaning of the character "Ge" is "coming". One’s own family members cannot say “coming” when they return to their residence. Those who come must not be family members, or people from the same tribe, or even people from the same blood group. Different", this meaning element gradually appeared in the development process of "each". "Shuowen · Koubu": "Each, different words." The main meaning of the word "Each" in the later period is said. In "Modern Chinese Dictionary" (Seventh Edition), the word "each" has 4 meanings. In addition to "surname", there are "meaning more than one: all parties, all walks of life, countries", "meaning more than one person doing something together or more than one One thing has a certain attribute: each lead the coquettish, and both sides hold their own words" "special: this person is really different (ɡě)", in fact, these three meanings all mean "different", and they all come from the word "each". configuration.

The second is to excavate through the sequence of single characters.

figure 2

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The development of Chinese characters is mostly formed by derivation. The so-called derivation is to develop multiple Chinese characters on the basis of one Chinese character, forming a sequence. Chinese characters in the same sequence often have inheritance relationship in shape and meaning, "[See Figure 2] (also known as [See Figure 3])"" This is the case for officials, halls, and teachers. All the fonts in this series are "[See Figure 2]", and "[See Figure 2]" is the earliest form. The character “[see Figure 2]” in oracle bone inscriptions mainly has meanings such as military camps, places where they are stationed, and military establishment units. What is its font [see Figure 4]? There are many opinions in the academic circles, all of which need to be discussed. We believe that the shape of oracle bone inscriptions is actually a vertical saddle shape. The saddle is semicircular, with cotton pads on both sides to prevent the animal from wearing down. Every time you go to a resting place, you must first remove the saddle, which is not only to let the animals rest, but also to dry the saddle. Horses are one of the earliest domesticated animals domesticated by humans. There are characters in oracle bone inscriptions indicating officials who specialize in domesticating horses. It can be imagined that in the primitive period, the army could only stop and station in the field, and the vertical saddle became the most obvious symbol, so the vertical saddle was used to indicate the station or the place where it was stationed.

Figure 4

Figure 5

The stopover place in the primitive period, later generations built houses and stations, which became the museum buildings. Later, on the basis of "[see Figure 2]", "宀" was added to derive "official" to express this meaning. "宀" is like the front of a cave dwelling Shape [see Fig. 5], represents house. The original meaning of "official" should refer to the road post station established by the government. "Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Bamboo: Legal Questions and Answers": "If you give up a public official, burn your house with fire. Although you have public tools, don't be held accountable." "Public official" means Station building. "Official" is the place where officials eat and sleep, so it is extended to refer to official offices, officials and other meanings. Later, on the basis of "official", "food" was added to derive the meaning of "guan" to represent the meaning of the house. "Shuowen·Shibu": "Guan, guest house." When the army is stationed, it will form a circle with saddles. It is the same as using cars to form a circle as a camp when the army of later generations is stationed. Encirclement encampment is carried out within the scope of the same organizational unit, so “[see Figure 2]” also refers to military organizational units, and “division” is used later in this meaning. The word "teacher" exists in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Zhou Dynasty, which was formed by adding "帀" to "[see Figure 2]". See Figure 2]" plus "帀" is just a portrayal of a camp made of saddle circles.

Third, digging in the understanding of ancient thought and culture.

For example, the original meaning of the character "法" is criminal law, and the traditional character is "灋". The shape of the ancient characters is the same as that of traditional characters. Water is one of the most equal among all things. The ancients have already discovered this characteristic, so water was often used to measure the level in ancient times, such as "Zhou Li · Kao Gong Ji · Craftsman": "Craftsmen build a country, water and land are counties."" The word "fa" is composed of "water", which shows that the ancients already had the idea that the essential principle of criminal law is justice and equality. A unicorn is a kind of unicorn. "Shuowen·chaibu": "Ai, Xiechai, a beast. It looks like a mountain ox with one horn. The ancients decided the lawsuit, and the touch was not straight." When the ancient prison lawsuit was difficult to resolve, that is Judgment by 廌.

Fourth, excavate in the understanding of ancient living customs.

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Figure 7

For example, the oracle bone inscriptions of the word "Jian" [see Figure 6] on the left side is a sitting person, with an eye protruding from the upper part of the body, which means seeing with the eyes, and the lower right side is a pan filled with water. The shape records that the ancients looked in the mirror living conditions. In ancient times, there were no mirrors, and people held clear water in a plate, and looked at their faces in the water. "Xunzi · Uncovering": "The human heart is like water, if it is right or wrong (placed) and does not move, then the turbidity is below, and the clarity is above. , it is enough to see [see Figure 7] (beard) eyebrows and observe it. When the breeze passes by, the turbidity moves below, and the clear and bright chaos above, it is impossible to obtain the correctness of the big (original) shape.” This is what is said. It is the principle of looking in the mirror in pan water. "Shangshu·Jiugao": "The ancients said: 'People are not supervised by the water, they should be supervised by the people.'" It means that managers should not reflect on themselves in the water, but should reflect on themselves among the people. This is also a statement based on the premise of taking care of the water.

Fifth, dig out in understanding the perspectives of the ancients to observe things and the way of thinking of expressing things.

Figure 8

For example, spring is a relatively abstract word meaning, how to create characters for it? The ancients observed and selected the representative feature of bright sunshine and the germination of all things. The oracle bone inscription of "Spring" [see Figure 8] is composed of four components. "Tun", choose "日" to mean sunny, "屮" and "Tun" are the images of plants just growing out of the ground, "Shuowen·屮部": "屮, the newborn of the scorpion tree." "Tun" is beans Such as the initial image of plants, the bean plant first grows its roots downward in the ground, and then the pods grow out of the ground with the growth of the stem, and the component "tun" is just like this shape.

Many of the historical and cultural phenomena reflected in the formation of ancient characters are not recorded or clearly recorded in the literature and classics, which can make up for the lack of literature records and have important value and significance for the inheritance of excellent Chinese culture. The shape of ancient characters is the description of objects and images. It is naturally vivid and suitable for mass communication. With the help of ever-changing technological means and the advantages of young students, it is believed that the popularization and inheritance of ancient characters such as oracle bone inscriptions will surely reach a new level.

"Guangming Daily" (version 07, April 24, 2023)

Source: Guangming.com - Guangming Daily