Why did ancient Chinese write from the right?
The formal writing method of ancient Chinese writing is: write vertically in lines, write a line from top to bottom, and then change lines from right to left. Due to the characteristics of Chinese characters, they can be arranged vertically in rows from top to bottom or bottom to top. At the same time, Chinese characters do not have to be written vertically. They can also be written horizontally, either from left to right or from right. And the left side is lined up in rows. Historically, in addition to the regular vertical writing, horizontal writing was occasionally seen. For example, banners in couplets must be written horizontally.
The first person to propose horizontal writing in Chinese was Mr. Tan Kah Kee. At the second session of the First National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in June 1950, Tan Kah Kee formally proposed to the conference that Chinese writing should be written horizontally from left to right. proposal. On January 1, 1955, "Guangming Daily" changed the vertical layout from top to bottom to horizontal layout for the first time, and published an article titled "Informing readers of this newspaper's change to horizontal layout": "We believe that modern China The layout of newspapers, periodicals and books should change with the development of modern culture and its needs, and with the changes in people's living habits. The horizontal writing of Chinese characters is a development trend." Famous scholars such as Guo Moruo and Hu Yuzhi. He also quickly wrote an article pointing out the scientific nature of the horizontal arrangement of text, saying that human eyes are horizontal, and the eye line of sight is wider when looking horizontally than vertically. When reading, the eyes and head rotate less, which naturally saves effort and is not easy to fatigue. Various numbers It is also more convenient to arrange physical, chemical formulas and foreign names of people and places, and it can also improve paper utilization. After Guangming Daily took the lead in the practice, by November 1955, 13 of the 17 central-level newspapers had changed to horizontal layout. On January 1, 1956, the "People's Daily" also changed its format to horizontal layout. At this point, the whole country responded.
Reading from vertical to horizontal arrangement is a great change in the way of writing Chinese characters. Someone conducted a special experiment: 10 top students in the third year of high school were selected, divided into two groups of men and women, and asked to read carefully selected lyrical essays from the same "China Youth Daily". The difference in results is obvious: the reading speed of the horizontal version is 1.345 times that of the vertical version. Someone joked that I didn’t know that my eyes were originally long until the Chinese characters were written horizontally. Some people also ridicule that Westerners' writing is written horizontally, and readers shake their heads while reading, which means "No, no, that's not the case!", so they have the innovative consciousness to deny their predecessors and create new interpretations; China The word "古" is written vertically, and the reader nods while reading, which means "yes, yes, that's it!". Therefore, there is a conservative consciousness of superstitious predecessors and overstepping conventions.
The above statements have some truth, and they are also used by some national nihilists to attack our ancestors. They claim that our ancestors were so stupid that they didn’t know how their own eyes grew. Therefore, it is necessary to make a distinction between the ancients. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be remiss to let those voices scolding our ancestors hurt our eardrums every day?
As mentioned earlier, Mr. Guo Moruo wrote an article that pointed out the scientific nature of horizontal arrangement of characters, and he was suspected of following the trend. Mr. Guo himself is a master of ancient characters, and he only talked about it when horizontal arrangement of Chinese characters was a foregone conclusion. , to support it, but did not see Mr. Guo carefully analyzing the reasons why ancient Chinese characters were written vertically. With Mr. Guo's influence, if the reasons for the vertical writing of ancient texts and the change to horizontal writing in ancient times could be scientifically and comprehensively analyzed (I am ignorant and have no relevant information), then there will be no excuse for national nihilists, at least This is true in the way Chinese characters are written.
Leaving aside typesetting and printing, as far as the writing of Chinese characters is concerned, Chinese characters are most suitable for vertical writing. When writing in vertical lines, Chinese characters are written smoothly and coherently, with the momentum of one breath, while when writing in horizontal lines, it is easy to have pauses and it is difficult to achieve momentum. Therefore, most calligraphy works are written in vertical lines. Occasionally, horizontal works are written, and their artistic quality is often not as good as vertical works. The reason is that in the development process of Chinese characters, characteristics suitable for vertical writing have naturally formed. Chinese characters are composed of five basic strokes: horizontal, vertical, left, right, and fold. These strokes are interlaced with each other in a two-dimensional arrangement. When writing Chinese characters, you always start from the left corner or the top, and the ending point can be roughly divided into two categories. One is to add a little bit to the upper right corner, or to lift the pen to the right to make a hook. This type of characters is suitable for writing on the right side. Write a character horizontally, but it only takes up a small part of the Chinese character; the other type is to close the pen in the lower right corner or below, or close the pen in the middle. This type of character is suitable for writing a word vertically below, occupying a small part of the Chinese character. most. What is mentioned here is only the reason why Chinese characters are suitable for vertical writing. The vertical writing of Chinese characters is determined by historical reasons.
