There are five theories about the origin of Chinese characters, namely, knot rope theory, gossip theory, confused Luo theory, Cangjie word-making theory and picture theory.
From the ancient legend of Cangjie's word-making to the discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions more than 65,438,000 years ago, China scholars have been trying to uncover the mystery of the origin of Chinese characters.
With language, human beings can accumulate knowledge and form culture. With words, you can record languages and exchange information. Language distinguishes people from animals, and writing distinguishes the primitive stage of human society from the civilized stage. Writing breaks the limitation of language in time and space, spreads language to distant places and expands the communicative function of language.
Regarding the origin of Chinese characters, there are many sayings in China ancient literature, such as "knot rope theory", "gossip theory", "picture theory" and "calligraphy contract theory". Ancient books also generally recorded the legend of Cang Xie, the historian of the Yellow Emperor who created Chinese characters. Modern scholars believe that systematic writing tools cannot be completely created by one person. If Cang Xie really exists, he should be a text organizer or publisher.
sign
The earliest symbols were carved more than 8000 years ago. Archaeologists in China have published a series of unearthed materials about the origin of Chinese characters earlier than Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins. Wang, a doctoral supervisor of Zhengzhou University, made a systematic investigation and comparison of the carving symbols on pottery pieces unearthed from more than 100 archaeological sites in China, and thought that the earliest carving symbols in China appeared in Jiahu site in Wuyang, Henan Province, with a history of more than 8,000 years.
be in business
As far as the written materials of Yin and Shang dynasties are concerned, there are many kinds of written carriers. At that time, in addition to writing on simplified Chinese characters with a brush, other main writing methods were carved on tortoise shells and animal bones, and pottery, jade and Tao Zhu were carved on bronzes. Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze ritual vessels used in Yin Ruins are the earliest mature written materials found in China.
origin
"Bei" is a pictophonetic word and a knowing word. From the perspective of pictophonetic characters, the word "clothes" on the left of the word "quilt" means that the quilt belongs to the category of clothes, and the word "skin" on the right is similar to the word "quilt" in the word-making era, indicating the pronunciation of this word, but with the passage of time, the pronunciation of "skin" and "quilt" becomes different and gradually loses its function of expressing pronunciation. From the perspective of understanding characters, clothes made of leather are "quilts". The original meaning of quilt refers to a small quilt. In later generations, the meaning of "suffering" was extended on the basis of the original meaning of quilt.
knot theory
"The History of the Northern Wei Dynasty" said: The ancestors of the Northern Wei Dynasty "hunted for a career, and simplicity was a custom, and simplicity was a change; Not for words, but for wood carving. " It records tribes in primitive society or some ethnic minorities in China. Before the writing appeared, it recorded large and small events such as war, hunting, alliance, election, celebration, marriage, childbirth, disease and disaster by knotting notes.
In the past, according to the Book of Changes, some scholars said, "The ancient rule of law was based on knotting ropes, and the later sages used calligraphy easily, and the rule of hundreds of officials was observed by all the people." Infer that "words originated from knots".
Gossip theory
Kong Anguo's Preface to Shangshu (this is a fake, but it is a long time ago) said: "The ancients loved the king of the Xi family and began to draw gossip and make a book contract instead of tying the rope, so literary books came into being."
"Yi Gan Wei's Letters" holds that: Gangua is Tian Zi's ancient prose; Kungua, ancient Chinese characters; Deviating from divination, the ancient Chinese character of fire in China; Kangua, an ancient water character in China; Sea melon, ancient prose with wind characters; China ancient divination and thunder writing; Gengua, ancient mountain words; Dugua, Zezi's ancient prose.
River map theory
The Book of Changes: the river is drawn, Luo is written, and the sage is written.
"Jade Edition of River Map": Cang Xie was the emperor, making his maiden voyage to the south, making the mountain in the Yang Que, facing the water for the first time, Gui Ling wrote the book, and Jia Danwen was clear, so as to teach it.
"Picture" and "book" are from Heluo, how mysterious! Mysticism is the main feature of this theory. In vain, it can be understood as books, but in fact, it can be understood as the Book of Changes and history books.
