%, that is to say, the other 90% are not hieroglyphics, but even though the 90% are not hieroglyphs, they are all based on less than 10% of the hieroglyphics, so When people want to summarize Chinese characters, they basically say they are pictographic characters. So let’s take a look at the word I just mentioned. What does “自” look like? Some people would say it looks like an eye, with a curl on it. Some people say that this curl may refer to eyebrows. So if It is a head with an apostrophe. What does this glyph have to do with the meanings of the words I just mentioned, nature, self, freedom, and since? What does it have to do with it? In fact, Xu Shen, a philologist of the Han Dynasty, was a very great Chinese glyphologist. He couldn't explain why, because it is this glyph that is far from the earliest glyph created by our ancestors. How about the glyph? It has changed or improved. So, if we want to find the earliest glyphs, what should we do? Look for ancient characters. This phenomenon is very interesting. At the beginning of the last century, we know that oracle bone inscriptions were excavated in the Yin Ruins in Henan.
Let’s go back to the topic just now. We said that this is "自", so what does the earliest glyph look like? Oracle bone inscriptions look like this. We say it is a pictographic character. According to current saying, it is Eyes, eyes refer to eyes. This curl seems to be eyebrows. In fact, if we look at this after knowing the ancient glyph shape, it will not make sense at all. I guess people with some life experience and keen observation will find that what it actually looks like is a human nose. When we look at our "self", why does it use a nose to symbolize itself? What is the reason for this? Actually When our ancients coined this word, they already had a lot of thoughts implicit in it. For example, our ancestors knew that the most fundamental thing about a person is Qi, and what is a nose? It is the organ of breathing. In fact, the respiratory organs also include the lungs and the trachea, but what appears on the outside is the nose. Some of us now know from watching movies and TV that when a person's life or death is unknown, we put our hands on his nostrils to see if he has breath. Therefore, we can infer that when the ancients used their noses to symbolize themselves, Let’s see, to this day, there are still people who point to their noses, which means that they are alive, alive, and alive. It can be seen that the excavation of oracle bone inscriptions and the excavation of ancient characters have indeed built a bridge between us today and the ancients, allowing us to go into the hearts of the ancients and explore what they were thinking.
Let’s look at this character again. This is "beat", which means "beat" to hit someone. It is currently found that the earliest glyph is Xiaozhuan. Xiaozhuan is similar to the current regular script. One hand has a ding, and the other hand has a ding. What does the combination of "ding" and "ding" mean? We know that today's "beat" has 26 meanings in the "Modern Chinese Dictionary" and 29 meanings in the "Chinese Dictionary". There is a linguist named Chen Yuan who wrote an article called "Magical" "Fight", why is it so magical? Let's see, when I meet my enemy, I punch him. This is a conflict with him. However, we say to hit him, but we still use hitting in this way. , Lao Li and I got along well. This being together does not mean that I fought with him and got along well, but it means that I have a very good relationship with him. This is also fighting. Also, we are going out now. Many friends are here today. Why are you raising your hands? We didn’t go to take a taxi. Why is it called a taxi? Besides, there are many lesbians here. Now most people I don’t play this anymore, but in the past, lesbians would knit it by themselves. At that time, it was not called knitting sweaters, but “sweatering.” We pick up the phone and call it "making a phone call", and then we recall that when we were young, we went to buy soy sauce, vinegar, and wine, which was called "making wine". What does these meanings have to do with this glyph? Each hand has a ding. , so Chen Yuan said something like this: "Chinese characters are magical. Just such a glyph contains so many meanings, but they are not necessarily unified." Then we need to study the ancients who created this character, and what they relied on. What can lead to so many meanings? Of course we can say that after the Chinese character is created, it is like a truck. As it gets closer to us, it carries more and more weight, but we It cannot be denied that when it was first created, it already carried some cargo, that is, information. This is the most fundamental and primitive.