Putting aside history and talking about science is as unreasonable as mocking Qin Shihuang for not flying.
The earliest Chinese characters discovered today are oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions (Zhongding inscriptions). Neither oracle bones nor bells and tripods are normal writing materials. The former are only inscribed with inscriptions for divination, while the latter are utensils with inscriptions. The real writing materials are specifically used for writing to record events or words. Daily experience tells us that people always act according to their habits. Since oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions are mostly written in vertical lines, it shows that people at that time were accustomed to writing in vertical lines, and this habit originated from the normal writing tools and materials at that time. Based on the habit of vertical writing, we have reason to speculate that our ancestors had already formed a complete and skilled writing technology system at least during the Yin and Shang Dynasties. In this writing system, a knife is used as a writing tool, bamboo slices or narrow wooden boards (slats) are used as writing materials, and a knife is used to carve writing on the bamboo slices and wooden boards (slats).
We have more reason to speculate that our ancestors used knives to carve words on bamboo boards (slats) when they began to use symbols to record events. Because the knife has been invented as early as the Stone Age, it is one of the earliest tools used by humans and the most widely used tool. Bamboo chips and wooden boards are common and indispensable things in the daily lives of ancestors. Therefore, our ancestors naturally tried to use knives to carve graphic symbols on bamboo boards to help memory. In the long-term use process, graphic symbols have become more and more abundant and standardized and unified, and more complex things can be recorded, eventually forming a complete writing system. At the same time, the method of carving words on bamboo boards has also evolved. As the habit becomes natural, the technique becomes more proficient, thus developing into a mature way of writing. The main content of "Shangshu" compiled by Confucius is ancient proclamations. The earliest ones are "Yao Dian" and "Gao Tao Mo". The writing is ancient and elegant, and the language features of Confucius' period are rarely seen. This shows that the two texts were not passed down orally to Confucius' time, but It was written down and copied down.
Using a knife to carve characters on a wooden board inevitably requires pressing the knife hard, which leads to the problem of fixing the wooden board. Some people would say, wouldn't it be better to put the board on something like a table? In fact, this is impossible: first, in ancient times there were only low tables similar to today's coffee tables, which were used exclusively for eating. The multiple uses of tables were gradually developed much later; second, using a knife to carve requirements It is a very high skill, so it is performed by professional carvers, that is, knife and pen officials. However, the knife and pen officials have a very low status and are unlikely to be equipped with tables for writing. Thirdly, the knife and pen officials have to prepare records anytime and anywhere, which is even less likely. Bring a writing desk with you. Therefore, the swordsmen and penmen can only rely on their own bodies to fix the wooden board, and there are no more than two methods: one is to hold the wooden board firmly with the left hand alone, and the other is to fix the wooden board with the help of other parts of the body with the left hand.
Let’s first analyze the second way of fixing wooden boards. At this time, the board needs to be relatively wide, about two feet square, so that one end of the board can be pressed against the abdomen, and the other end can be squeezed with the left hand to fix the board and free up the right hand for carving. Such a wooden board can be engraved with a large amount of text. From left to right, a dozen or even twenty characters can be engraved. Naturally, it can be written horizontally. The ancients may have tried this method, but gave up for the following reasons: First, because engraving is time-consuming and laborious, the ancients were required to use fewer and more precise words to record events, and only used dozens of words to record one event. Wide wooden boards have a large capacity, which causes inconvenience if one board is used for many tasks, and a lot of waste if one board is used for one task. Second, to ensure that the wood board does not crack when carving, the board must be thicker, heavier, and inconvenient to carry. Third, when carving on the lower half of the board, it is not energetic and makes people feel constrained and uncomfortable because it is close to the abdomen.
The first way to fix the wooden board is to cut the width of the wooden board to a certain extent. Naturally, the ancient knife and pen officials tried to change the wide wooden board into a narrow wooden board, which can be held firmly in the left palm. Such a narrow wooden board is about four inches wide and about two feet long. This is a "double". The tablet can be held horizontally or vertically. If the tablet is held horizontally, the place where the words are to be written must be in the palm of the hand to facilitate the use of force. When carving, the palms of the two hands are facing each other, and the angle between the arms is small, which looks particularly awkward. Only when you hold the tablet upright and your arms are vertical can you look relaxed and generous. Since then, due to the narrowness of the tablet, less than ten characters can be inscribed horizontally, which is inconvenient. Only vertical inscriptions are more suitable.
To sum up, the wide wooden board or the horizontal holding of the slip were a way to allow horizontal writing, but they were abandoned by the ancients due to inconvenience. The only remaining ones were the vertical holding of the slip, thus determining the ancient Chinese writing method. It must be written vertically.
