Ancient and modern characters. Qing Dynasty scholar Dai Zhen said in "An Answer to Mr. Jiang Shenxiu's Book on Primary Schools": "There are many ancient characters borrowed, and later generations have begun to increase the sidelines." The famous exegetical scholar Duan Yucai of the Qing Dynasty said: "There is no time in ancient and modern times, and Zhou is an ancient rule. Han is the present, Han is the ancient, and Jin and Song are the present. The ancient and modern characters are used at any time." Both ancient characters and modern characters have an inherited relationship in the form of characters. The phenomenon of using ancient characters commonly seen in contemporary calligraphy has become fashionable. Some ancient characters are available, while others are out of touch.
The ancient and modern characters are the same in terms of shape and structure. Such as "faint", from Congshi, the original meaning is to fall, sunset is faint. Most of the ancient weddings were held in the evening. "Ci Yuan": "Faciousness, wedding ceremony. The ancient ceremony of marrying a wife was held at dusk, so it is called faintness." The moment when yin and yang meet is the best time to get married. When copying ancient psalms, for example, in the "Book of Songs" dusk, marriage and marriage are all indicated by the word "faint". "Book of Songs · Beifeng · Gufeng": "Yaner is newly married, like a brother like a younger brother." The faint word plus a female is "marriage", which is used exclusively for marriage. Copy ancient books, faint can be faint marriage. In contemporary creation, the faint marriage should be written as marriage more appropriate.
The ancients' conception of the ancient and modern characters is divided by time, that is, the ancient and modern characters are different. Qiu Xigui said in the "Summary of Philology": "The ancient and modern characters are also a term related to the polymorphism of a word. The different writing forms of a word often have a time around. The former is the ancient character of the latter , The latter is the current word of the former."
The phenomenon of ancient and modern characters often appears in the ancient classics. Due to the large number of ancient and modern characters and pass-and-fake characters, it is often difficult for scholars to read and transcribe. In the ancient books of Qin and Han Dynasties, the phenomenon of the use of false characters is common. According to statistics, there are a total of more than 5,500 characters in Ma Wangdui's silk book "Lao Tzu", of which there are more than 300 false characters. For contemporary calligraphers, it is inevitable that people can't recognize words, read and understand the meaning of the text, and transcribe them blindly. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, ancient books were continuously sorted out by descendants, and the ancient and modern characters and false characters were reduced.
The phenomenon of ancient and modern characters and pass-and-fake characters in contemporary calligraphy works are common, but most authors cannot understand why this word is used, they do not understand the original meaning and extended meaning of the text, and sometimes it is unavoidable that they are mistaken for wrong words. After the evolution of the characters in various eras and the determination of the authenticity of the characters in various periods, the phenomenon of multi-purpose in ancient times gradually decreased. For example, Ji, which differentiated from Qing, can also be directed. Many of the directions in the ancient books are written as "Xi". The characters of Ji, Qing, and Xiang have long been separated, and their respective functions have been separated. For example, the county is called "Xi", and the county is called "Xuan". Eyes, refers to cutting off the head and hanging on the wood. The characters in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties are not seen in the word, perhaps the county's provincial body. The first word of Xiaoshou is regarded as "shou". Xiangxian and Shoushou are still used in ancient books. For example: "Poetry, Weifeng, Fatan": "Do not hunt or hunt, Hu Zhanerting has a county?"
Jin Taoqian's "Peach Blossom Source": "The mountain has a small mouth, as if there is light, then the boat will enter from the mouth." "She" here is "she", which is the ancient word for she. "Said the text": "She, the city lives in the house." She originally meant housing, later extended to abandon, and create a differentiated character.
"Guanzi·Light and Heavy B": "The weight of Junzhi coins depends on the number of them, so that there is no bond deed." "Responsibility" is the ancient word for debt. "Said the text": "Responsibility, beg also." Gu has no debt.