So I put a lot of effort into understanding the word "fight". It turned out that I didn't attach much importance to this word. It's just that I had a friend who taught at Renmin University. He was teaching to foreigners, Canadians, Indians, and British people. I speak Chinese. He said that these foreign friends couldn’t understand the word “beat”, and they couldn’t understand why this single glyph could have so many conflicting meanings. He asked me to explain it, so I studied it. Well, one of the ways I study Chinese characters is to restore it. This glyph is composed of two parts, one hand and one ding. Restore it to the most ancient times. We imagine what our ancestors used this to symbolize. Of course, this must have a certain degree. state, then after entering the state, I thought about it, that is to say, our ancestors used something to hold a nail. Of course, the nails in the past were not necessarily made of metal. They might have been made of wood or stone. , pull it into an object, such as trees or soil. In this case, all the meanings just mentioned can be restored through this action. We can see that according to the current action, if you take an When a hammer hits a nail, the first action is to lift, the second is to swing, the third is to hit, and the fourth is to enter. So let's think about typing, which is just four human movements, and we summarize it into this glyph. If you don't restore it, you don't know that there are these four movements. Of course, you have to break them down. How could you know that this "typing" can What does it mean to break down so many things? So now let’s see, what we just said about “beating” can be broken down into these four actions. What does beating a sweater mean? Entering; beating wine and vinegar are now hydraulic. Of course, even hydraulics are now It doesn’t have to be in a barrel, it’s an entry; to mingle with someone is to enter; in the beginning, making a phone call was followed by a telegram, and telegraphing is equivalent to tapping with your hands. In other words, we understand this Chinese character, the earliest glyph and the earliest meaning. How about we, we understand that the 29 meanings, or the 26 meanings mentioned in the "Modern Chinese Dictionary" are all based on evidence.
Let's take another example. This word is "and", and this word is "and". We know that there are at least four semantics, but two are the most important. The first What is seed? It is progression. For example, everyone here may know the first sentence of Confucius's "The Analects". What is it called? "Learn and practice from time to time", then this "er" plays a progressive role, and the second one is a turning point. Of course, this progression and turning point in modern Chinese are not content words, but function words, but this function word Where did this semantics come from? It is also related to this glyph. It was also verified by predecessors. Such a glyph was found on the oracle bone fragments excavated in the Yin Ruins. After that, I compared it with Xu Shen’s explanation of the word and I felt that this is what we have today. and". What kind of pictogram is this? It's the pictogram of a human beard. Let's see if it looks similar. Of course, there are many kinds of this glyph. Let’s take a look. I won’t write this word. The Chinese character has a word “play”. The word “play” means “female” at the top and “female” at the bottom. So in ancient times, men had to grow beards, and this character reflects a kind of contrast. Disrespect of women, teasing women with beards, shouting. There is also a word "一" and this side is "inch", and some are "standing knife". Why? Because in ancient China, if you made not a particularly big mistake, your beard would be shaved off. This is affordable, so it is called "Patience". But what does this “and” have to do with progression and transition? I have been thinking about this word for a long time, but I still can't figure it out. Of course, you can simply compare it to "attached". The beard is soft and easy to turn. What about progression? Often when I encounter this situation, I don't think about it hard, put it aside and read other books. One day suddenly I found in Wang Fuzhi's "Shuowen Guangyi" (also known as Wang Chuanshan) that he explained the word "and", This record is too precious, because I have not found it anywhere else except what he recorded. In other words, our ancestors not only called people's beards "er", they also called fish fins "er". We know that fish have pelvic fins, dorsal fins, pectoral fins and caudal fins, which look like small wings. This one really looks like a beard. So our ancestors also called this fish "er", but many dictionaries and dictionaries do not have this explanation. , so now we can figure it out, what happens when the fish wants to move forward, and pricks its fins hard? What about when the fish turns a corner, pricks the tail fin, such a "while" turning The meaning of "and progressive" becomes clear. It turns out to be related to the fins of fish.