Calculated from the area of ??the tablets, each tablet can probably write more than a hundred Chinese characters, which basically meets the general needs of recording events and words. However, if too many records are recorded at one time and multiple slips are used, they will be scattered if they are not bound well, which will bring inconvenience to future reading. And the slips do have the disadvantage of being inconvenient to bind. If you want to bind the slips together, you probably only need to punch a hole on one side and thread it through a thin leather strip, rope or copper ring. However, the edges of the slip holes and the binding will rub against each other seriously and will easily wear out.
Therefore, the ancients came up with a way to simplify the slips into simple strips. The strips are easy to be tied into a volume, and the two ends of the strips are tied with wear-resistant thin leather strips to connect many strips into one, which is very convenient for rolling and folding. There is less friction between the strips and the strips when folding. Therefore, it is durable for a long time. What is particularly important is that as long as the number of slips is appropriate, the rolled slip can be held in the palm of the hand, and the left hand can hold the slip extremely firmly, so that the right hand can write hard. Another great convenience of the slips is that they are easy to carry. A swordsman and penman can carry multiple slips with him, enough for him to write for several days. In this way, the ancients found two materials for normal writing - slips and bamboo slips. When recording a small number of words, slips were used, and when the number of words was large, slips were used.
If the ancients only used tablets, they could wrap lines from left to right or from right to left when writing vertically. Relatively speaking, wrapping to the right is better. Because, first of all, the writing order of individual words is from left to right. If the order is reversed, the part written first will be covered by the tip of the knife (pen), making it difficult to write beautiful words. Secondly, wrapping the line to the right will leave the first vertical line written on the left, so that it will not be blocked by the right hand holding the knife (pen), making it easier to read the previous text. The question is why the ancients gave up the more natural way of wrapping to the right, but finally adopted the method of wrapping to the left? This is actually determined by the characteristics of the brochure.
You may also ask, since we have a simple book, can we write horizontally on the simple book? The answer is no. First, even if the ancients thought of writing on the table, the slips would not be easily fixed on the table, making it impossible to write on them. Second, horizontal writing requires the left hand to hold the scroll horizontally, which is the same as holding a slip of paper horizontally, making it inconvenient for carving. Therefore, the ancients had to hold the scroll vertically in their left hand like writing on a tablet, and hold a knife (pen) in their right hand to write on the outer side of a specific slip. If they were written on the inside, it would be difficult to fix the slip being written on.
The ways to wrap words in a booklet are to wrap to the right or to wrap to the left. Let’s first analyze some basic characteristics of the right-wrap method. At this time, the slips are required to be rolled up from left to right, so that when carving, the slips can be rolled to the left so that the slip being written is in the palm of the left hand. There are two ways to roll the slips: First, the slips filled with words are rolled out directly from the left wrist to the left. In this way, it is okay when the number of slips rolled out is small, but if the number is large, the slips will be rolled out. The strip is blocked by the left wrist and cannot naturally hang down. Instead, it suddenly lifts up obliquely, making it difficult to hold the remaining strip. Moreover, if you want to look at the outer part of the left wrist, you must turn your hand over, which is very inconvenient. The second is to roll the full-written slip directly in the palm of the left hand, which first causes the front text to be pressed in the palm, making it inconvenient to read; more seriously, when a full circle is written, the outer slip may be moved by the fingers of the left hand. Rolling it out at the end, or folding it into your hand again, has the disadvantage of being inconvenient to view the previous text. In other words, no matter how the brochure is scrolled, it is convenient to read the previous text in the writing method of wrapping to the right. This is only the case of using a knife as a pen. When the writing brush appeared, it was even more impossible to roll the leaflet directly in the left hand, otherwise the wet ink would be damaged.
Line wrapping to the left requires the slip to be rolled up from right to left. A slip filled with words can be easily rolled out at the fingertip of the left hand. To view the previous text, you only need to hold a knife (pen) Just lift the rolled-out strip with your right wrist. It is this that determines the ancient writing habit of wrapping lines to the left. In order to unify the writing form, the method of wrapping lines to the left is also used on the slips.
Some people may also say, after the invention of paper, why didn’t the ancients change to horizontal writing? This is a matter of habit, and before the large-scale introduction of Western culture, vertical writing did not cause much inconvenience. Naturally, people would not consider changing their habits to adapt to the new form.
If you don’t believe me, try changing your habit from right hand to left hand. Wouldn’t that be troublesome?
To sum up, the writing characteristics of using a knife as a pen and a slip as a writing material determine the way that vertical lines in ancient Chinese writing are wrapped to the left. Is this unscientific?