Under the article "Book of River Map" in Ci Hai, it is said that in Fu, Yi Long appeared from the Yellow River with a horse carrying "River Map"; A turtle appeared from Luoshui, carrying "Luoshu". Fuxi painted eight diagrams based on this "picture" and "book", which was the source of the later Zhouyi. Yu said that he was in charge of the flood, and the Emperor of Heaven gave him a nine-domain Hong Fan (Shang Shu Hong Fan). Liu Xin thought that Hong Fan was a lost book.
The Book of Hutuluo (4 pieces)
Unveiling the mystery of this theory, it is not difficult to find that its real core is arithmetic, which can be compared with the "Jiugong" algorithm. The so-called "Nine Palaces", for Chen Weijia, is the Eight Diagrams plus the Central Committee, and it becomes nine ("Five" is located in the Central Committee and can also be associated with the Five Elements); In the eyes of astrologers, the horizontal, vertical, oblique and additive numbers are always 15. [ 1]
Changji's creation
"Cang Xie's Theory of Word Creation" was popular in the Warring States Period. "Lv Chunqiu JUNSHOU" said: "Cang Xie is a book and Hou Ji is a crop." Xunzi and Han Feizi also recorded it. "Huai Nan Zi Xiu Wu Xun" said: "Cang Xie was born to watch birds and know books". In the Qin and Han Dynasties, this legend became more popular. Xu Shen [2] "Shuo Wen Jie Zi Xu" [1]: "Cang Xie's early book, Gai Yi is like pictograph."
Who the hell is Cang Xie? Legend has it that he is a historian of the Yellow Emperor, who was the leader of the tribal alliance in ancient Central Plains. With the society entering the stage of large-scale tribal alliances, the external affairs between alliances are becoming more and more frequent, and it is urgent to establish a set of communication symbols enjoyed by all alliances, so the work of collecting and sorting out * * * was handed over to historian Cang Xie.
During the Chunhua period of the Song Dynasty, there was a famous calligraphy collection called "Chunhua Pavilion Post", which contained five volumes of 28-word ancient seal script, and the legend was written by Cang Xie.
Image theory
Modern scholars believe that Chinese characters really originated from the original picture. Some figures carved on unearthed cultural relics are probably related to words.
Around 4000 BC, it was unearthed in the site of Huaxian Village, Shaanxi Province, on the painted pottery basin of Yangshao culture in the Neolithic Age (the nature should be the emblem of the primitive clan here, when it was in the clan society stage of transition from matriarchal system to paternal system). There are four bird-shaped patterns, which are very similar to "bird" (rising) and "guard" (falling) in ancient Chinese characters. Shuowen said that "Wei" is a general term for short-tailed birds.
Painted pottery pots of Yangshao culture unearthed from Anbanpo site in Xi 'an and fish-shaped patterns on bronzes in the late Shang Dynasty are vivid. Comparing them with some "fish" in ancient Chinese characters, the similarity is enough to make people believe that Chinese characters evolved from the original picture.
Five advantages of Chinese characters
1. Chinese characters are one of the most beautiful words to read.
Chinese characters have one character and one sound, and each sound is divided into four sounds. Therefore, it is the most beautiful language in the world because of its loud and clear reading, euphemism and beautiful rhythm. Poetry written in this language has a sonorous and melodious aesthetic feeling, especially poetry, which pays attention to the level and level. So poetry can be particularly neat, rhythmic and catchy.
Chinese characters have obvious advantages in "man-machine dialogue" because of their loud pronunciation and many syllables. It is predicted that 2 1 century will be "the century of Chinese characters".
Chinese characters are also one of the most beautiful characters.
How beautiful is it? It has become an art-calligraphy art, and the calligraphy art of Chinese characters can't be compared with any other words. The following ancient calligraphy works have become priceless.
Chinese characters are easy to recognize.
The field of vision of human eyes is always a surface, not a line, so linear arrangement is difficult to identify; Form a square at a glance. Pinyin text = linear text; Chinese character = box symbol. Chinese characters are more efficient than pinyin characters in reading.
