Configuration method of Chinese characters

Traditionally, it is thought that the formation method of Chinese characters is the "six books" in Shuowen, but it is not. From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, there were various forms, sounds and meanings of talking about "primary schools". Later, scholars gradually narrowed the scope to form and became "graphology", and only then did they use "Liu Shu" as a method of word formation. Among the six books, pictographic characters, fingering, knowing and pictophonetic characters can produce new glyphs, but the methods of annotation and borrowing can't produce new glyphs, so the first four books are called "word-making method" and the last two books are called "word-using method". This theory had a great influence on later. After the primary school was renamed as "philology", it gradually regarded "philology" as "graphology". Originally, "philology" should include pictophonetic characters, phonological characters and exegetical characters. Later, philology, phonology and exegetics coexisted. "The first four books are word-formation" and "the last two books are word-formation", which are all said in the general university textbooks such as Ancient Chinese edited by Mr. Wang Li. Why does this statement come into being? There is another origin: Lin translated the Outline of Philology and said, "A few philologists made a mistake, because Ban Gu's Six Books are the basis of word-making, and they actually use annotations as the method of word-making." [2] Lin Yi once pointed out here that the mistake of using "Zhuan Zhu" as a word-making method originated from the word "the foundation of word-making". The word "zi" in this sentence was later understood as "glyph", so it was wrong. In fact, this word should be understood as a word. The word "zi" in ancient times included form, sound and meaning, not just "form", but the concept of "zi" was gradually simplified to a single finger shape. From this point of view, we think what Ban Gu said is good, but later generations misunderstood it. So how are the glyphs of Chinese characters formed? Careful analysis, it is composed of "parent division" (the term I gave it). Although there are more than 60,000 square characters, the basic strokes are only Bi (vertical), Yi (horizontal), Point and Left. A little bigger is | (vertical)-(horizontal) (left) (point) (hold) (lift) (fold) and so on. The basic strokes of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Jinwen are: point (), straight line (| 1) and curve (); The most basic strokes of Xiao Zhuan are straight line () and curve (). I call them "mother pens" because they are the mother of cutting Chinese characters. Some of the "mother pens" can be written independently, such as "one" and "one", and there are also many inscriptions on armor and bronzes. All Chinese characters can be made in the following ways. Let's take square Chinese characters as an example:

Single use of mother pen: such as one |

List of mother pens: Ruchuan 83 Primary School.

Contact information of female pen: If the work is straight.

Mother Cross: Like a string of ten letters.

The synthesis of mother pen: such as the mistake of Jiangsu and Zhejiang

In view of the above situation, we can know that there are five ways to construct Chinese characters: (1) the mother pen becomes a character alone; (2) the mother pen is divided into words; (3) the mother pen contacts to form characters; (4) the mother pen crosses into words; (5) the mother pen is integrated into the text. Using these five methods to analyze Chinese characters is easy to understand. It is also easy to master these five methods. To thoroughly analyze Chinese characters, of course, we must analyze the roots clearly. The etymology of Chinese characters should be far before that of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, because Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a mature writing. However, from the literature, China's earliest glyph is only Oracle Bone Inscriptions, so it can only be analyzed from Wen Jia. I made an analysis and statistics on all Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Oracle Bone Inscriptions edited by the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Zhonghua Book Company, 1965 edition). The edited version and appendix of Oracle Bone Inscriptions received 4672 words, and each word also received the same tortoise version and bone fragments or different tortoise plates and bone fragments. There are 189 18 in the revision, 5292 in the appendix, and 167 1 in the combination of two or three words. Quanshu 26 18 1 word. [3] In these words, "the mother pen is used alone" includes:

Wait18; Plus tortoise shell, bone fragments and different tortoise shell and bone fragments, a total of 58 words. There are 274 words in the "mother pen". There are: 3748 words in the "mother pen contact". Yes: 395 words. There are: 2 1706 words in "mother pen synthesis". It can be seen that Oracle Bone Inscriptions's analysis with the above five methods is also very clear. The ancients did not consciously follow the above methods, but consciously or unconsciously considered how to make the pen shape concise, the combination clear and easy to see, in line with writing habits. Now, if further analysis and summary have become a reality, we know that their configuration is nothing more than the above five methods. This is what I call Chinese character formation. If the configuration of Chinese characters is compared with that of western languages, then the "mother pen" of Chinese characters is equivalent to the "letter" of western languages; The "initial stroke division" of Chinese characters is equivalent to the spelling of western languages.

