Wang Yunlu is a chair professor of Dunhe Chair Professor of Zhejiang University, a special expert of Zhejiang Province, and a distinguished professor of "Changjiang Scholars" of the Ministry of Education. He is currently the director of the Institute of Ancient Books of Zhejiang University, a librarian of the Zhejiang Provincial Research Museum of Culture and History, and the president of the Chinese Exegesis Research Association. He is the author of "History of Medieval Chinese Vocabulary", "Research on the Core Meaning of Chinese Vocabulary", "Essays on the Language of Medieval Poetry", etc.
Language is the carrier of culture, and it is also the objective presentation of the ancients' understanding of things and the world. In my opinion, the transformation from "technique" to "Tao" should be the core principle of the study of the Chinese language, especially the study of ancient languages.
Regarding the difference between "technique" and "Tao", "Zhuangzi Health Master" has a vivid story:
Ku Ding is Wen Huijun's cow relief, the touch of the hand, the shoulder leaning, the foot walking, the knee foot, the xū (xū) is to the ran, and the knife is played (huō) ran, all of which are not alto. The dance of "Mulberry Forest" is the meeting of the "Sutra Head". Wen Huijun said: "Hey, good! That's it? Ku Ding released the knife and said: "Those who are good for ministers, the Tao is also good, and they are skilled in skills." …… Three years later, I haven't seen all the cows. At this time, the minister meets the (ox) with the god instead of the eye, and the official knows and the god wants to do it. ”
Zhuangzi's Ku Ding, the skill of solving the ox is superb, the arm is stretched to carry the knife, and the middle tone and stanza are all praised, and Wen Huijun praised his exquisite technique. But Ku Ding said, what I like is "Tao", which is far higher than "skill"! The "Tao" pursued by Ku Ding is a higher realm, that is, the understanding of the essence of the "ox".
The "Liezi Shuofu" also describes the "Tao" as follows:
(Bole is elder, and he recommends Jiufang Gao, who is good at horses, to Qin Mugong) Mu Gong saw it and asked for horses. In March, he returned and reported: "I have gained it, in the dunes." Mu Gong said: "Who is also? He said, "It's yellow." "Let people take it, and make it happen. Mu Gong was displeased, and called Bole and said: "Defeated, the son made the horse seeker!" Can you know the color and the peony, but what can you know? Bo Le sighed and said: "That's it! It is because of thousands of ministers and countless people. If Gao's view, the heavenly machine is also, get its essence and forget its coarseness, in it and forget its outside; See what they see, don't see what they don't see; Look at what they see, and leave what they don't see. Those who are like Ruogao are those who are more expensive than horses. "The horse is the horse of the world.
The technique of the Jiufang Gao Xiangma recorded in "Liezi", regardless of the coat color or the peony, looks at the essential attributes of the horse. This spirit of in-depth observation and attention to inner quality is the most commendable, so Bole is amazed: Jiufang Gao Soma has reached such a state! This is a place ten thousand times more than me! This is the realm of the Tao.
If you only pay attention to the external appearance, you can only stay at the level of "technique". Regarding the description of "technology", the more typical one is Ouyang Xiu's "Oil Seller" in the Song Dynasty:
Chen Kangsu is good at shooting, unparalleled in the world, and the public is also self-conscious. Taste shooting in the family garden, there are oil sellers who stand on their shoulders, and they don't go for a long time. I saw that his target was eight or nine times out of ten, but it was slightly jawed. Kang Su asked, "Do you also know how to shoot?" Am I fine? Weng said: "There is no other, but he is familiar with it." Kang Su said angrily: "Er'an dares to shoot lightly!" Weng said: "I know it by drinking oil." "He took a gourd and put it on the ground, and covered his mouth with money, and drained it with a ladle, and entered it through the hole of the money, and the money was not wet. Because he said: "I don't have him, but I know it." Kang Su laughed and dismissed him.
