1
"Man" on the cauldron means "slave" and generally refers to "Li people"
Whether there is the word "min" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions is still controversial, but there is no doubt that there is the word "min" in bronze inscriptions. The famous Great Ding Yu has an extremely precious word "min".
The Great Ding Yu, also known as "Twenty-three Sacrifices to Ding Yu", was unearthed in Licun, Shan County, Shaanxi Province (now Group Yang Jiacun, Changxing Town, Meixian County, Baoji City) in 1849, and is now in the National Museum of China, which is the first batch of cultural relics prohibited from going abroad. There is an inscription on 29 1 * * which records the admonition to Yu and the words "Zheng Bianren". According to the textual research of ancient philologists, "politics" means general politics; "Qi" means "syncope", which refers to four directions; "People" is the people, which together means "ruling the people in all directions".
The original word "people" implies a cruel history. According to Guo Moruo's textual research, the word "min" in bronze inscriptions is pictographic, with the upper part for the left eye and the lower part for the "blade", which stung the eyes. According to "Jia Zi Zheng Da Xia" edited by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty, "Fu Min is cute in speech, and MengMeng is blind in speech." Guo Moruo also explained the "people" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions as follows: "At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the Japanese captured the people and regarded their left eyes as slaves." In other words, the Zhou Dynasty originally named prisoners of war "Min" and stabbed them in the left eye, marking them as slaves.
It can be seen that the word "people" originally refers to people with the lowest social status; The word "people" in Great Yu Ding generally refers to CoCo Lee, which shows that in the eyes of the ruling class in the Zhou Dynasty, the people are very humble.
2
"Man" in Shuo Wen Jie Zi compares man to "grass"
Shuo Wen Jie Zi, written by Xu Shen, a scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was written in the 12th year of Yong Yuan in Han Dynasty (100) and the first year of Jian Guang in Han 'an Emperor (12 1). It is the first book in China that systematically analyzes the forms of Chinese characters and studies the origin of Chinese characters, and it is also the earliest Chinese dictionary. Shuo Wen Jie Zi has a concrete explanation of the "Six Books" for the first time, which contains a large number of ancient books and Qin Zhuan in the pre-Qin period, including some ancient characters that are not common in the existing inscriptions in the Qin Dynasty, such as the word "min" in seal script.
In the rare book Shuo Wen Jie Zi (and its engraving) collected by Waseda University in Japan, there is the word "ren" in seal script and its annotation: "people, many people, follow the ancient Chinese image". "self-protection", pronounced "Meng", refers to civilians who act as slaves; The word "people" is also called "people sprout", which means "a budding grass" and symbolizes "people", which is the original intention of seal script "people".
Why use grass to symbolize the people? It turns out that in the pre-Qin era, the ruling class thought that people were "uneducated" and "uneducated", that is, "many people have no knowledge", just like grass, so they called people "grass people" with "everyone is lovely" in ancient times. It is worth mentioning that there is also the word "e" in Chinese, and "e" only describes "numerous". Correspondingly, Shuo Wen Jie Zi also explains: "Jun, respect also", which embodies the thought of "Jun is more important to the people" in the pre-Qin era.
three
The theory of "all the people" appeared in Cao Quanbei's "people"
Cao Quanbei, whose full name is Cao Quanbei, the envoy of Han and Yang, was founded in the second year of Zhong Ping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (185), which is an extremely important inscription in the history of China. On 1956, it was moved to Xi 'an Beilin Museum for preservation. Cao Quanbei's inscription is a representative work of official script in Han Dynasty. Its style is famous for its elegance and neatness, and it is highly praised by calligraphers of all ages. When Cao Quansheng, the magistrate of Heyang County, was recorded in the inscription, there was also a saying that "the people of one county of the Guo family resumed rebellion, burned the city god temple, disturbed the people and made them uneasy".
The word "person" appeared before and after this sentence. In the context of the whole inscription, the word "person" has completely different meanings. In the Yellow turban insurrectionary uprising at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the word "thief" was added in front of the inscription describing the uprising leader, and the word "person" was added in front of the rebellious "Guo family". It can be seen that the word "person" here also contains derogatory meaning, which should refer to "unruly person"; And the "people" that appears later refers to the people. So the whole sentence means: "The unruly Guo family in this county has also rebelled. They burned down the government office building in the city and the people were harassed. No one is peaceful. "
In the Han Dynasty, with the gradual popularity of Confucianism, the feudal literati's views on the people changed from contempt in the past to distinction. Those who obey the ruling class are regarded as people, while those who dare to rebel are regarded as unruly people. With the differentiation of the meaning of the word "people", some people began to take the name of "people", such as the well-known Li Shimin of Emperor Taizong, whose name means "helping the world and the people", and the word "people" here does not contain any derogatory meaning.
four
The "people" of "folk kiln" is intended to compete with "officials"
By the end of feudal society, the meaning of "people" was even more. Anyone who knows porcelain knows that porcelain kilns have been divided into officials and people since the Song Dynasty. The official kiln is an imperial kiln established by the imperial court, and the folk kiln is a folk porcelain kiln. The ancient famous Cizhou Kiln and Jingdezhen Kiln are outstanding representatives of folk kilns. In feudal society, there were officials and people, but in porcelain art, there was no distinction between official kilns and people's kilns. Generally speaking, the porcelain in official kilns tends to be quite satisfactory, while the materials in folk kilns are more abundant and free. Some "core technologies" of China porcelain, such as kaolin and blue-and-white technology, were discovered and born in folk kilns.
Take Cizhou Kiln as an example. Scholars in Song Dynasty like to use porcelain as a pillow, which is called "jade pillow". In order to suit their own interests, a lot of words have been written on the porcelain pillows of Cizhou Kiln, such as "Many people talk little, and they will return early if they have nothing to do", and for example, "If you cross the bridge, you will dismount, and if there is a way, you will not be able to sail." Stay indoors before it's too late, and the cock crows before it waits. However, this cultural phenomenon can hardly be seen in the official kilns of the Song Dynasty. In the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of porcelain from folk kilns were exported overseas, thus deepening the cultural exchanges between the East and the West. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the official kilns declined, but the folk kilns were in full swing. A group of porcelain-making masters, represented by Eight Friends of Zhushan, appeared among the people, and they became the mainstay of inheriting and developing the porcelain-making art in China.
The word "folk kiln" is conventional, and its appearance reflects that folk art has developed greatly in the late feudal society and began to compete with court art. The connotation of the word "people" is enriched because of "folk kiln".
five
The "people" of People's Daily is the real "people".
On June 5th, 1948, People's Daily began to use the title of People's Daily inscribed by Mao Zedong for the second time. This issue of People's Daily is now treasured by many museums, research institutions and private collectors at home and abroad. Up to now, countless readers have repeatedly studied the word "human" written by Mao Zedong through People's Daily, from which they have realized the magnificence of calligraphy and the progress of the times.
The word "person" has existed since ancient times. In China's ancient books, this word has no social attribute, and refers to human beings in nature. For example, there is a saying in Guanzi Qilv that "man is a creature of birds, animals and plants"; In contemporary China, people refer to all socialist workers and builders of socialist cause, and the meaning of "people" has changed fundamentally. According to scholars' research, the word "person" written by Mao Zedong is unique. He created a brand-new word "people" with his unique brushwork and composition, and its connotation is to serve the society, serve the people and be loved by the people.
Mao Zedong wrote in "Serving the People": "People are inherently mortal, either heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather. It is more important to die for the benefit of the people than Mount Tai. " After thousands of years of evolution, the word "person" has finally become the real meaning of "person".