■ New Express reporter Deng Yifu correspondent Wang Yongxing
The Debate between Chinese and Korean Traditional Cultures 1 Chinese Character Debate
prologue
In recent years, South Korea has carried out a series of measures to compete for China culture: it declared to the United Nations that "movable type printing" was invented by South Korea, but UNESCO did not know it, so it agreed; It also successfully listed gangneung danoje festival as a Korean cultural heritage first; Prove that Confucius is a Korean, and Beauty Stone and Imperial Doctor Li Shizhen have long been classified as "Koreans"; Chinese medicine is said to have been invented in Korea, and included with Compendium of Materia Medica, ginseng and acupuncture. Hastily submit an application for Hanfu to the United Nations; Alleged that Chinese characters were invented by Koreans; It is planned to complete the preparatory work for the "Overall Geomantic Geography" project before 2008.
The netizens in China are deeply stimulated, which also promotes the reflection on the inheritance and promotion of China culture and how to defend the war by modern means. While establishing cultural self-confidence, we should also abandon the theory of cultural superiority, guard against cultural chauvinism, maintain critical thinking, and form an intellectual force that will keep Chinese culture alive forever.
Starting from today, this newspaper will launch a series of reports on "China-Korea Cultural Debate" one after another. Welcome attention.
From the Dragon Boat Festival application to the Chinese medical reform of Korean doctors, from the so-called "Chinese characters were invented by ancient Koreans" to the application for Chinese characters, Koreans' appetite is growing, but netizens in China are reluctant to part with it. They say that Chinese characters belong to China, not South Korea, and they should maintain the "ownership" of Chinese characters. "Chinese characters are indeed the heritage of Koreans, because they are no longer used. But Chinese characters are still alive and evolving in China, leaving nothing behind! China applied for Chinese characters? Unless China culture is extinct! " In the face of challenges, netizens have come up with their own reasons and more coping strategies to turn stimuli into opportunities.
Controversial Korean scholars put forward the Chinese character "application for heritage"
After the "International Symposium on Chinese Characters" was held in Beijing in June+10, 5438, the Korean Chosun Ilbo reported that in order to prevent communication confusion caused by the use of Chinese characters with different shapes in East Asian countries, South Korea led scholars from China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province Province of China to produce 5,000-6,000 commonly used standardized Chinese characters based on traditional Chinese characters. This news was immediately denied by the representatives of China who attended the meeting. They suggested that "simplified characters" are legal characters in China and will not be easily changed. The dispute over Chinese characters between China and South Korea is in the ascendant, and some netizens are enthusiastic about the application for Chinese characters put forward by Korean scholars.
In fact, Chinese character application has been hot in Korea for more than a year. Last year, Chosun Ilbo reported that Park Jong-soo, a history professor at Seoul National University, said that after ten years of research and textual research, it was believed that the Korean people first invented Chinese characters, and then the Koreans moved to the Central Plains and brought Chinese characters to China, thus forming the present China culture. He will suggest that the South Korean government confidently restore Chinese characters and apply to the United Nations to make Chinese characters a world cultural heritage.
An article published on the English website of Chinese Studies (www.chinalanguage.com) can represent the thoughts of many Koreans who hold this view. This article claims that "Dongyi people are Korean and the creators of Dawenkou culture. The characters called' Chinese characters' may have been invented by Koreans. "
Hot comments on Chinese characters are full of vitality.
This series of news immediately caused a strong rebound from netizens in South China, and a series of "controversies" caused by South Korea's previous application for the Dragon Boat Festival, which triggered a big online debate on the dispute over traditional culture in Central and South China.
When reviewing the debate about the origin of Chinese characters on China language website, netizens were surprised to find that it actually happened in 2002. Everyone searched and found that the topic of "Koreans invented Chinese characters" was heated in international forums such as Google Forum. The representative view is: "Before Shang Dynasty, Koreans lived in Shandong. Later, Koreans entered the Central Plains to establish the Shang Dynasty and invented a script (Chinese characters), but this script could not adapt to all tribal languages. Only the Huaxia tribe endured and developed its own language, and the Zhou Dynasty defeated the Shang Dynasty. After the Koreans withdrew from the Central Plains, they abandoned Chinese characters and re-used the previous Korean language. "
"This is a plagiarism of China culture." A netizen studying in South Korea, "My China Heart", expressed indignation. He said: "A doctor from a famous North Korean school discussed with me and vowed that Oracle Bone Inscriptions spread to the Central Plains from the Korean Peninsula. You know, Korea didn't have its own writing until the15th century. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), it was forbidden to use Chinese characters. Almost all the history books "referenced" by Korean scholars are China history books written in Chinese characters. They have no written history before. "
Faced with a set of "arguments" by Korean scholars, many people in China laughed: "As we all know, China is the country with the longest continuous history in the world, and Chinese civilization has influenced many countries in Southeast Asia and East Asia, such as Japan and South Korea." "When the Chinese made those inventions, there was no obvious difference between Koreans and Japanese. They don't have their own country. How did they invent Chinese characters? " Some netizens pointed out that there is a problem with the logical starting point of Korean scholars. He said: "Why don't Koreans use Chinese characters themselves, give them to China people for free, and get another set themselves?"
