China News Agency, Beijing, December 21st. Question: How is ancient philology "unpopular and unpopular"?
Author Chen Weiwu Professor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Sun Yat-sen University, Distinguished Professor of "Cheung Kong Scholars" of the Ministry of Education, Executive Director of Jao Tsung-I Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University
On December 20, the unveiling ceremony of "Chinese Inventory 2022" was held in Beijing.
"Stability", "The 20th National Congress of the Party", "War" and "Russia-Ukraine Conflict" were selected as domestic words, domestic words, international words, and international words of the year respectively.
As a symbol of Chinese culture, Chinese characters condense the spirit of the times and describe the world.
The ancient characters interpret the brilliance and depth of Chinese civilization from the historical dimension.
What people usually call "ancient philology" should have been called "ancient Chinese philology", which refers to the study of ancient characters before Xiaozhuan in the Qin Dynasty, and some written materials in the early Western Han Dynasty (before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty) with the characteristics of seal script.
Paleography is closely related to archaeology, history, linguistics, philology and other disciplines.
Ancient Chinese civilization is one of the few independently formed ancient civilizations in the world.
Although archaeologists have different definitions of civilization, they almost all emphasize that "writing" is an indispensable factor for the origin of civilization.
The emergence of Chinese characters is a major issue related to the occurrence of Chinese civilization. Studying the origin of Chinese characters is also an exploration of the origin of Chinese civilization. Paleographers are duty-bound and will play the main role.
Guo Moruo, Yu Xingwu, Tang Lan, Rao Zongyi, Li Xiaoding, Gao Ming, Wang Ningsheng, Li Xueqin, Qiu Xigui, Zeng Xiantong, Zhang Guangyu and others have all discussed the origin of Chinese characters in their articles.
According to ancient history legends, Cangjie (also known as Cangjie) created Chinese characters. Cangjie was the official historian of the Yellow Emperor.
"Lushi Chunqiu Junshou" records: "Cangjie wrote books." "Huainanzi Benjing" says: "In the past, Cangjie wrote books, but it rained millet in the sky, and ghosts cried at night." In the eyes of the ancients, the emergence of Chinese characters , is a big event that shakes the world and weeps ghosts and gods, and Chinese characters are endowed with mysterious power.
Cangjie.
Photo courtesy of Reading Times/Visual China
Before human beings stepped into the threshold of civilization, they went through a long prehistoric era and aboriginal era.
Modern archeology has discovered Yangshao Culture, Dawenkou Culture in the Yellow River Basin and Liangzhu Culture and Daxi Culture in the Yangtze River Basin. Some pottery symbols unearthed are the germination of primitive Chinese characters.
Chinese characters have been born at least during the Longshan Culture and Taosi Culture period, more than 4,000 years ago, which is equivalent to the "Five Emperors" period recorded in "Historical Records".
A pottery flat pot unearthed from the Taosi site in Xiangfen, Shanxi, has the word "wen" written in brush and Zhu script and the suspected "Yao" character on it.
Shandong Zouping Dinggong pottery inscriptions, the whole piece has five elements and eleven characters, with skillful brushwork and exquisite arrangement.
Although there are still differences in interpretation, most of them recognize its nature as an original Chinese character.
The continuous writing of multiple symbols shows that the pottery inscriptions are connected with words in Chinese, and certain semantics and phonetics are recorded.
The 4,000-year-old brush and Zhu script "wen" unearthed at the Taosi site in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province is earlier than the oracle bone inscriptions.
Photo by Sun Zifa
Text is the solidified form of ancient language and history, and it can be transmitted to different times and places, and it is far and wide.
The oracle bone inscriptions unearthed from the Yin Ruins belong to the late Shang Dynasty, and they are mature Chinese characters with a strong system.
The ancient character configuration system represented by oracle bone inscriptions belongs to the "ideal phonetic characters" and keeps pace with the times, becoming the precious cultural root of the Chinese nation.
Since ancient times, China has been in five directions and has many ethnic groups. There are not only Chinese "elegant language", but also many Chinese dialects and minority languages. Chinese characters have become the most effective medium for people in different dialect areas and ethnic minorities. Continuous and continuous strong vitality and cohesion.
To study the early Chinese civilization, the farther you go, the more difficult it is to know the ancient times. The historical materials recorded in ancient characters are more important to the latecomers.
Oracle bone inscriptions from Yin Ruins.
