Chinese Intermezzo

Vladimir Živanović Far East Society Belgrade, Serbia Chinese Characters (汉字)

 One character = one syllable = one semantical unit (≈ one word)

 More than 60.000 characters in existence  Zhoghua zihai has collected 85.568 characters  Three to five thousand characters actually needed and used in everyday communication  Used outside of China  Universal written language

 Wade-Giles and Pictograms 人 Man 女 Woman

子 Child

Pictograms 馬 Horse 鳥 Bird

龜 Turtle 象 Elephant

Transformation

 Creation of contemporary Chinese characters  Misinterpretations are possible:

Original pictogram: sheep

美 big A man (shaman) wearing ceremonial Beautiful head gear Ideograms

木 Tree

林 Forest 森 Jungle

Ideograms

axe or shield hand 我 Me

man woman too too

He She 他 (other) 她

Ideograms

child woman 好 good

woman roof/house pig roof

安 peace 家 home

Ideograms

field strength 男 male

eye eye lose damaged

blind blind 盲 (figuratively) 瞎 (for real)

Ideograms ≠ 鳥 烏 bird crow

man roof dark mouth

dark 夜 night 名 name Ideograms (rare ones, though)

(dot) stone water stone water 砅 砯

to cross the river by sound of the water jumping on stones hitting rocks Rare and complex characters

zhé biáng talkative (traditional dish) out of use since used rarely V century AD (local dialects only) Phono-semantic characters

horse (mǎ) old (gǔ) 妈 姑 女 mother (mā) girl (gū) however (qiě) to be (nǎi) woman

Semantic component in: 姐 奶 elder sister (jiě) breasts, milk (nǎi) Phono-semantic characters 苦grass woman姑 古 bitter (kǔ) girl (gū) surround corpse, body in horiz. position ancient (gǔ)

Phonetic component in: 固 居 certain, firm (gù) live (јū) Simplification

 Non-standard simplification – calligraphy  Standards after the 1949 revolution 馬 马 龍 龙

Horse Dragon Simplifications

 Misunderstandings can occur here too...

stop, cease ear (phonetic value) heart

Shame Shame 耻 恥

Simplified Traditional And some more issues…

 Some characters have been altered in such a way that their phonetic component was lost

phonetic (píng) serve, trust, anyone (rèn)

heart Rely on 憑 凭 (píng) small table Traditional Simplified Phonetic only

ya 娅 噶 ga

hulu 呼噜 (snoring) Do we really need all this?

 Alphabet cannot convey the meaning

mā má mǎ mà ma 妈 麻 马 骂 吗 抹 蟆 码 唛 嘛 玛 杩 蚂 Link between Far Eastern Peoples

 Used all over Far East (Chinese cultural sphere) 我去学校

学校に行っています

学校에 가고있습니다

焠移場學 (Tôi đi trường học)

 In Korea (South) there are special teachers who teach just Chinese characters to students Oracle Bone Inscriptions Inscriptions on Bronze Greater Seal Script

Inscription on a ritual sword, Spring and Autumn Period Lesser Seal Script

Li Si, Qin Dynasty Li Si, Qin Dynasty Lesser Seal Script

Copy of Daodejing Copy of Yijing Han Dynasty Han Dynasty Clerical Script

Inscriptions from Han Dynasty

Tang Dynasty examples Semi-Cursive Script

Wang Xizhi, Jin Dynasty

Semi-Cursive Script

Wang Xizhi, Jin Dynasty Semi-Cursive Script

Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty Semi-Cursive Script

Zhu Da, Qing Dynasty Cursive (Grass) Script

Dong Qichang, Ming Dynasty

Zhang Zhi, Han Dynasty Cursive (Grass) Script

Zhang Xu, Cursive (Grass) Script

Li Bai, Tang Dynasty Thank you!

tongue, verbal 谢谢！

xièxie! shè contemporary (phonetic) universal punctuation mark  repeated as a sign of respect