There are also Tianya netizens who have ironically interpreted the application for Korean Chinese characters: "Chinese characters are indeed the heritage of Koreans, because they are no longer used. But Chinese characters are still alive and evolving in China, leaving nothing behind! China applied for Chinese characters? Unless China culture is extinct! " For a series of cultural "discoveries" in South Korea, netizen STKAV said: "Congratulations to Koreans for discovering Chinese characters again. Maybe they will find something tomorrow. The sun? The moon? " Then he came to the conclusion: "Why is Korean beef expensive-cows are blown to the sky."
Dealing with the intention of protecting the ownership of Chinese characters
How to protect Chinese characters from becoming the heritage of others? Netizens have their own coup, which can be summarized as "awesome" and "intentional".
"Powerful" means that China used Chinese characters in the cultural circle of Chinese characters because of its strong economy and advanced culture. Therefore, some netizens suggested that the promotion of Chinese characters in the new century also needs to enrich the people and strengthen the country first. With the development and increasing prosperity of China's economy, countries in the former Chinese character cultural circle began to have the demand and enthusiasm to resume the use of Chinese characters, which is worthy of recognition.
In addition to economic prosperity, there is also a "heart" to promote Chinese characters. Ancient Chinese characters are the most widely used characters. Since the 20th century, with the development of China's economy, the Chinese language craze and Confucius Institute have made Chinese characters go to the world again.
We should also respect the development law of Chinese characters. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the simplification of traditional Chinese characters is undoubtedly considered difficult to write and identify. In order to facilitate more people to learn and master Chinese characters, so as to deeply understand and understand China culture, it is really necessary to simplify Chinese characters. However, everything has two sides, and the over-simplified "third generation simplified Chinese character scheme" was later abolished.
When it comes to Chinese characters, it is inseparable from calligraphy. Calligraphy has always been one of the compulsory courses for primary school students in Guangdong. In recent years, the Provincial Department of Education has repeatedly requested to strengthen calligraphy education in primary and secondary schools. Recently, Zhejiang has also included calligraphy education as an elective course in primary and secondary schools.
Interviewing Chinese characters is so close to life.
People who use Chinese characters every day in China seem to pay little attention to the cultural origin behind this ancient language. When we listened to a story about Chinese characters told by Swedish Lin Xili, we found ourselves browsing the cultural history of China with a foreign tour guide.
Cecilia Lin Xili, a Swedish sinologist, was the president of the Swiss-Chinese Association. Her masterpiece "Kingdom of Chinese Characters" is the crystallization of her research on Chinese characters for more than ten years. It introduces the origin of Chinese characters in the form of pictures and texts, and is an introductory book for westerners to learn Chinese.
Reporter (hereinafter referred to as "Ji"): Why do you want to tell the story of Chinese characters in the book Kingdom of Chinese Characters?
(hereinafter referred to as "Lin"): Because the structure of Chinese characters and its initial form attracted me, I found that even some people with higher education in China know little about the origin of their own language. People teach and learn Chinese characters mechanically in primary schools, middle schools and universities, but seldom explain them.
Reporter: What are your advantages in reading Chinese characters?
Lin: In this way, we can understand these Chinese characters in detail. For example, when telling the natural scenes of these characters-countryside, mountains and rivers, animals and plants, the effect is particularly good. When I devoted myself to a brief and popular discussion on the pictographic origin of Chinese characters, I found that the life expressed by Chinese characters was so close and interesting.
Reporter: What else did you find in this process?
Lin: I found that China culture has amazing continuity. Until today, people can still see some pictures in advertisements, folk art and daily life, which are exactly the same as those experienced by text creators more than 3000 years ago, giving people a sense of pleasure that spans time and space.
Reporter: You spent eight years writing this book and adopted a relaxed expression. As a foreigner and an expert on China, what do you think is the significance of your work? Lin: China culture belongs to human beings. Everyone has the right to study, explain and appreciate it according to his own cultural tradition, no matter which nationality he belongs to. Only in this way can it be more colorful and more suitable for communication and acceptance.
Reporter: Can you give some interesting examples?
Lin: Take "people" as an example. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the word "person" is a profile of a person. She stood upright, her hands drooping or gently raised to the front. Two people, in tandem, form the word "from". When two people stand in a row, it becomes the word "than". On the other hand, if two people are back to back, it is the word "North", which is related to the fact that China houses and other places face south. And "people" and "words" constitute the word "faith", which can be described as "words must be done"
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China has used Chinese characters for more than 3000 years.
According to legend, there are so-called sayings about the creation of Chinese characters, such as "knot rope", "book deed", "gossip", "river map", "Luo book", "Jia zi", "picture" and "Cangjie word creation". Cihai records: "Cang Xie, also known as Cang Xie. The old legend is the historian of the Yellow Emperor and the creator of Chinese characters. "
According to the ancient philologists in China, Oracle Bone Inscriptions is "the earliest and most complete writing that can be seen at present" in China. It's already complicated. I found more than 3000 words.
The world is changing, so are Chinese characters. The development of Chinese characters from Oracle Bone Inscriptions to today has a history of more than 3,000 years. The development of Chinese characters has gone through several stages, such as inscriptions on bronze, big seal script, small seal script, official script, cursive script, regular script and running script.
Historically, the Korean nation absorbed a lot of Chinese, and Chinese characters were introduced into the Korean peninsula around the Three Kingdoms period in the 3rd century. For more than a thousand years, Chinese characters were the only written characters on the Korean peninsula. It was not until 1443 that Sejong invented "Andrew" (Korean alphabet), and the Korean language was changed to a mixed symbol of letters and Chinese characters.
So Chinese characters are not inherent in Korea.