Did the ancients use punctuation marks when writing books?

Ancient Chinese has always been punctuated. The earliest mature script that China can research is Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, paragraph numbers are marked with horizontal lines and straight lines. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's so-called? Duan? , refers to each section describing the day's divination and the effect after divination; In the Book of Houmameng in the Spring and Autumn Period, one or two short lines were used to express heavy words; There is a complex punctuation system in Mawangdui's Lao Zi. In Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi Bu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there is a striking sentence:? If you stop, you will know. All three people belong to the same family. ? Inside? Hey? It is a method used by the ancients to express pause; Lu Deming's classic interpretation had a pause in the Song Dynasty. In addition, the ancients also used symbols such as triangles, dots and squares with different usages. In Notes to Shangshu Table, there are some complicated patterns such as circle, square and flat as punctuation marks. But in the Song Dynasty, these various punctuation marks were gradually simplified into individual circles.

Errors in sentence reading and the solution of sentence meaning

If you read ancient books, you will find that the whole book is written like this from beginning to end, and there are no punctuation marks between the dense lines. If you don't believe me, you can try to look up ancient books on the Internet, such as the photocopies of the King James Sikuquanshu. The ancients seemed to train themselves to add punctuation marks when reading.

If your punctuation is wrong, the meaning of the whole sentence will be misinterpreted. For example, there is such an anecdote in the anecdote "Zi Tong Zhi Jian", which includes one sentence:? When the foundation collapses, you will abandon your armor and fight for hundreds of thousands of dead people, as well as beheading. ?

This whole paragraph is about losing the battle, and the soldiers can't resist, so they can only abandon their weapons and flee.

Do you see it? Hundreds of thousands of people died in the water? This sentence is not? Does the judge think it's here? Discard its armor? This sentence should stop. No! The correct sentence reads:? Every time the base collapsed, it abandoned its armor to compete for water. Hundreds of thousands of people died, and so did beheading. ?

Do you remember the most famous punctuation sentence in history? Stay on rainy days, stay on me? . This sentence comes from Zhao Tianyang's New Collection of Xie Renyi in Qing Dynasty. If punctuation is added, there will be seven ways to disassemble it. For example,? Stay on rainy days, but I won't stay on days. ? If it rains, will you stay with me? Stay. ? If it rains, stay in the daytime; Leave me alone!

The ancients used various punctuation marks.

Then again, in fact, the ancients did use punctuation marks, and the number was quite large.

The earliest mature writing that China can textual research, and the mature writing that has become a full system, should be Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, so have there been any relevant symbols in Oracle Bone Inscriptions? The answer is yes. The middle and section numbers of Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Yin Ruins are marked with horizontal lines and straight lines. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's so-called? Duan? , refers to each section describing the day's divination and the effect after divination. Even the characters with different divination contents and orders on the same day are separated by horizontal lines (occasionally curves). For example, (ridge) 5, three segments are separated by two straight lines; While "Hidden Heart" 475 is divided into eleven segments by ten horizontal lines (broken bones, otherwise more than that). Generally speaking, the Oracle Bone Inscriptions of shoulder and foot bones is divided into straight lines, the Oracle Bone Inscriptions of ribs is divided into horizontal lines, and the Oracle Bone Inscriptions of tortoise shell is divided into both horizontal lines and straight lines. Oracle Bone Inscriptions's method of distinguishing paragraphs is still in its infancy. Although it was used in Oracle Bone Inscriptions as early as the Wuding era? Line? Divided into paragraphs, but not all tortoise shell bones have such marks, even if the words on the page are messy.

The Book of Houmameng in the Spring and Autumn Period uses one or two short lines to express heavy words, which is a punctuation mark. In the silk book Lao Zi unearthed in Mawangdui, the punctuation system has become more complicated. In addition to single and double short horizontal lines, there are angle symbols, triangle symbols, dot symbols, frame symbols and so on, and their usage is also different. The engraving of the Song Dynasty that can be seen now is actually punctuated. Lu Deming's classic interpretation has been separated by a pause in the Song Dynasty. Some complicated books, such as Notes on Shangshu Table, have used punctuation marks such as circle, square, black triangle, flat bar and semicircle. This complicated punctuation method was gradually simplified to a circle as a separation in the Song Dynasty. Even in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, there is such a line: "Hey, stop it, and you will know." In other words, "hey" is an ancient way to express pause.

Just write and not read? What is this? Very famous

Although we found that many ancient books were punctuated, we always wondered why ancient people didn't use punctuation. ! In fact, this has a lot to do with the article structure and learning style of the ancients. ? What is this? It should be regarded as the most famous and bizarre sentence in classical Chinese. Because? What is this? Later it disappeared from spoken language, but it continued to appear in written language. It was just taken away? Just write and don't talk? This method has been used for two or three thousand years. ? What is this? It began to appear in written language during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and quickly reached a complete level in two or three hundred years.

? What is this? It usually represents the pause and separation of sentences. The ancients often used it to express the pause of sentences, especially the verse. Can Li Sao be used? Hey? Indicates the end of a sentence. In "Wen Xin Diao Long Juan Qi Zhang Sentences", we talked about using function words to break sentences:

What about the poet? Hey? Words enter the sentence limit, which is used in Chu ci, and words make sentences. Looking for the word "Xi" is a way to help Yu Sheng. Shun Yong's "South Wind" has been used for a long time, but Wu Weihao is useless, isn't it? As for it? Husband only keeps old? Singer, the first singer at the beginning; ? Why? Who is the old body of Zagreb's sentence; ? What is this? , also sent at the end of the routine. According to things like leisure, I am really cutting. Lucky, sewing style, can make a few sentences, a life-saving word. Loanwords are difficult to understand and are in an awkward position.

In addition, the ancient people's learning styles were different from those of today, which affected the use of punctuation marks. The Book of Rites contains:

Ancient teachers have schools, the party has difficulties, the art is orderly, and state-owned learning. Admission the following year, middle-aged exam. One year, you can distinguish between classics and records, three years, you can respect your career and music groups, five years, you can learn from your teachers, and seven years, you can learn from your theory and make friends, which is called small success; I have known the class very well for nine years and stood firm and did not object. This is a great achievement. Husband is enough to change the customs, and those who are near will persuade him, and those who are far away will be pregnant. This is also the way of university.

So, can we know that the ancients attached great importance to it? Distinguish sentences? Yes, that's the origin of reading ancient books.

The ancients actually attached great importance to the training of sentence reading, because sentence reading is the starting point of reading ancient books. Moreover, after children learn, do they have to take exams to verify whether they have it? Different from classics? The ability. What if? Get rid of classics (sentence reading classics)? There is a problem, which just shows that he has not fully understood this ancient book. Therefore, if you want to have the ability to read ancient books, you must first have the ability to read sentences.