Song Yan said several words of "Butterfly Love Flower": "Chaoluo Mo openly admits that no one understands the hardships." "Mo" here is "Twilight", which is the original word of "Twilight". Mo's original meaning is that sunset is in the grass, the original word for "sunset", which means sundown and evening. Later, the word "Mo" was pretended to be an indefinite pronoun, and then the word "Mo" was added to the word "Mo" to mean "Twilight" to mean "evening", and "Mo" and "Twilight" became Ancient and modern characters. Words similar to these differentiations have been added, and the meaning of the words has been clearly defined.
"You" is shaped like a small, sharp-bottomed wine vessel, which means "wine". "Said the text": "Yu, it is also. In August, the millet becomes a wine." Youyou is the original word for "wine" and "respect." Later, "you" was borrowed for another meaning. For the sake of distinction, "water" was added next to "you", which means "wine", and "hand" was added next to it to represent the wine container, which was the word "respect". "Respect" is also extended to the meaning of respect. The three characters express their meanings, and the ancient and modern characters have their own missions. In calligraphy creation, I occasionally see the retro phenomenon of "you" as wine and "you" as respect.
There is a couplet in front of the Meng Jiangnv Temple: "The sea water is moving towards the Chao Dynasty and the Chao Dynasty is falling, and the floating clouds are long and long." The most common sentence reading is: sea water, Chao Chao, Chao Chao Chao; Fu Yun Rise, often rise, often rise and disappear. "Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Chinese Characters": "Chao Shui. In this sense, the writing of ancient Chinese characters, the writing of modern Chinese characters is "Chao"." "Long" means "up". For example: Han Xunyue's "Han Ji · Emperor Ji III": "Yin Qi overflows, water is long, so within a day, the day decreases and the night increases." "Long" means "chang", such as: "Zhuangzi" "Autumn Water": "My long smile laughs at the generous house." Therefore, this couplet seems to use a word repeatedly, in fact, the connotation of ancient and modern, otherwise it will not be readable.
"Oblique" is written as "Yu" in the "Engraving the Stone Carvings of Baodao". Yu, a pictograph, like a house, the original meaning is residential, synonymous with "she", Jia Jinwen borrowed as the first person pronoun. "Kangxi Dictionary": "...and also cover and cut, sound evil. Baoyu, Shu place names. A masterpiece of praise. "Hanyang Jubei" praises as a praise." There are many such words in Hanbei, such as Pi A large number of ancient and modern characters, pass words, such as, avoid, Tao, guide, rest, daughter-in-law, reverse, return, volume, volume, respect, police, north, back, natural, burning, remaining, giving, two, vehicles. There are few ancient Chinese characters, such as conferring Chinese characters, as well as meanings such as sharp, speaking, and Yue.
Duan Yucai, a well-known exegetical scholar in the Qing Dynasty, said: "While reading the scriptures, you must know the ancient and modern characters." In the study of calligraphy, copying ancient books. A large number of ancient characters and false characters are obstacles to our learning. There are few ancient scripts, classics are circulated, and the phenomenon of multi-use is common. With the continuous evolution of characters and the increase of new characters, after the change, the shape, meaning, and sound of Chinese characters gradually stabilized, and Chinese characters entered a period of standard writing. The meaning of many ancient and modern characters has also changed, and some have borrowed it for others, while others have been eliminated. For the ancient characters in ancient books, we must respect the original text and advance with the times. For the characters that have been used independently for a long time, we should avoid using the original ancient characters. The ancient and modern characters are often not the same. Even if some words can be used in common, the division of semantic meaning of today’s characters is more clear and more specific. Directive, easy to read and understand. After the evolution of characters into regular script, ancient characters are rarely used by people. They are only used in calligraphy, especially in seal script and seal carving. They are rare in regular script and line script, because differentiated characters have been very mature and have been in history. Appearing as a straight word is the standard text of the past dynasties. Correct use of ancient and modern characters will be of great benefit to reading ancient classics and the application of calligraphy creation. Knowing the six books and understanding the evolution of the ancient and modern writings are the most basic qualities for us to learn and inherit the traditional culture.
(Author: according to Liu Jian, Associate Professor Department of Chinese calligraphy Press)