Let’s look at another word. We all know that it is the “乐” of music. So what does this glyph have to do with the music we listen to today? This word also has a pronunciation. What is it called? It’s called music. What does it have to do with our happiness today? We can understand it when we see the oldest glyph. This is the glyph of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. It is a pictographic character. What does it resemble? It looks like a musical instrument. Some say it's various drums on a stand, and some say it's a broken string on a wooden stand. It doesn't matter, but be sure of what it looks like. It looks like a musical instrument. Then I understand now. , so what is the earliest word "乐" in this musical instrument? The pictogram of a musical instrument, so what is its name? Calling music, what does it bring to us when it makes a sound? Happy, how about it? This glyph contains three meanings, all of them. If you don’t know the glyph, you can’t understand it just by looking at it.
So now, I guess everyone will have a question, what is your purpose for doing this? What is the purpose of thinking about Chinese characters so much? Of course, it can be said that the simplest purpose is to satisfy my curiosity, because I have always had a sense of mystery and curiosity about Chinese characters, but this alone is not enough. If it is just curiosity, just to satisfy my sense of mystery about Chinese characters, It is far from being the motivation for my research on Chinese characters. There is a fundamental purpose here, which is that I want to interpret Chinese classical culture. In my opinion, our Chinese Kunlun culture, the real Kunlun culture, was in the pre-Qin era. At that time, it was The most brilliant era of our country's culture.
Someone may ask again, many old people, our ancestors, have annotated these words long ago. Wouldn’t it be enough for you to read ancient books according to their annotations? But according to my research, I I found that often a work or a word has different interpretations, and some interpretations are contradictory. So who do you say you listen to? Then at this time, I will simply not listen to anyone. I will listen. I’m going to look for the ancient people’s footnotes to see what they thought when they coined the word. For example, I just said the first sentence of Confucius’s “The Analects”, which is called “Learning and practicing it is not a pleasure.” ", the second sentence is "It's a pleasure to have friends come from far away", the third sentence is "It's not a gentleman to be embarrassed if you don't know", let's look at the first sentence of these three sentences first. , when I first knew about it, my teacher told me, you are students, "it is not pleasant to learn and practice." It is very happy to review your homework frequently, so I think this sentence of Confucius is particularly common. , because I also study Lao Tzu, and I think Lao Tzu is great. Everyone here must know the first sentence of Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching", "Tao, can be Tao, is not Tao." That's so common. Confucius's sentence is too ordinary. . So when I started to study ancient Chinese characters, I re-read this passage, and I found that I had underestimated Confucius in the past. For example, let’s first look for the word “xi” in the word “learn and practice from time to time”, especially Simple, this is the earliest glyph, oracle bone script, which is very similar to today's traditional Chinese characters. The character "xi" has feathers on the top and sun on the bottom. What does it mean? It first means the child of the eagle, that is, the little one. What is the eagle doing? It's learning to fly. It's learning to fly every day. In other words, the first meaning he derived is not to review lessons but to do things and practice. So now let's look at Confucius's first sentence "Learn and learn." We all know "learn from time to time", "learn", or imitate, or accept, I learned, I accepted, we just said, this "and" means progressive, what more is needed, learn from it, even more Do it, what does it talk about? It happens to be the most important proposition of Chinese philosophy, the unity of knowledge and action. You will be happy only if you learn and do it.
Let’s jump from pre-Qin to the early Tang Dynasty. There was a poet named Wang Bo in the early Tang Dynasty. Wang Bo had a poem that everyone here must know. I will only say a few sentences. This is to send Lieutenant Du to Sichuan to become an official. There is a saying, "There are close friends in the sea, and there are neighbors in the world." I guess people of my age will be more familiar with these words, because in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a song that talked about the relationship between China and Albania. It was called "A bosom friend in the sea is like a neighbor even as far as the end of the world." , talk about this because Albania is very far away from us.