4. Chinese characters are easy to understand and relevant.
Please compare the following Chinese and English words:
Chinese character words
english word
cattle
cattle
calf
calf
bull
bull
cow
cow
milk
milk
beef
beef
ox’s horn
trumpet
Although the meanings of these five English words are all related to cows, writing and reading are "irrelevant". If you want to know them, you have to learn them one by one and remember them one by one. This is irregular. As for Chinese characters, as long as you know the word "cow", you will know that all words with "cow" are related to cows. Because Chinese characters have strong word-formation ability, if you know a certain number of Chinese characters, you will know countless words. Even if new words are produced, they are based on old words, and their meanings are easy to understand.
The disadvantage is that in mathematical physics and other scientific disciplines, the expression is very weak and complicated, such as operation, which can only rely on numbers and symbols.
Only symbols can be used in mechanical building drawings.
More than 70 years ago, Mr. Lu Xun said: Chinese characters with squares are "a root nodule on the working people in China" and "a sharp weapon of ignorance policy" (essay/new word question and answer). Therefore, "China means that there are no words, and the proposal of Latinization has grasped the key to solving the problem", and "If you don't want everyone to sacrifice the old words, you have to sacrifice the old words". (Essay on Street Pavilion/New Chinese Life in China). The weakness in China's modern history caused people's lack of confidence in its traditional culture. Even Lu Xun and Hu Shi can't avoid customs.
The above views are all personal limitations. As a traditional symbol of Chinese civilization, Chinese characters have been rooted in the hearts of China people forever, which is an innate Chinese character complex.
5. Chinese characters are vivid and intuitive.
Chinese characters are hieroglyphics, and their distinctive features are closely related in form and meaning, and their intuitive meaning is obvious.
The ideographic nature of Chinese characters makes it the only character in the world that can span time and space. Only children in China can read the Book of Songs 2,500 years ago and recite "Pigeons in Guanguan, in Jiangzhou, my fair lady, a good gentleman"; Only textbooks in China can use Tang poetry and Song poetry as the enlightenment materials that children must read. English three or four hundred years ago was difficult for others to understand except experts. It can be seen that Chinese characters are more conducive to readers to form a direct connection between form and meaning.
The ideographic nature of Chinese characters makes it the most informative character in the world, so it is easy to identify and associate, which also brings great convenience to speed up reading.
Modern fast reading method was first produced and developed in Europe and America. Their characters all have one feature-they are phonetic pinyin characters, and a single letter is meaningless. Only a few letters are combined into a word. In this way, when reading, it conforms to the chunking principle of cognitive psychology, so it is conducive to fast reading. But our writing is ideographic, which is completely different from pinyin. So, can reading materials composed of Chinese and Chinese characters be read quickly? The answer is of course very affirmative: Chinese and Chinese characters can not only be read quickly, but also be more suitable for fast reading. Specifically, there are mainly the following aspects:
First of all, the ideographic nature of Chinese characters facilitates the mutual understanding of form and meaning, which provides a natural advantage for fast reading;
Secondly, Chinese characters, as morphemes, have strong word-formation ability and concentrated common words, which provides convenience for fast reading;
Thirdly, Chinese characters, as pinyin characters, have obvious differences in homophones, which is also a favorable condition for fast reading;
Fourth, the writing form of Chinese characters is convenient for overall cognition and fast reading;
Fifth, Chinese characters, as compound brain characters, give full play to the functions of the two hemispheres of the brain;
Finally, the parataxis of Chinese grammar makes it concise, easy to master, easy to read quickly and intuitive.
Chinese characters are different from other languages in the world, which is the particularity of Chinese grammar itself, that is, parataxis Whether phrases are combined into sentences or simple sentences are combined into complex sentences, the first consideration is often the combination of semantics rather than the use of grammatical forms. As long as several key words carrying important information are roughly matched in meaning, communication purposes can be achieved concisely, and these words can be combined together, which is called "parataxis". This feature of Chinese grammar makes it unique in structure, flexible and changeable, with many meanings and emphasis on conception. Its parataxis, flexibility and conciseness are unmatched by other languages. The above characteristics of Chinese grammar are helpful for us to perceive and understand through tacit means in reading, which is very convenient for speeding up reading.
The above five characteristics of Chinese characters undoubtedly make them have considerable advantages over Pinyin in reading psychology, and make the written language of Chinese characters have higher speed and efficiency in all aspects of perception and understanding, so as to realize the coordinated development of reading speed, understanding speed and memory speed and read quickly.