Chen Kangsu's archery is "eight out of ten", and the oil seller scoops oil with a spoon "from the money hole, and the money is not wet", all of which belong to "no other, but the hands are familiar", that is, the skills are skilled. Chen Kangsu asked, "Am I also good at shooting?" The oil seller thinks it is "cooked" rather than "refined". This is also the difference between "technique" and "Tao".
The ancients paid attention to "Tao", and their understanding of many things had a sublimation process from "technique" to "Tao". Language learning and research on how to reach the state of "Tao" should be our goal. Writing is not only a record of the life of the ancients, but also contains the ancestors' understanding of all things in the world, as well as the ancestors' understanding of various actions and emotions.
Xu Shen statue. Profile picture
From the current development process of language research, the changes in two factors have had a significant impact on related research. First, the increase in corpus, such as the appearance of oracle bone inscriptions and the discovery of unearthed documents, has allowed us to re-examine the understanding of the glyphs of Chinese characters since the Shuowen Jie Zi, and many radicals that were difficult to explain in the past have been explained with reasonable explanations, giving us a new grasp of the state of word use.
For example, the famous story recorded in the "Warring States Policy" "touch (zhé) says that the Empress Dowager Zhao", and Wang Niansun's "Reading Magazine" in the Qing Dynasty said: "...... This "Strategy" and "Zhao Shijia" are both "Zuo Shi touches the dragon and wishes to see the Queen Mother". The word 'dragon words' in this book is mistakenly combined with '詟' ears. The Queen Mother heard the words of the dragon's wish, so she waited for it with great vigour. ...... "Hanshu Ancient and Modern People's Table" is being made "Zuo Shi Touches the Dragon". and "Xunzi Parliamentary Chapter" notes: ""Warring States Policy", Zhao Youzuo touched the dragon. "Taiping Yulan Personnel Department" quoted this "policy" and said: "Zuo Shi touched the dragon and wished to see it. It's all clear. and "Xunzi Chendao Chapter" said: "If Cao touches the dragon, he can be described as a national thief." "Historical Records: Gaozu Meritorious Heroes and Marquis Table" has Linyuan Yi Marquis Qi touching the dragon, "Huijing Idle Marquis Table" has Shandu Jinghou Wang touching the dragon, it is the ancients mostly named "touching the dragon", and there is no name "touching the deaf". ”
Wang Niansun thus asserted that what was recorded in the "Warring States Policy" should be "touching the dragon and wishing to see the Queen Mother". Subsequent archaeological discoveries, such as the fragment of the "Warring States Policy" unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, and other unearthed documents just proved the correctness of Wang Niansun's judgment. The second is the improvement of research methods and tools. In the past, traditional research advocated that "if there are no ten examples, the law will not be established", researchers need to use cards to record the language examples found by flipping through the text page by page, and they must read it painstakingly, so that there is a surprise of "stepping on iron shoes and finding nowhere to find, and it takes no effort to get it", and only then did Wang Guowei propose the "three realms of reading". With the rapid development of the Internet and computer technology, researchers have more and more convenient means to collect all the knowledge and literature use cases required for research, and the progress and depth of research have been greatly improved. In the context of technological progress, what we need more is to strengthen our thinking ability, reasoning ability and logical judgment ability, and strive to realize the transformation from "technology" to "Tao".
Xu Kai's annotated "Biography of Shuowen Interpretation of Characters". Profile picture
Xu Kai's annotated "Biography of Shuowen Interpretation of Characters". Profile picture
Finding the inner connection from the outward appearance
How to seek the inner connection from the external appearance, here is an example. It is generally believed that there is a difference between the Kabe character and the bird character. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty said: "Yu, the general name of the short tail of the bird." Pictographic. All the genus of the Eagles are subordinate to the Birds. At the same time, it is proposed that "bird" is "the general name of long-tailed birds". Duan Yu commented: "The short-tailed name is a duck, the long-tailed name is a bird, the analysis is true, and the muddy words are not different." Gui Fu's "Evidence of Saying Wenyi" also said: "In other words, the bird is different, and in other words, the bird is commonly called." Duan's and Gui Fu's use of "Hun Yan" and "common name" is based on the fact that Xu Shen said a remedy, and the 1927 "Revised Yin Xushu Deed Interpretation" has a different interpretation of the "曰隹": "In the divination, there is no distinction between the bird and the bird, so the characters of the Xu Shu are mostly in the shape of a bird. Xu Yiyu is the general name of the short-tailed bird, and the bird is the general name of the long-tailed bird, but the bird-tailed elder is like a pheasant and a chicken, and from the bird; The short tail is not as good as the crane and heron, and all from the bird, it can be seen that the strong score is not obtained. What is put forward here is the view that "隹" and "bird" were originally the same word in ancient times.