In this poem, let’s first understand one word, Cun. The word “Cun” refers to the confidant in the sea. In “Hundred Words of Tang Poetry”, the author of “Hundred Words of Tang Poetry” is Shi Zhecun. People who are a little older know this. He lived for more than 90 years. He was one of the writers of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School, a novelist, a poet and a critic. He taught at East China Normal University. He explained this ocean in his "Hundred Words of Tang Poetry" My confidant, what can I say? There are my confidants all over the world, just as close as my neighbors. Why do I use Shi Zingcun’s explanation? Because there is a word "Cun" in his name, but this old gentleman has a strong understanding of "Cun". But the word "Zi" has not been fully understood. The oldest glyph here is "zi". This is "zi", which means small saplings, small flowers and grass, which have just grown up, and "zi" means children. So when people see small saplings, small flowers and grass, When I see a child again, what is the first feeling that comes to people? It is the feeling of love, the feeling of pity. So this is actually the most original meaning, the most fundamental meaning, and the earliest meaning of existence. What is the next extension? From love to longing, let’s look at this poem again, and it’s still this couplet, “There are close friends in the sea, and the ends of the earth are like neighbors.” I miss my close friend in the sea, he is as close as a neighbor, just right It is this longing that makes this space shorten, just like neighbors, so close. Let's take a look at the different interpretations of these words. One means "have" and the other means "missing". So what is the context of this couplet? They are also very different.
Let’s go back to the pre-Qin era from the Tang Dynasty. In the pre-Qin era, there was a great philosopher and a great writer. Everyone here must know that Zhuangzi is usually put together with Laozi, saying that Laozi and Zhuangzi are philosophy. There is a fable in "The Master of Health Care" in "Zhuangzi", which is about "The Cook Ding Jie Niu". I won't go into the complexity of the first part of "The Cook Ding Jie Niu". I will only say that it is related to this word, which is called "playing the knife". , do you have an impression? It is called "The sword is played so wildly, all the middle notes are combined with the dance in the mulberry forest, it is the meeting of the first of the Sutras." Let us first have an impression of this passage of Zhuangzi. Let's put aside Zhuangzi's passage and think about the meaning of the word "Zou". Recently, there are more emperor dramas on TV, and the commonly used word is "Zou". Well, let’s get rid of the emperor. Let’s look at our daily lives. For example, when we go to a concert, there is a person playing the piano at the concert. What do we call it? It’s called piano solo, but what is the most accurate verb? It should be to play. Why not call it “piano solo”? There is also a person playing the violin. The most accurate verb should be "pull". The most accurate verb should be "pull". What should it be called? "Playing the violin alone", but if a host announces it like this at a concert, what will happen next, it will be a laugh. Violin solo, five brass instruments playing together, what is the correct verb to call it, "quintuple woodwind blowing", even if you want to announce it like this, people will laugh. What should it be called? For the woodwind quintet, it can be seen that the word "play" is unusual. People would rather abandon the most accurate verbs for it, such as blowing, playing, playing and singing, and use the word "play" to show that there is something in it. There is something in it. Well, the glyph created by our ancestors is like this. This is Oracle. After being deciphered by the previous generation, what does it represent? This is the meaning of hands. Two hands. This is a person or a group of people. It symbolizes Yes, he is wearing decorations on his head, such as peacock feathers, and he also wears decorations on his bottom, such as peacock tail. What are he doing? Singing and dancing, singing and dancing. If you are familiar with Chinese history, you may have seen such a cultural relic. A pottery basin was unearthed in Qinghai. There were paintings in the basin. In the painting, some people were holding hands and dancing, especially like today's ballet. There are just a bunch of them. People, or a group of people, sing and dance together. What are they doing singing and dancing? They are offering sacrifices to heaven, earth, ancestors, and harvest. In other words, this "play" is what our ancestors used this glyph to represent what people are doing together. This ceremony involves singing, dancing, sometimes reciting, and playing musical instruments. Then we know that this glyph expresses this meaning, and then we understand, for example, memorial, it is easier to understand, because what is the behavior of memorial? It is facing upward. Of course, there are also horizontal ones, such as , we just said that in the concert, what does the word "play" reflect? It reflects that the performers on the stage and us appreciators off the stage form a cycle. This is a very important atmosphere for appreciating music and art.
