China News Service, Beijing, February 6 (Reporter Ying Ni) The Chinese Lunar Year of the Dragon is approaching, and the word "龾" has suddenly become popular and has become the "leader" in the world of uncommon characters.
From the theme of the China Central Radio and Television Station's 2024 Spring Festival Gala "Dragon Walking, Rejoicing in Home and Country", to the "Dragon Walking" that appeared in the prologue hall of the Jiachen Year of the Dragon New Year Cultural Exhibition in the National Museum of China, to the current situation. The blessing words "Dragon is moving, the future is bright," have aroused people's attention and curiosity about rare words.
According to the "Kangxi Dictionary", "龘" comes from the first regular script dictionary "Yupian", and its sound is the same as "沓(dá)". "Dragon Walking Lulu" describes the way a dragon soars, high-spirited and enthusiastic.
Huang Dekuan, director of the Center for Research and Protection of Unearthed Documents at Tsinghua University and curator of the Museum of Chinese Characters, said that the "column" of three dragons developed from the "column" of two dragons. In "Shuowen Jiezi", Xu Shen interpreted "龖" as "flying dragon shape", which is also pronounced as "沓(dá)". "龘" was developed on this basis and has the same sound and meaning. "On the occasion of the Year of the Dragon, we use the ancient word '龘' to reflect our good expectations for the future. We hope that the new year will develop better and faster, with the spirit of the dragon and the tiger, and the spirit of the dragon and horse. This is an understandable mood."
He pointed out that, in fact, as a rare word, "龘" has almost never been actually used in the history of writing, but the cultural accumulation of Chinese language and writing is relatively deep, and these rare words have been left in classics. Nowadays, people have salvaged them from the vast sea of dictionaries and given them a new meaning of the times. Especially in recent years, the popularity of Chinese character culture has been high, and the development of cultural creativity related to this is of positive significance. "But it is unlikely that these rare characters will enter the use and circulation of Chinese characters. It should be said that the craze for rare characters is also a cultural phenomenon. Although it has certain positive significance, it should be stopped in moderation."
As one of the main members of the expert working group of the "Universal Standard Chinese Character List", Wang Lijun, a professor at the School of Liberal Arts of Beijing Normal University, said frankly that he does not agree with the excessive hype of uncommon characters. "The learning and use of common characters is more important."
In his opinion, Chinese characters have a very close relationship with Chinese culture. Even rare characters that are no longer used today often reflect the cultural information of the era when characters were created. Just like the character "龘", it is a symbol of ancient Chinese dragon culture. , also reflects the Chinese nation’s good wishes for a prosperous life. But after all, it is a character with strong traces of the times. If it is excavated now, it can only be used as a cultural symbol, but cannot enter the level of a universal character. It does not meet the conditions for entering the "General Standard Chinese Character List".
On February 5, the Hongshan Cultural Jade Dragon made its C-position debut at the Jiachen Year of the Dragon New Year Cultural Exhibition at the National Museum of China. (Photo courtesy of the National Museum of China)
When visitors to the National Museum of China enter the Jiachen Year of the Dragon New Year Cultural Exhibition, they will see four-character words related to the ten Years of the Dragon from 1916 to 2024 in the prologue hall, such as "Dragon Virtue in the Middle" in 1916, In 1952, "Dragon Traveled the Four Seas", in 2000, "Fengzhu and Dragon Soared", in 2012, "Clouds Rising and Dragons Soared", and in 2024, it was "Dragon Traveling".
Zhuge Yingliang, the curator of the exhibition and associate research librarian of the National Museum of China, said that "Dragon Walking Wolverine" is indeed a relatively popular word this year. From a curatorial perspective, this word is chosen to bless 2024 and hopes that the country Development is more prosperous and people's lives are more advanced.
"From the perspective of the exhibition, why does it start with the Hongshan Jade Dragon, the 'first dragon in China', followed by the word 'dragon' in oracle bone inscriptions, and also take out the rubbings of the 'Longzang Temple Stele' in the collection? In fact, it also starts with the Chinese characters. Let’s talk about dragon culture from one perspective. It is said that dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation. In my opinion, Chinese characters are actually some form of totem with powerful power. We hang these words on the wall of the preface hall to express blessings and hope that the audience Seeing its shape and pronouncing its pronunciation, in addition to recognizing one or two more characters, you can also feel the cultural power of Chinese characters." Zhuge Yingliang said.
This power is also conveyed in the "朤" composed of four "moons". "朤" sounds the same as "lang" (lǎng), which means bright and bright. The future is bright, that is, the future is bright. (over)