Photo by Niu Yixin
Pre-Qin archaeological sites, relics, and relics can be roughly divided into two categories, one with characters and one without characters.
The unearthed documents recorded in ancient characters contain rich historical and cultural information, and the research and interpretation of ancient characters to understand the cultural connotation of these documents has become the core task of paleographology.
If the words are misrecognized, the historical figures, ages, events, and regions deduced from them may all be false and wrong.
It can be said that paleography is the key to studying the history and culture of the Chinese nation's early thought, economy, military, science and technology, and literature.
The reconstruction of the ancient history of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties in China's early civilization undoubtedly depends on the unearthed ancient writing materials, which may be corroborated with handed down documents, such as the oracle bone inscriptions of Yin Ruins confirming the lineage of Shang kings in "Historical Records·Yin Benji"; Gongyu records the story of Dayu's water control; the Chu Silk Book of the Warring States Bullet Library contains the creation myth of Fuxi and Nuwa, and so on.
There are also many ancient text materials that are not found in the handed down documents, such as the excavation and interpretation of the chimes from the tomb of Zenghouyi, the sound inscriptions on the chime chimes, and the music rhythm inscriptions, which let people know that the twelfth rhythms of the time were revolving palaces and modulations. The height has a new understanding.
Many bamboo slips and silk lost manuscripts are enough to fill the gaps in the records. For example, the long history book "Si Nian" on the Tsinghua bamboo slips has 138 slips, which records the history from the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Warring States period. insufficient.
"Book of Songs", "Shangshu", "Book of Rites", "Book of Changes" and "Spring and Autumn" are known as the "Five Classics", which are the core classics that have a profound impact on Chinese culture. Added a lot of errors.
Among the unearthed ancient text materials are different manuscripts of these classics, which preserve the earliest authentic features that are currently visible, and are of great value for understanding the original appearance of the classics. Paleographers have become "scavengers", just to remove obstacles for the interpretation of these classic unearthed books.
Another example is the chapters "Cong Zheng" on the Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slips, "The Position of the State", "The Way of Governing the Country" and "The Way of Governance" on the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips.
Counting from Xu Shen’s “Shuowen Jiezi” written by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Chinese ancient philology has a history of nearly 2,000 years. There are four branches: the study of oracle bone inscriptions, the study of bronze inscriptions, the study of Warring States writing, and the study of Qin and Han writing.
The study of characters in the Warring States Period can be said to be the most popular direction at present, and Xu Shen started it. Since the 20th century, scholars such as Wang Guowei, Li Xueqin, and He Linyi have made achievements in their theoretical construction.
There are many types of characters in the Warring States Period, and there are many writings, and the results are overwhelming.
"Shuowen Jiezi" written by Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Photo courtesy of Visual China
In order to reflect the historical outlook and current situation of textual research and interpretation in the Warring States as a whole, Mr. Zeng Xiantong and the author co-edited "The Collection and Interpretation of Words and Words Unearthed in Warring States Documents", which was originally proposed by Mr. Zhao Cheng in 2002. The National Social Science The general project of the fund (established in 2003 and completed in 2007) was expanded. More than 20 scholars from three generations of Sun Yat-sen University, old, middle-aged and young, worked hard for 15 years to complete the work. It was officially published by Zhonghua Book Company in 2017-2018.
"Ji Shi" has more than 10 million characters, comprehensively records all the prefixes of the Warring States characters, and includes representative forms under each prefix, sorts them in chronological order, indicates the source, and uses the words to link words, and collects the opinions of various scholars. After that, press the button to cut off.
This book is an integrated work that systematically sorts out the achievements of textual research and interpretation in the Warring States period after large-scale reference books such as "Gu Lin of Oracle Bone Inscriptions" and "Gu Lin of Bronze Inscriptions". Assistance with subject research.
"Explanation of the Collection of Words and Words Unearthed in Warring States Documents".
At present, with the development of information, the description of original materials of ancient characters, the interpretation of ancient characters, the classification of textual research and interpretation documents, and the single word index of ancient characters all need to be digitized. Many universities and scientific research institutions at home and abroad have built various ancient character databases, which are of great help to the study of ancient characters.
For example, there are so many achievements in textual research and interpretation in the Warring States Period. How can big data technology empower the collation and research of textual research and interpretation?