Now let’s go back to Zhuangzi’s “The Cook and the Cow”. Many people interpret the “Zou” in Zhuangzi’s “The Cook and the Cow” as advancing the knife or moving the knife. However, I checked all the dictionaries and found out about the semantics of the memorial. What does one mean? It means to advance or move the knife, and the example according to it is Zhuangzi's "The Cook Ding Jie Niu". The meaning of "playing the knife and moving the knife" is only used by Zhuangzi, and no one after that has used it. What's the reason? People don't know what this word means. Well, no, I think it’s because many people don’t fully understand the usage of the word “play” in Zhuangzi. Here we have to restore it to the original meaning of "play", so now let's think about it, the cook Ding played the knife, "Qi Ran", what is the knife like? The movement between the sinews and bones of the cow appears. It was a sound, not a cow's cry. What happened in the end? The cow didn't even know it was dead and it died. Then, what did Wen Huijun say? The skill was so great that today it was "blocked." Then let's think about it, one cutting and one playing, we should treat the cutting of the cow as a ritual, as a work of art, as an artistic activity. Only when we come and cut the cow can it enter an aesthetic state. In fact, Zhuangzi uses it as a fable, not really about slaughtering cows, because what is its general title? "The Master of Health" is about how people survive in the world. It's just right. If you say this is my imagination. , but the next few sentences of Zhuangzi have marked it for me. What did he say next? This "must be the alto", this "yin" does not mean sound, but music. In one sentence, it means "dance in harmony with the mulberry forest". What is "mulberry forest"? It is the name of a kind of music in ancient China. What is the last sentence? "It is the meeting of the first chapter of the Sutra". What is "the first chapter of the Sutra"? It is also the title of a song and a dance in ancient China. The two are combined together. Let's take a look at what Zhuangzi used to play. It has both the previous and the following results. How consistent they are. So it is precisely the different interpretations of the word "Zuo" that enable us to distinguish what one is, one is a butcher, and the other is an aesthetic master.
Let’s look at another word. This word is the word "yi" for perseverance. The earliest glyph here is a bronze inscription. There is a sentence in Confucius's "The Analects" called "A scholar cannot be without generosity. How do you understand the word "Yi" that means "the road is long but the road is long"? According to today's glyph, we all know that this character is pronounced "豕". What is "豕"? It means pig. This glyph is our today's Xin, the pungent "Xin". What is Xin? Xin is a torture instrument in ancient China. This torture instrument is very thin and sharp. It can stab people, cut off people's ears, and tattoo people's faces. Isn't there such a torture? It's called "tattooing" and tattooing words on your face. Xin is the instrument of torture. So let's think about it, the word "yi", pig plus this pun, let's not look at this half first, what does it mean? In the past, there were two types of pigs. What was one type, domestic pigs raised in captivity, and what was the other type? Wild boars are also called porcupines. What about wild boars? The hairs on the back spine, or bristles, are very sharp, pointed, and hard. Of course, if we raise domestic pigs, especially male breeding pigs, these hairs are also very sharp and can pierce human hands. So what does it mean? ? What is perseverance? And the earliest glyphs don't have this. It refers to the pig's hair, especially the hair on the back spine. Under what circumstances does the pig's hair stand up? Thinking about it, it is clear that when things go smoothly, no, it must be in danger. For example, it encounters a beast that is more powerful than it, or it encounters its own kind and wants to compete for a member of the opposite sex. What is the purpose of its hair erection? Woolen cloth? The first is self-defense and the second is offense. It can be seen that we can feel the connotation of "Perseverance" when we look at it this way. What is the connotation? Pig, what does it mean? It means that there are external factors to force the pig, to make the pig's hair stand up, and to make the pig forge ahead. This is the original meaning of perseverance. Let's look back and see what Confucius said, "A scholar cannot be without great perseverance." That means that as a scholar, you belong to a higher class. You must have perseverance. Now when we talk about perseverance, what must you do? What should you always put yourself in? In a difficult situation, you may also be in a good situation, but you have to think that you are in a difficult situation, why? Because there is a long way to go, and if you don’t have perseverance, you won’t be able to persevere.
Let’s see, I just explained Confucius and Zhuangzi, just because the interpretation of these words is different. Note that this difference is not that I deliberately want to be different from modern people’s annotations, but I want to find out what our ancestors meant by digging this word and creating this word. Then we found that the works of our ancestors contain so many things, which means we can’t understand them now. That's what I just said, what is the purpose of studying Chinese characters? The purpose is to read our classics.