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1、Chinese-Characters-Chinese-Characters-and-Chinese-Cultureand-Chinese-Culture1 The Origin and the Development of Chinese characters 1.1 The Origin of Chinese characters Written language is a visual symbol system which is based on the spoken language, so the characters function is to convert the spoke
2、n language onto the written one. As all other characters in the world, the Chinese characters records the Chinese language availably from the beginning. And how does Chinese characters record Chinese language? The Chinese characters represents the speech constituent of Chinese by its written form, s
3、o it has three elements: figure, sound and meaning. Perhaps the correspondence between the Chinese characters units and speech constituent is a confusion: sometimes one unit represents a Chinese word, sometimes it is a morpheme, and other time it is a syllable.link.1.doc Being the most long-lived on
4、e of all current characters, Chinese characters system has been surviving from age to age. while other antiquated characters in the world, such as Hieroglyphic in ancient Egypt, Cuneiform in Mesopotamia etc., have been disused for a long time. When was the Chinese characters born? It is difficult to
5、 reach a convinced conclusion at present. According to archaeological evidence, the rudiment of the Chinese characters appeared in the late primitive society. The Chinese archaeologists found four pictographic symbols from Dawenkou relics in Shandong province in 1974. Comparing the symbols with the
6、inscriptions on bones , shells and bronze, the experts confirmed the kindred relation between them finally. Since Dawenkou relics is more than four thousand years old. We know that the Chinese characters has a very long history. 1.2 The Development of Chinese characters From the primitive stage to p
7、resent, the Chinese characters has changed greatly in many fields such as strokes and font styles. Taking one with another, the evolution of font style is notable, for example, from complexity to simplicity, from pictograph to abstract symbol; and fixed several kinds of strokes step by step. From Sh
8、ang dynasty(1600-1060B.C) to Wei & Jin dynasty(220-439A.D) , The Chinese characters underwent several stages in font styles as follows: 字体流变示意图Development of Chinese Characters 商Shang dynasty 1600-1060B.C.西周earlyZhoudynasty春秋laterZhoudynasty战国warriors time秦Qindynasty汉Handynasty魏晋Wei &Jin dynasty220-
9、439A.D甲骨文scriptson bones or shells大篆大篆early seal characters 小篆laterseal characters行书runninghand金文金文scripts on bronze隶书official scripts楷书regular scriptsAncient charactersModern characters1.3 The Formation of the Chinese characters: “Liu shu(六书)” According to the traditional Chinese philology, “Liu sh
10、u” means six methods of the character formation, including: 1. pictographs(象形), 2. self-explanatory character(指事), 3. associative components(会意), 4. picto-phonetic characters (形声), 5. phonetic loan characters(假借), 6. synonymous character(转注). Actually 1-4 pertaining to the character formation, and 5
11、-6 pertaining to usage of character. 1. picto-graphs(象形):Forming characters by strokes describing the shapes of the objects, For example, the characters “日(r) the sun” and “月(yu) the moon” look like the shapes of the sun and the moon. link.2.doc 2. self-explanatory characters(指 事 ): Forming characte
12、rs by adding indicative marks to the pictograph. For example, the character “本(bn)the root of a tree” is expressed by adding a point at the bottom of pictograph “木(m) the tree”. link.3.doc3. associative components(会意): Forming characters by combining two or more components. For example, the characte
13、r “众 (zhng)crowd” is expressed by combining three components “人(rn)human” link.4.doc 4. picto-phonetic characters (形声): Forming characters by combining the component indicating the meaning with the component representing the sound. For example, the character“桥(qio) bridge” is expressed by combining
14、a picto-component “木(m) tree” with a phonetic component “乔(qio)”. link.5.doc The picto-phonetic method is the most productive one among all character formations because of two reasons: The first one is it enables Chinese characters to represent both sound and meaning and to evolve into phonography e
15、ventually; The second one is the way in which one picto-component usually associates with one semantic category can form a lot of characters. For example, picto-component “火(hu)” represents all pertaining to fire, so it can form many characters such as “烧(sho) burn”,“烤(ko) bake”. etc; “心(xn) heart”
16、represents all pertaining to mind, so it can form many characters such as “思(sh) think”,“恋(lin) love”. etc.2 Some Properties of the Chinese characters2.1 Chinese characters are an ideogram essentially Compared with other characters in the world, the Chinese characters are an ideogram essentially: Fi
17、rst, the Chinese characters correspond to the semantic categories systematically by means of its picto-components, every picto-component expresses a meaning class. For example, component “艹(co)” expresses the meaning class of grass,“氵(sndinshu)” expresses that of water, “讠(yn)” expresses speech. etc
18、. link.6.doc Secondly, the Chinese characters record speech constituents and determine their meaning by combining different picto-components. For example, combining components “亻(dnrn) human” and “言(yn) speak” to show the meaning of morpheme (sememe) “信(xn)” true, believe; combining components “木(m)
19、 wood” and “斤(jn) ax” to show the sememe “析(x)” separate, divide. etc. 2.2 The Chinese characters are morpheme characters So as we know, the characters can be divided into different types according to what constituent it records, such as syllabography, alphabetic writing, etc. Morpheme is one of spe
20、ech constituents, and has both meaning and sound. L. Bloomfield defined it as “a minimum form of language”. The Chinese characters record Chinese language in both meaning and sound usually, especially the sememe and the syllable of a morpheme. So we could say that Chinese characters are morpheme cha