The major project of the National Social Science Fund hosted by the author - "Warring States Chinese Characters and Database Construction" was officially established in 2017, and it is cooperating with Zhonghua Book Company "Gulian Company" to move forward on the basis of "Ji Shi".
Each of the characters of the Warring States period described in "Gu Lin" will be marked as long as there are scholars who have researched and interpreted the characters of the Warring States period. One-to-one correlation correspondence of a single document.
Readers can quickly find all kinds of relevant information about the research and interpretation opinions through the marking under a certain prefix on the front end.
And this information will continue to implement dynamic updates.
In 2021, the major project of the National Social Science Foundation chaired by Professor Fan Changxi - "Construction of Big Data Cloud Platform for the Study of Warring States Characters" will be formally established, which can be regarded as an extension of the previous project. It will provide powerful assistance to the research on the social and cultural history of the Warring States period in the field of paleography and related humanities, and will also bring more services to the general public.
Among the world's five major ancient writing systems, ancient Egyptian holy book writing, Mesopotamia cuneiform writing, ancient Indus Valley seal writing and Mesoamerican Mayan writing died out together with the civilizations on which they depended, while only ancient Chinese characters have a long history and are unique. Charm, derived from Chinese poetry, calligraphy, couplets, drinking orders, riddles and other art forms, was called "Chinese character tree" by Mr. Jao Tsung-I.
The Chinese character tree has deep roots and luxuriant leaves, and blooms like a brocade.
"Sinology" abroad began with the introduction and research of Chinese classics.
"Sinology" has spread all over the world, and it has long been no longer limited to the "Chinese character cultural circle" of China's neighboring Korean Peninsula, Japan, and Vietnam.
However, the study of ancient Chinese characters is not very active abroad at present. Hawaiian of the University of Chicago, Allan of Damus University, Li Feng of Columbia University, Gu Shikao of Yale-NUS College of Singapore, Onishi Katsuya of the University of Tokyo, France Scholars such as Mai Lixiao of the National Center for Scientific Research have made outstanding achievements.
In the future, strengthening the academic exchanges between the Chinese ancient writing circle and foreign sinology circles will be of great benefit to publicizing the long history and cultural essence of early Chinese civilization.
An art installation inspired by the Chinese character "door" on the streets of Paris, France.
Photo by Li Yang
China is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and Chinese is the daily working language of the UN.
The importance of Chinese characters as the recording symbol system of Chinese is self-evident.
China is already the second largest economy in the world, and its national strength is getting stronger and stronger. It is far away from its voice, and all boats rise when the tide rises. Chinese characters are a bridge and bond to promote friendly exchanges between China and the people of other countries. As a medium for cultural exchanges, it is also It is getting bigger and bigger, and it will surely shine more brilliantly in the world in the future.
In recent years, the country has attached great importance to the role of oracle bone inscriptions and other ancient writing research in the inheritance of Chinese civilization. We firmly believe that "unpopularity is not cold, but learning is endless." On the road to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, Chinese ancient writing will definitely make a difference Expect.
(use up)
About the Author:
Chen Weiwu, born in 1962.
Now he is a professor of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Sun Yat-sen University, a doctoral supervisor, a distinguished professor of the "Cheung Kong Scholar" of the Ministry of Education, the executive director of the Jao Tsung-I Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University, and the chief expert of the major project of the National Social Science Fund "Warring States Characters and Database Construction".
Vice President of the Chinese Ancient Characters Research Association, Executive Director of the Chinese Characters Society, Vice President of the Macao Chinese Characters Society, Chief Editor of the academic journal "Ancient Characters Forum" of Sun Yat-sen University.
He is the author of "A Discussion on the Literature of Military Science on Bamboo Slips and Silk", "Yuyuzhai Moya Collection: A Series of Research on Ancient Characters and Chinese History", "Yuyuzhai Moya II Collection: A Series of Research on Ancient Characters and Ancient Documents", and co-edited "Unearthed Warring States Period" with Professor Zeng Xiantong Literature Words Annotation".
He has published more than 100 papers in journals such as "Chinese Language", "Research on Ancient Characters" and "Research on Ancient Chinese".
His works were awarded the 8th Outstanding Scientific Research Achievement Award of Universities, the First Prize of the National Ancient Books Publishing House's Top 100 Books of the Year, the Nomination Award of the 5th China Publishing Government Award, and the 3rd "Song Yunbin Ancient Books Compilation Award · Book Award", etc.