Li Haiying Wang Dan: Chinese characters from Chinese sinologists in the West in the late Qing Dynasty
May 13, 2019 10:00 Source: "China Social Sciences" Journal of Social Sciences May 13, 2019, Issue 1690, Issue 1690: Li Haiying Wang Dan

Starting in 1807,A large number of missionaries、Businessman、Diplomats have entered China。To make people come to China in all aspects to learn about Chinese history、Culture and social life at that time,Various foreign language newspapers appear one after another。Where,The English newspaper "Chinese Congbao" founded by the American Richmond and others,Pei Laer、Po Ling and Lu Gongming and others have hosted the "The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal",It has a very important position among Western people in China。

For the past 40 years,People have more in -depth research on these two newspapers and periodicals,Followed areas are also increasing,But because it uses English writing,The predecessors seem to be not enough。A considerable number of characters in the two issues involve Chinese characters and Chinese character teaching。These articles can help us understand the Chinese characters of Westerners,You can also know their Chinese character teaching concepts,It has extremely high literature value and academic significance。

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About the origin of Chinese characters,J.R.Morrison (J.R.Morrison) recognized the same word in Cangjie in "The Chinese Written Language" ("China Congbao) in May 1834).,It advocates that Cangjie created text through the inspection of everything。After that, the British Mo Anren advocated Fuxi to make words in his "Compilation of the Official Word"。These views are more affected by Chinese scholars,Its persuasion needs to be bet365 Play online games strengthened。After all,Chinese characters formed in long -term social practice。

In the newspaper at the time,Westerners also pointed out the expressiveness of the beginning of Chinese characters。"Chinese characters are obviously derived from picture notes,And these pictures will take the real thing in the form of portrait or depicting their significant features.。They were initially pictograph,But gradually develop simplifying the development of convenience or beauty for the sake of writing,Finally become a pure symbol。"",Different Chinese characters and Western letters,"Chinese characters are not composed of letters in the letter watch,Instead, it is composed of simple lines that are not sounded。A person who is accustomed to the Western letter system,It is difficult to construct a corresponding character or symbol for each new object and idea。As far as the current form of Chinese characters,This language is far from non -Xie text system "。Chinese characters have nothing to do with sound,See the shape and know,This is different from the Western letter system,Chinese characters are a kind of meaning text。

About "Luh Shoo, The Six Writings),Sinologists also mention in the "China Cong Bao" and "Education Magazine".。As Ma Ruhan explained the pictograph in the form of graphic and text,、refers to things、I like、Revealed、Sound sound and fake borrowing,and said, "This classification is a more modern invention,Just like the grammatical rules of the language,It is introduced to organize existing things,No effect on the original formation of words "。other,裨 in April 1850 wrote the Biography of the Department of Literature,Introduction and translating the "Six Books" theory in "Speaking Two"。Actually,Western Sinologists such Bet365 lotto review as Marshman (Marshman)、Remusat、Hopkins、Summers and others have introduced the "six books" theory of Chinese characters,Westerners who show that during this period have noticed the "six books" theory of Chinese characters。Of course,English name about the six books,Sinologists vary from person to person,The name is also different。

other,Different from Chinese characters,Sinologists also introduce。In addition to introducing Chinese characters with different times with different times、Lishu、Kaishu script and other style changes,Ma Ruhan also mentioned,"There are still many different ways of writing in the same Chinese characters。Sometimes a little mutation in this form does not affect the meaning of the word -the different writing methods of a Chinese character are used to represent different meaning "。These mutations "are for convenient writing,Some are out of the need to simplify complex glyphs,Some are to cater to the taste of different literati and Mo Ke,They believe that through the re -combination of Chinese character symbols, they can better express the bet365 best casino games meaning of Chinese characters。Some are caused by repeated changes,Some are due to abbreviation,Some are because of the negligence of writing "。Sinologists think,The performance of alien characters can have a variant of Chinese characters,、Ancient Body、Synonyms、The same synonyms in a word、Vulgar and Simplified。

Totally,The above introduction involves common sense of Chinese characters,Compared with the content。At the same time,We can also find,Sinologists have completely different observation angles。Of course,Due to cultural gap,I think of many issues,The grasp of Western people coming to China is not accurate and comprehensive,For example, the origin of Chinese characters,Taking Cangjie or Fuxi bet365 best casino games as a conclusion,It looks relatively biased。

 Micro understanding of Chinese characters

Western Sinologists Except for a relatively deep macro understanding of Chinese characters,Also observe the internal structure of Chinese characters,It has formed a lot of views。