Are these two seemingly completely different words related?
First of all, we compare the glyphs of "隹" and "bird".
The glyphs of "隹".
The glyphs of "bird".
A careful comparison of the early shapes of the characters "隹" and "bird" shows that the essence is the same, and there is no difference. Later, the words "隹" and "bird" were differentiated, and it is speculated that this was caused by artificially increasing strokes and decorations, which can be seen through the summary and comparison of pictures in various writing methods. Xu Shen's original analysis of the "bird" came to the conclusion: "Pictogram, the bird's feet are like daggers, from the dagger." "This is also a strong explanation, is it true that the shape of the feet of the bobtail bird is different? We should not be fooled by superficial dot paintings.
Secondly, we also need to analyze the Chinese characters that use these two radicals, and examine which ones are interchangeable.
The glyphs of "pheasant".
According to the different ways in which the character "pheasant" is written in the oracle bone inscription and the "Shuowen", it can be seen that there is only a difference in the degree of refinement of the side. Here are a few more examples:
(1) "Shuowen Bird Department": "鶪 (jú), shrike also. From the birds, the sound of the rooster. The view is that the word "鶪" is interchangeable from "bird" or "隹".
(2) "Shuowen Yubu": "Chickens, knowing the time and animals." "Chicken" is interchangeable with "鷄", and "隹" and "bird" are interchangeable.
(3) "Shuowen Yubu": "Ya, Chu Wuye." "Ya" is the ancient word for "crow", and later it was pretended to mean "Ya". "Seal Li, Vientiane Name, Bird Department": "Crow, in the tooth, Ya." "Sumbu": "Ya, fish flaws are reversed, positive is also, and musical instruments are also." ”
The above characters are all morphophonetic words, the sound notes remain unchanged, and the meaning can be from "隹" or from "bird", and the meaning is the same. There are a few more such examples, omitted.
Another example is "Shuowen Bird Department": "鷻 (tuán), carving also." Paragraph note: "The Ministry said: Eagle, eagle also." These two mutually corroborating names are either "隹" or "bird" as a side, which also indicates that their meaning is that of birds, and there is no difference in the length of the bird's tail.
In fact, the issue of the homology of the words "隹" and "bird" has long been discussed by scholars. For example, Mr. Qiu Xigui said in the "Outline of Philology" (1988): "'隹' and 'bird' can often be used interchangeably when used as ideographic sideways, for example, 'chick' is also used as 'bao', and 'chicken' (chicken) is also the same as '鷄', and the Shuowen says that '隹' is 'the general name of the bird', and 'bird' is the 'general name of the long-tailed bird', which may only be inferred from the glyphs." Xu Zhongshu's "Oracle Bone Dictionary" also said: "The original word is one word, and the ancient characters are the same as the bird." ”
Thirdly, we analyze the morphophonetic characters from "bird" and "隹" that appear in the "Shuowen", there are 115 bird characters in the "Shuowen Jie Zi", 4 new additional characters, plus 3 Wubu characters, a total of 122 words, most of which are special nouns for birds. And most of the birds represented by these words do not have the so-called "long tail" and "short tail" difference.
There are three examples of long-tailed or short-tailed birds in the Shuowen and the phonetic characters from "隹" and "bird":
(1) "Shuowen Bird Department": "鷮 (jiāo), a long-tailed pheasant, walks and chirps." This example is interpreted as "long-tailed pheasant" from "bird", indicating that there is no difference between "bird" and "bird" themselves.