The formation method of Chinese characters does not distinguish between sound and meaning. If it forms a fixed shape and has a fixed sound and meaning, it belongs to the scope of word formation. It is a new attempt to study Chinese characters from the aspects of "word formation" and "word formation", but I think it makes the essence of Chinese characters clearer. In order to discuss the problem of configuration method conveniently, let's first discuss the characteristics of configuration method without distinction between sound and meaning. Let me give you a few examples to analyze. For example, the words "rain" and "horse": rain:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Jinwen: (6) (7) (8)

Small seal script: (9)

Official script: (10) (1 1)

Horse:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions: (12) (13) (14) (15) (16)

Jinwen: (17) (18) (19) (20) (21)

Xiao Zhuan: (22)

Official script: (23) (24)

Regular script: (25) (26)

The words "rain" and "horse" were written by Oracle Bone Inscriptions according to Oracle Bone Inscriptions [4], Jinwen according to Jinwen [5], Xiaozhuan according to Shuowen Jiezi Note [6], Lishu according to Lishu [7] and regular script according to Jinwen [8]. Look at the word "rain" first: pictographic. The sound and meaning of "rain" remain unchanged, and its forms have changed successively: there are 67 forms in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, only five of which are selected here, three forms in bronze inscriptions, and basically one or two forms in seal script, official script and regular script. There are 75 forms in all. Its configuration requires different strokes. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, (1)(5) is six paintings, (3)(4) is seven paintings and (2) is eight paintings. (6), (7) and (8) in the bronze inscriptions are all seven paintings; Xiao Zhuan (9), Li Shu (10) and regular script (1 1) are all eight paintings. Its configuration method is as follows: (1)(2)(3) Oracle Bone Inscriptions belongs to "mother pen synthesis" configuration [( 1)(2) there are two pen shapes of separation and contact, (3) there are three pen shapes], (4)(5) it belongs to "mother pen". Bronze inscriptions, seal script, official script and regular script all belong to the "mother script synthesis" configuration [(6)(7)(8) with two strokes, (9) (10) (1) with three strokes]. The word "rain" is simple. Let's look at the more complicated word "horse": "horse" is also a hieroglyph. The pronunciation and meaning of the word "horse" remain unchanged, while the shape of the word is more. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has 50 styles and bronze inscriptions have 44 styles (I chose 5 cases of these two words); Small seal script is a form; Official script and regular script (including simplified Chinese characters) are two kinds of glyphs. * * * is 99 forms. Its configuration requires different strokes; (26) Three paintings, (22) Seven paintings, (16)( 19) Eight paintings, (14) Nine paintings, (18)(23)(24)(25) Ten paintings.

From the point of view, there are many special-shaped characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, but seal script, official script and regular script are unified. The more anomalies there are, the more complicated they are. Regardless of the sound and meaning, the function of word formation is more obvious. It is easier to understand the difference between word formation and word formation. The more unified, fixed and standardized Chinese characters are, the easier it is to analyze their structure with the method of "parent-stroke division". There are more than 60,000 Chinese characters in regular script [9] at present, so it is not difficult to analyze all the Chinese characters with the method of "initial stroke division".

The physical structure of Chinese characters is only the first level of Chinese character structure, which only expresses the form, regardless of the sound and meaning. This level is equivalent to the western alphabet. Western letters can be written very short or very long, and the letters match each other according to the rules, but what the connected words are is not the responsibility of the letters. The combination of "mother strokes" can form words with fewer strokes or words with more strokes, but the way to form words is not the responsibility of strokes. The strokes can form pictographic, indicative, comprehensible and pictophonetic characters, and such characters become "characters". The "mother pen" of Chinese characters has developed from a graphic linear symbol to a regular script stroke, and any Chinese character is formed by this stroke through a certain configuration. Mr. Jiang Liangfu said in Yingya Dunhuang Rhyme Collection: "Before the Tang Dynasty, there were three changes in Chinese writing: the ancient books in the pre-Qin period, with fragrant Oracle bones and auspicious gold, originated from one school, while the miscellaneous changes were due to local customs; Qin Zheng unified writing and pronunciation, and the six countries used different languages, so it was abolished and changed; Because of Qin Zhuan, the Han Dynasty was cleverly omitted to make it simple. Later, with Cao Li, the structure must be neat. The painting must be simple, and the feeling will change. Although vulgar books are different, they are prosperous. Ancient Chinese is in the classics, and the seal is only in the seal. This is another change. " [10] Fonts have not changed much since the Tang Dynasty. The "three changes" mentioned by Mr. Jiang Liangfu are not only changes in the structural form of Chinese characters, but also changes in the writing style, which is very accurate. The structural form is changing from heterogeneity to unity and from sensitivity to simplicity, which is a matter of configuration method; The change of writing style from Oracle Bone Inscriptions-bronze inscription, Shigu-seal script-official script (including regular script) is a change of writing method and a problem of calligraphy management. Moreover, these two changes are not changes in word formation. Let's discuss word formation.