For "snow", the upper half of the oracle bone inscription is "rain", and the lower half is in the shape of a feather; the upper half of the "?" character in bronze inscriptions is still "rain", while the lower half becomes "rain". The character "Hui"; the "?" of Xiaozhuan inherits the shape of gold characters. The Libian Reform of the Han Dynasty first followed Xiaozhuan, and later only the "Yu" head and "彐" bottom of the seal script were left, and the broom in the middle was omitted. Later generations of calligraphy styles The style of "snow" has been followed to this day.
"Shuowen Jiezi": ?, Ningyu, the person who talks about things. The sound comes from the rain. Therefore, Xu Shen said that "Hui" is the side of the sound. Some later generations annotated that the sound of "Hui" has meaning in the sound. "What can come from rain is snow." In other words, when the sky falls, what can be swept away with a broom is snow.
"Cheng Zhong Meng Xuetang Chinese Calligraphy Class Illustration" explains "snow": when it encounters severe cold under rain, it condenses into snow... The water vapor contained in the air condenses into ice flowers when encountering cold, and they converge into six The shape it emerges is snow. The snow in Mount Wutai in China persists through summer, and this is the case at the North and South Poles and in the frigid zones. The word "convergence" means to gather like the spokes of a car concentrated at the hub of a car, and here it describes the various hexagonal shapes of snowflakes.
Speaking of the word "snow", the one that everyone is most familiar with is Liu Zongyuan's "Snow on the River". Thousands of mountains and paths are covered with snow, and only "a lone boat and a man with a coir raincoat fishing alone in the snow on the cold river". This artistic conception of being alone in the world makes modern people who live in the hustle and bustle a little more yearning for it.
Bai Juyi has a short poem about snow, which is consistent with his unpretentious style of writing: "I was surprised that the quilt pillow was cold, and I saw the light of the window again. I knew the snow was heavy late at night, and I heard the sound of breaking bamboo every now and then." Late at night, I did not watch the snow, but I painted the heavy snow in the quiet night so vividly.
Snow is white, so it is used as snow white, snow skin, and snow bright. "Don't you see, the bright mirror in the high hall is sad and has white hair, it looks like blue silk in the morning and turns to snow in the evening." Snow is used here to refer to white hair.
Snow turns into water and can be washed, so the word "snow" means washing and removing dirt, such as: avenging shame, avenging injustice, and clearing up the snow. It also refers to noble character, so there is a saying of snow grid.
"Xie" is pronounced as present. "Shuowen Jiezi": Ji Xueye. From the sound of rain. It means that the snow is as good as the grass.
A more popular explanation can be found in "Illustrated Notes on Chinese Calligraphy Lessons in Cheng Zhong Meng School", which means: The common name is snow beads... when the sky is about to rain or snow, it will be slightly warm at first. It forms beads and looks like salt sprinkled in the air, which is called graupel.
Zhang Ruoxu's poem "The river flows around the Fangdian, and the moonlight illuminates the flower forest like sleet", using snow beads to compare the blooming flowers in the forest under the moon. Tao Qian, who retired to the countryside, also had the worry of "often fearing that frost would come and the trees would be scattered and scattered in the wild grass" in his life of "but the mulberry trees and hemp trees growing on the road".
There is a sentence in "Xiaoya" that "like rain and snow, first gather the sleet". It was always gratifying to recall the few experiences I had in snowy weather when I was a child. Later I learned that falling snow There were snowflakes before. Unlike snowflakes that fell lightly, snowflakes fell from the sky one by one. They made a rustling sound when they fell to the ground and bounced up. Many years later, I learned that these cute little things have a more beautiful name, called "gray".
Finally, let’s take a look at the word "昙". The small seal character of "昙" is "日" above and "云" below. Most of us know the word "Ephyllum" because of the epiphyllum, but its original meaning is something else.
"Shuowen Jiezi": Tan means cloud cloth. From the sun and clouds, I understand. That is to say, the character "昙" is composed of the character "日" and the character "云". "日" on "cloud" means that the sky is covered with clouds or the sun is blocked by clouds during the day.
"Cheng Zhong Meng Xuetang Chinese Calligraphy Class Illustrated Commentary" explains "Tan": The clouds are clothed and said Tan... Tan Tan, with the appearance of gathering black clouds, and the West calls the World Honored as Qu Tan. "Zi Ke" also explains that "Tan" means dark clouds, and mentions that another meaning is "Tan Mo". Sakyamuni's surname is also a proxy for Buddha.
As for the interpretation of "snow", "graupel" and "昙", we have learned together for the time being, but there is still a lot of content waiting for us to discover.
Finally, I will end with one of my favorite poems about snow. The snow falling in August in the Western Regions is like the prosperity of spring flowers in bloom, the chill of frozen flags, and the noise of harp, pipa and qiang flute. , and there is the silence of the horseshoes left in the snow, and I admire the poet's wonderful pen. In an era without movies and videos, it has such a free and wonderful technique, so that today we can still feel like we are present at the scene.
Bai Xuege sends Magistrate Wu back to the capital
[Tang Dynasty] Cen Shen?
The north wind blows the white grass on the ground, and the sky is full of snow in August.
Suddenly a spring breeze came overnight, and thousands of pear trees bloomed.
The pearl curtains are scattered and wet, and the fox fur is not warm and the brocade quilt is thin.
The general's horn and bow cannot be controlled, and the guard's iron coat is cold and cold.
The vast sea is covered with hundreds of feet of ice, and the gloomy clouds condense thousands of miles away.
The Chinese army prepares wine and drinks for the returning guests, playing fiddles, lutes, and flutes.
Snow falls one after another on the camp gate, and the wind blows and the red flag remains frozen.
I saw you off at the east gate of Luntai. When you left, the Tianshan Road was covered with snow.
You are nowhere to be seen on the winding mountain road, and there is only a place for horses to walk in the sky above the snow.
Previous articles:
Reading notes [1] day
Reading notes [2] Qi
Reading notes [ 3〕Day
Reading Notes〔4〕Month
Reading Notes〔5〕Eclipse
Reading Notes〔6〕Star
< p> Reading Notes [7-8] Hui and BoReading Notes [9] Mother
Reading Notes [10-12] Doukuisu
< p> Reading Notes [13-14] Rain and DewReading Notes [15-16] Yunhexia
Reading Notes [17-18] Fog and Frost< /p>
References and sources
1. "Etymology", edited by Li Xueqin, published by Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, first edition in December 2012
2. "Cheng" "Zhongmeng Xuetang Zi Lesson Illustrations", (Qing Dynasty) edited by Liu Shuping, China Literature and History Press, first edition August 2014
3. "Shuowen Jiezi", (Eastern Han Dynasty) Xu Shen
4. "Modern Chinese Dictionary (7th Edition)", compiled by the Dictionary Editorial Office of the Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, The Commercial Press
5. "Oracle Bone Calligraphy Dictionary", Fan Zhongyue, Chen Compiled by Daying, Hubei Fine Arts Publishing House, first edition in April 2019
6. "Six-body Dictionary of Commonly Used Calligraphy", edited by Fan Zhongyue, Chen Daying and Wang Jianjiang, Hubei Fine Arts Publishing House, April 2019 First edition in May
7. "Oracle Bone Inscriptions Reader", edited by Wang Benxing, Beijing Arts and Crafts Publishing House, first edition in May 2019