(2) "Shuo Wen Yube": "Zhai, mountain pheasant." Tail length. From the feather from the falcon. "The pheasant's tail is long, but it is from the "eagle", which is also contradictory.
(3) "Shuo Wen Bird Department": "Stork, stork, devastation." Such as a quip, short tail. Shoot it, shoot people. From the sound of birds. This bird is clearly "short tail", and it is from "bird" and not from "falcon".
These three examples illustrate that "隹" and "bird" only indicate the genus, not the length of the tail.
In short, the characters Cong "隹" and Cong "bird" can essentially be regarded as the same radical, both refer to the name of the bird, its state, or the tools related to the bird, etc., without emphasizing the difference in the length of the bird's tail. Xu Shen's judgment based on the glyphs he could see was incorrect, and Duan Yuci corrected it on the basis of linguistic facts, but it was not thorough enough, because he still lacked further evidence, so that today's large reference books such as the Great Chinese Dictionary and the Great Chinese Dictionary are all forcibly separated according to Xu Shen's statement. This example also shows that we must have a scientific skeptical spirit in the conclusions of our predecessors, and we must not be confined to superficial phenomena, but should see the essence through phenomena.
Distinguish the way of thinking of the ancients contained in the written language
At present, we cannot grasp the original meaning and appearance of all the languages and writings, but we can get closer to the truth step by step. Here is an example of the exploration of the original meaning of the word "Yao" (traditional Chinese as "堯").
The glyphs of "Yao".
"Saying Wen Tubu": "堯, Gao also." From Yao on the vulture, high and far. Duan Yu commented: "堯, this is high." Tao Tang thought it was ...... The words of the Emperor are supreme. "堯, the word will be meaningful, from Yao on the vulture. "Shuowen Yaobu": "Yao, Tu Gao also." "Saying Wen and Children": "Wu, high and flat." Wang Yun reads: "Yao and Wu are both high, and if they are one, they will be high." Therefore, the original meaning of "堯" is high.
However, the rule of ancient man-made characters is to have a concrete image, not a completely abstract "high". Among the existing written materials, the earliest glyph of the character "Yao" is included in the "Oracle Bone Inscription Collection" (No. 9379), and the content of the divination is interpreted as "Yao in", and the word "Yao" in the oracle bone inscription may refer to the leader of the tribal alliance in ancient times. Judging from this "Yao", the description is generally in the form of a person kneeling and sitting, with a high hair ornament or hat on his head, and some scholars think that the top of the head is soil, which may be unreasonable. Perhaps the earliest word "Yao" describes the appearance of a tribal alliance leader, that is, "Yao" in ancient times; Some people also believe that "Yao" is the nickname given by later generations to the ancient emperor Tao Tang. Although the origin of the character "Yao" is currently unclear, we can be sure that the character "Yao" was originally used to praise the noble character of the Tao Tang clan.
By analyzing the phonetic (and huiyi) characters that use "Yao" as the side of the Shuowen, we find that most of these characters are "high" for a certain type of thing. For example: 顤 (yáo), which means high forehead; 峣, which means high mountain; warped, which means that the tail is held high; 趬 (qiāo), which means to walk with the legs raised; Xiao, which means that the horse is tall; 獟 (yào), which means tall dog; Xiao, which means the rising of the sun; burning, which means that the flame is high; pouring, meaning water is sprinkled from a high place; 荛 (ráo), which means grass grows tall; beep, which means that the sound becomes higher; Wait a minute.
In addition, it is high in the longitudinal direction and long in the transverse direction. If it is long, it can be curved. Therefore, the word "Yao" in "Shuowen" also refers to the "long and curved" of a certain type of thing. Such as: winding, rope winding; Radius, wood bent; Scratching, bending of the hand; Pins, insects bent; Wait a minute.