21、racters. For example, character “民” presents a Chinese syllable (mn) in speech, and also expresses a sememe “people, folk”, so character “民” records a Chinese morpheme; character “睛” presents a Chinese syllable (jng) in speech , and also expresses a sememe “eyeball”, so character “睛” records a Chine
22、se morpheme. etc. 2.3 The Chinese characters are square in spreading The characters in the world spread in two ways usually: linear and square. Almost all alphabetic writings such as Latin and Slavic alphabet spread in one dimension, just like a line; the Chinese characters spread in two dimensions:
23、 lengthways and breadthways, just like a square. Here are the examples:Lengthways高热来陵大兴爱自布家认对中什好识外国大！各汉西学我位语南的叫朋教交汉商友学通语拓！工大教，作学师是。 。，斯很我我坦Breadthways大家好！我叫商拓，是斯坦陵布什大学的汉语教师，我来自中国西南交通大学。我热爱对外汉语教学工作。很高兴认识朋友！3. The Cultural Message in the Chinese Character3.1 The Cultural message in the picto-component
24、“女n(woman, female)” The picto-component“女”pertains to woman, female, etc. and forms many picto-phonetic characters such as “姓xng (surname)”,“妈m (mother)”,“妻q (wife)”,“婆p (grandmother)” and so on. We can see the traditional Chinese cultural messages from the picto-phonetic characters with the picto-c
25、omponent“女”. Here are some sorts:3.1.1 Downgrade of Womans Social Status Many Chinese characters revealed that Woman had had higher social status than man in ancient maternal society. For example, “姓 xng (surname)” means the maternal origin of the human-being, because people didnt know own father, b
26、ut knew own mother in the ancient communal marriage. So the emperors, kings or leud in ancient China had maternal surnames such as “姬j” (surname of the kings of the Zhou dynasty); “嬴yng (surname of emperors of the Qin dynasty)”; “姜jing (surname of the marquis)”; “妫gu (surname of the baron)” ,and so
27、on. But The womans social position had been lowered gradually in the paternal society, and the sex discrimination against woman came into being. For example, “女”looks like a woman kowtowing on bended knees in Chinese scripts on bones or shells. And many characters with pico-component“女” were explain
28、ed as derogatory sense about woman usually in Chinese philology: for example, “妇f (woman, wife)” was explained as the obedience of a wife who was doing housework; “妒d (jealous, envy)” was explained as the narrow character of woman; “奸jin (wicked, illicit sexual relations)” was dued to woman; “婪ln (a
29、varice, greed)” was dued to woman, and so on. 3.1.2 The Opinion of the male chauvinism about woman Man governs the state or society, while woman deals with the trivial housework, this is opinion of the male chauvinism in the paternal society. So some Chinese character reveals the prejudice about wom
30、an, for example, “安n (quiet, peaceful)” looks like the woman staying in a house, implying that every family has own housewife; “婉wn (graceful, femininity)” means the obedience of a wife to her husband; “娴xin (refined, skilled)” means the good virtues of woman according to mans criterion; “嫣yn (beaut
31、iful, good looking)” means the good looks of woman according to mans criterion, and so on.3.1.3 The message about the traditional marriage system in China Because there is inequal social status between man and woman in the paternal society, some Chinese characters reveals the inequal marriage betwee
32、n the husband and wife in ancient China, girls were exchanged as goods among different tribes usually. For example, “婚hn (wedding, marriage)” means that the bachelor kidnaps a girl, bringing her to dusk wedding; “娶q (marry a woman, wive)” means that the bachelor buys his bride with some betrothal gi
33、fts; “嫁ji (marry a man)” means that a gril leaves the parents to husbands family after wedding, often losing personal liberty; “妾qi (concubine)” means that a woman contracted to a man as a secondary wife, often having few legal rights and low social status, and so on.3.2 The Cultural Message in the
34、Picto-component“示sh(show, reveal)” The picto-component“示” has a superstitous origin, it means the decree from god or ancestor by some sign. The ancient Chinese believed that god had a magic power which brought about welfare or disaster, and often uttered or addressed prayers to god or ancestor. So t
35、he characters with the picto-component“示” pertain to all worship activities usually. Here are some sorts: 3.2.1 Some ideas about worship to god or ancestor The ancient Chinese thought that god dominated the heaven and the earth, and their ancestors were able to bless them or fall disaster on them. S
36、o many characters with the picto-component“示” express the fear or piety to god or ancestors. For example, “神 shn” means the supernatural being that generated everything on earth such as mountain, sea, and so on; “祖z” means the forefathers or ancestors who brought about welfare or disaster; “社sh” rev
37、eals the worship to the god of earth who produced all foodstuffs; “禜yng” expresses the pieties to the god of mountain and cloud; and so on.3.2.2 Some ideas about the seasons or times of worship ritualsThe ancient Chinese thought that it is necessary to pray to god on exact time, so they distinguishe
38、d the worship rituals in different season of one year. Some characters with the picto-component“示” expresses the time of worship rituals. For example, “祠c” means the worship rituals held on spring, peoples wish a god beginning of the year; “礿yu” means the worship rituals held on summer, peoples expr
39、ess their satisfaction at emblements; “烝zhng” means the worship rituals held on winter, peoples celebrate after bumper harvest. And another characters pertain to worship rituals held in unexpected moment, for example, “禡m”and“禷li” mean the worship rituals held before battle, fighters pray the bless
40、of god of war; and so on.3.2.3 Some ideas about the manner of worship rituals The ancient Chinese thought that everything such as sacrifice, speech, feeling, etc. are important in worship rituals, so some characters with the picto-component“示” reveal the cultural messages. For example, “祳shn” means
41、the worship rituals with flesh in sacred vessel; “祡chi” means the worship rituals of setting the sacrifice such as cattle, sheep on fire; “祈q” and “祷(do)” mean the devout speech in worship rituals, “禛zhn” “祗zh ” mean the devout feeling in worship rituals, because the good wishes come true by the belief on soul. 三、汉字形旁的文化涵义举例分析结束结束