First of all, the meaning of the character's position affects the meaning of the word。The character that constitutes Chinese characters does not just express one meaning after combining the combination of Chinese characters,"Most numbers are placed in a new position,will express different meanings,Sometimes it is a whole new meaning。Sometimes two or even three characters are synonym,Use them just to express accuracy。In other cases,Characters will lose their original meaning and express a brand new meaning "。

At the same time,Chinese writing system contains two quantities of characters,A number of characters is certain,They represent the same number of words,These symbols are the core or basic of the Chinese character system。The number of characters is uncertain,They are used to represent all other words in Chinese。

Secondly, there is a "root word" in Chinese。As discovery of Masmann,One Chinese character is the root of other ten or twelve Chinese characters (root),Each of these ten or twelve Chinese characters is formed by adding a component on the basis of this root。He calls such "root" as "root word"。Words generated by the same root word in this way,Pronunciation and root words are basically the same,Only a small change。For further verification,With the help of a Chinese assistant,Spend 15 months to organize the Chinese characters collected in the Kangxi Dictionary,Successfully combed the derived relationship between the characters,I found that except for 214 heads,Frequently with other components, there are 1869 characters that form a new word。These words are the core of the Chinese character system。A root bet365 live casino games word is at most 74 characters,At least 1。Attach a component on the root word will assign a new word,The significance of new characters is usually different from the root words,But there is a certain connection in meaning。From our opinion today,"Root Character" should be equivalent to the shape and sound of the form that can be used in the form of phonetic characters。

Last Ministry of Chinese Characters,Westerners who came to China at the time also discussed。May 1834,"The Chinese Language" in "Chinese Language",The author said when talking about Chinese characters,"There are only 214 Chinese characters as a head,Chinese people arrange all Chinese characters under these Chinese characters。In these 214 basic characters,Many are composed of other basic characters "。Ma Ruhan also has a more detailed discussion in the article "Chinese Writing" in May 1834。He said,"Ministry" is the most prominent part of Chinese characters,Europeans call it "keys" or "Radical"。All words of the same "head" belong to the same "tribe"。He also pointed out,The Chinese character "Ministry" is almost nothing to do with the pronunciation of the Chinese characters it forms,Sometimes it is just a combination of meaningless strokes or strokes,or even though the ministry has a certain practical significance,But does not affect the overall significance of Chinese characters。Sometimes just the opposite,The least obvious part of Chinese characters is selected as the first department,Because of the meaning of the word。But in most cases,The head is usually the most conspicuous、meaningful characters,It is responsible for the role of expressed the general word。In these situations,They often combine with the symbols of voice,These phonetic symbols will limit the bet365 best casino games meaning of Chinese characters expressed by the head of the ministry。In terms of location,The head is usually on the left of Chinese characters,Sometimes it is on the right。Some positions are not fixed,Up or down,Some are separate,The left and right sides of the word or the upper and lower ends of the characters,Some are the external framework of Chinese characters,Some are compound forms,Each position is different。

  Examination of a single Chinese character

Westerners who come to China in the late Qing Dynasty have a deeper understanding of Chinese characters in addition to the two perspectives of macro and micro,Study on a single word。April 1841,"Examination of Four Chinese Characters","Some Chinese characters will lose the original meaning in some cases,Existence in the form of a language symbol to show the moving relationship in the text "。Then,Article "Yizh", "Yu", "Yu", "乎" as the object,Analysis through quoting analysis of the sentences in Mencius (the author of this article is a famous French Sinologist Stanislaus Julien,The original text is Latin,later translated as English)。July 1846,Lou Lihua (W. M. Lowrie) in "On the Signification of the Character Jin: Jin Chi Nán Yen" in "On the true meaning of" benevolence ":,and its meaning in other fields has conducted detailed and comprehensive analysis and research。September 1849,In the "Illustration of the Word FUNG",Explained the meaning and usage of Chinese characters "wind" in different contexts。

At that time, the overall characteristics and internal structure of Chinese characters in the Western Sinology community,Research on a single word for some sinologists,I undoubtedly created a new research angle,At the same time, the research on Chinese characters in Chinese characters in China has bet365 best casino games gradually deepened,Follow the deficiency series of words,There are also inspections of Chinese characters and cultural connotation,These reflect the deep Chinese skills of some Western people who come to China from one side。

(Author Unit: School of Literature, Shandong Normal University)

Editor in charge: Cui Cen
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