From the above examples, it can be seen that although Xu Shen was unable to analyze the meaning of the word "Yao", the interpretation of "堯, Gao Ye" is credible. Judging from the radical application of the character "Yao", the ancients had an amazing ability to observe, and they were able to see the common characteristics of these attributes and categories of unrelated things-Gao, so they would use the same sound note "Yao" to control it, so we cannot explain it from a single word when we analyze. In short, the shape and sound of the word is a very important type of glyph, showing the ancients on the connection between things thinking and association, if we clarify the ancients' ideas of word creation, and then use the inductive method to deduce, we can still find the ancients "Tao".
The restoration of the image of ancient man-made characters
The texts that have been handed down to this day record the daily life of the people, and also retain the real life scenes of the ancients, and reflect the changes and progress of history. Chen Yinke once said: "Any explanation of a word is a cultural history." We can also say that because a character can involve a string of characters and can clearly show what the ancients thought when they made words, then our research cannot be limited to a single word, and we need to re-explore the "Tao" of the ancients.
"Imagery" is not only a theoretical concept in literature, but also an important concept in Chinese language. Because the ancestors created Chinese characters to express a kind of image, in other words, Chinese characters expressed their meaning through the creation of images. Here we take a few words composed of the character "宀" as an example to see the imagery expressed by the ancients.
"Shuo Wen 宀部": "宀, the deep house is also delivered." Pictographic. Duan Yu commented: "The four notes of the ancient house, east and west and north and south, are all overlapped." There is a hall and a room, and it is a deep house. "宀 is a kind of deep house with walls on all sides, covered with walls, and a hall and a room inside." The oracle bone glyph of 宀 is the shape of the side view of the house. Most of the original meaning of the word "宀" is related to the living room, which we all know, but some of the "宀" characters actually imply the corresponding psychology and emotions generated by the ancients due to the different environments they lived in.
(1) The image of the word "cold". In Chinese, there are words such as "children of a poor family", "poor family", "visiting a poor house", "shabby", etc., "Shuowen": "cold, frozen." So can the word "cold" in these words be replaced with "cold" or "frozen"? Obviously, not, because the image of the word "cold" contains the mental activity of the ancestors to create the word, and its emotional experience is hidden in the construction of the word, and this emotional experience still affects our use of language and writing.
The literal meaning of the word "cold" is to indicate a poor and simple house, as well as the cold and embarrassed state of people in it. "Shuo Wen 宀部": "Cold, frozen also, this person is under the palace, and he is recommended by 茻 (mǎng), and there is a 仌 under it." Xu Shen's explanation is already very accurate and complete. The golden text "cold" on the Western Zhou Da Keding and the boy hair tripod is vivid and concrete: the people in the house are in the grass, covered with grass above, and covered with grass below, and there is ice under the grass mat. "Cold" creates a vivid and sensible image, and the core meaning of the expression is poverty.
The word "cold" on the Western Zhou Dynasty Dakeding
The word "cold" on the hair of the boy of the Western Zhou Dynasty
Therefore, the meaning of "cold" can be divided into two aspects. One is poverty. "Historical Records: The Biography of Fan Ju Cai Zelie": "Su Jia said: 'What happened to Uncle Jin? Fan Ju said: "The minister is a mediocre person. Su Jia mourned, stayed and sat to eat, and said: "Uncle Fan is so cold! But he took a robe and gave it. Han Xugan's "On the Noble Experience": "Yi Yin put Taijia, and the exhibition season covered the cold girl. In these two cases, "cold" still means poverty and lowliness. The second is cold. Jin Luji's "Sigh of Death": "Bu Hanlin is sad, playing spring and thinking. Poverty naturally has a sad and fearful mood, such as "cold heart and cold teeth" and "silence like a cicada". By understanding the imagery of the ancestors when they created the word "cold", we can understand the words "cold", "shabby" and "cold" more clearly.
The meaning of the word "cold" reflects the poor living conditions, and the ancients also created many words to indicate that the living environment is good. For example, "Saying": "End, all." "End" originally means a well-thought-out room. It can be seen that the original meaning of "end", "wide" and "you" all refer to the comprehensive and spacious residence, and people live comfortably in it. Therefore, there is the saying of "big households". Let's look at the words that indicate that the family is wealthy: "real" (實), from 宀, from through, referring to the family with money. "Bao" (寶), from 宀, from jade, from shell, means that there are treasures in the home. "Saying": "Rich, prepared, and thick." Therefore, there are two-syllable words such as "solid", "thick", "baby", "rich" and so on.
(2) The imagery of the word "An". "Saying": "Ann, quiet." From the female in the palace. "An", the oracle bone inscription is the shape of a woman kneeling in the house. The ancients believed that having a house and a woman means being safe. Through this imagery, "An" reveals the psychology of living with a family. Therefore, "peace of mind" and "peace of mind" all reflect the emotions and moods of peace, ease and stability. "Saying": "Peace, Anye." From the palace, the heart is on the dish. Dish, the food and drinking vessel of people, so the people are also. "If there is something to eat in the house, it is called "寍" (ning). Therefore, the paragraph notes the word "An" and says: "This is agreed with 寍." Duan Yuci had a deep insight into the original intention of the ancient man-made characters: "An" means that there are women in the house, and "寍" means that there is food in the house, isn't this the image of a warm home depicted by the ancients?
"Saying": "Fixed, peaceful." From the sound of the palace. "When a person walks into the house, he is determined." Mi, Ann also. "Feast, Annya." "Yes, so it is safe." These words all reflect the emotional feelings of the ancients who were stable, calm and comfortable after having a house and family, and reflect the great role of the living room on people's psychology. Of course, it is only in words, in context, and in a series of coherent expressions that the meaning of these individual words can be fully revealed, and the aesthetic value and metaphorical meaning of language can be reflected. "Peace of mind" and "chill" express completely opposite states of mind and emotions, which is also proof.
The high-frequency word that best represents the emotion of the ancient man-made words is probably "home". "Saying" cloud: "Home, home." From 宀, 豭省sound. The original meaning of "home" is "people's dwelling", which is a type of dry-column building, which records the original living state of ancient people living together in the same house. Regarding the status of "home" in people's hearts, I will not repeat it here.
Chinese characters create a kind of pictorial imagery, which is characterized by moving from figurative to abstract, and finally retains the clothing, food, housing, transportation, behavior and psychology of the ancients, as well as all things in nature, vividly and meticulously to this day. In particular, the clever use of the side of the glyph can not only clearly highlight the external category of the referent, but also clearly indicate the pronunciation and internal characteristics, which is really breathtaking. The ancients grasped the connection between things when they made characters, relying on grasping the essential characteristics, and "Jiufang Gao Xiangma" can embody this spirit. As ideograms, Chinese characters express the meaning of imagery and context, and the "Tao" contained in them subtly influences and nourishes the spiritual temperament and way of thinking of Chinese. There is such a passage at the end of the famous "Lanting Collection Preface" by Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty:
Every time you look at the reasons for the interest of the people in the past, if you are united, you will not be able to mourn in the text, and you can't say it. It is known that death and life are illusory, and Qi Peng's death is vain. The future looks at the present, and the present looks at the past, sad husband! Therefore, the people of the time are listed, and the description is recorded, although the world is different, so it is happy, and it is also one. Those who read it later will also be impressed by Sven.
This passage is still applicable to the understanding of words: the ancestors made words, with a picture, an image, to record and convey their cognition and understanding of all things, actions and emotions. "The future looks at the present, and the present looks at the past", this is true for the ancestors, and it is still true for future generations. For example, "Shuowen": "窨 (yìn), the basement also, from the hole, the sound." "Cellar, Ground Zang also. Tell from the hole. Names such as "cellar" and "manhole" have been used for thousands of years, and their pronunciation and meaning are the same. "Although the world is different, so I am happy, and it is also one." When we study language and writing, we should trace the thinking path of our ancestors, and strive to find the connection between the deep and essential context of words, so as to achieve the realm of "Tao".
(Source: Guangming Daily, June 22, 2024, page 10; Author: Wang Yunlu; Image source: original article with pictures; The original text has been deleted. ）