"Chinese character culture is the core culture and basic culture of Chinese culture. Ancient Chinese characters are the source of Chinese characters, among which the oracle bone and gold script are the memories of the new era of Chinese civilization, the carrier of ancient Chinese documents, the fossils of ancient culture, and the precious heritage left by my Chinese ancestors to future generations and the people of the world. ”
Photo: Liu Mengdong
Professor Xu Chao's new book "Damei Chinese Characters" will be published by Guangxi Normal University Publishing House. The book is divided into two parts, the upper part is "Introduction to Ancient Chinese Characters", which introduces the knowledge of ancient characters and the basic laws of understanding ancient characters in a simple and simple way, guides readers to start from understanding a glyph, and gradually understand 10, 20, and even more through the method of snowballing. The next part is "100 Ancient Chinese Characters", that is, the dissection of 100 "sparrows". After each explanation, Professor Xu Chao created a single-character calligraphy with a standardized golden text.
The beauty of Chinese characters is not only beautiful in form, but also beauty in culture and beauty in wisdom. Reading "Damei Chinese Characters", you can draw rich nutrition from ancient Chinese characters from ancient Chinese characters. Our special column "The Wisdom of Chinese Characters" will select a number of notes from "Damei Chinese Characters" in stages and share them with you.
The original glyph of the word "An" resembles a woman sitting on her knees, and there is a short diagonal line under the woman's hips, indicating that the woman's hips are sitting on the heels, thus reflecting the meaning of peace and tranquility. It is difficult to determine whether this small slash is an indicative symbol or a cushion. Later, a "宀" (宀) (宀) was added to this glyph, which is the pictogram of the longitudinal section of the house in ancient Chinese characters, and the original glyph added "宀" means that the woman is sitting in the room. In the late Warring States period, jin wen added "heart" as an meaning under the original glyph to emphasize inner peace, which deepened the meaning. Interestingly, the short slash was not omitted until the Xiaozhu era, which shows that the inheritance of Chinese characters is very strong, and it also shows that Xiaozhuan does have the merit of deleting complexity and simplifying, reflecting the correct direction of the development of Chinese characters. "An" sometimes means tranquility and greeting in inscriptions.
Xu Chao introduction
Xu Chao, born in 1945, a native of Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, is a professor at the College of Literature of Shandong University and a doctoral supervisor.
From 1964 to 1972, he studied in the department of Chinese of Beijing Normal University. In 1978, he was admitted to the Department of Chinese of Shandong University to study Chinese history, and in 1981, he received a master's degree in literature and stayed on to teach. From 1984 to 1989, he was also the deputy director of the Department of Chinese. From 1995 to 1999, he also served as the special deputy editor-in-chief of Shandong Calligraphy Art Newspaper. In 1993, graduate students in exegesis began to be admitted. In 1996, he began to recruit master's degree students in calligraphy. In 2001, it began to recruit doctoral students in philological calligraphy (later changed to philological exegesis and calligraphy culture). From 2001 to 2006, he also served as the assistant of the famous calligraphy and seal engraver Mr. Jiang Weisong, and jointly recruited and guided doctoral students in calligraphy. In 2003, he was appointed as an academic member of the China Book Association, an advisor to the Shandong Provincial Book Association, and the director of the Calligraphy Art Research Center of Shandong University.
His academic works have won the second prize of the Shandong Provincial Federation of Social Societies, the first prize of the Outstanding Academic Works of East China University Press, the Shandong Provincial Book Award, and the shandong Provincial Linguistic Society, the Shandong Provincial Education Commission, and the Shandong University. His teaching achievements have won the second prize of Shandong Provincial Excellent Teaching Achievements. In terms of calligraphy, he has won the second prize of the Lanting Award education award, the highest prize of Chinese calligraphy.
"Learning is like traveling, learning is like climbing"
Xu Chao often said to students: "Learning is like traveling, learning is like climbing." ”
In 1967, Xu Chao went to Fujian on a business trip and walked from the city to the mountains in the morning. Walking up the hill, I felt the peak, but when I looked up, the higher peaks were still ahead, and the mountains were heavy and towering into the clouds. In Xu Chao's view, there are mountains outside the mountains and heavens outside the sky, which is the road to learning.
"The basic way of inheriting traditional Chinese learning is to inherit the teacher. Teacher inheritance in a broad sense also includes the use of academic works. To say 'learning is like a tour' is to travel to the sea. To say ' to learn as a mountain' is to climb the peak of learning. We often say inheritance and innovation, how can you inherit without a solid academic foundation? You can't understand it, where to talk about innovation? Xu Chao said.
In Xu Chao's view, calligraphy is not just about writing brush characters, in fact, every painting embodies a broad and profound traditional culture. Speaking of the two sentences of "pursuing the dot painting to the twists and turns, and wanting to see the strokes of the pen", he took out his manuscript and pointed to a few words in it, from shape to sound, one by one, explaining how they evolved into today's shape, and how they became today's sound, such as several family treasures. He then drew from under the table some rubbing copies, which were his teaching materials, and some of the words on them were circled, and their origins were noted next to them, and he said that they were for lectures by students.
Xu Chao has always stressed that academia is to be applied. In 2004, Xu Chao published "Calligraphy Tutorial"; 10 years later, it was published by Peking University Press again, and it is still popular. His Art of Couplets, published in 2014 by Zhonghua Bookstore, talks about couplet calligraphy. Xu Chao plans to release some research results in recent years, hoping to select a batch of them from the temple culture and museum culture he has studied, and promote them to the public year by year, sharing with people the beauty of ancient characters, the beauty of ancient calligraphy, and the beauty of ancient documents.
"The Last Bit"
In 1964, Xu Chao was admitted to the department of Chinese of Beijing Normal University, and met his favorite Zhanghuang theory and paleography, and met Mr. Qi Gong, a calligrapher he admired. In 1978, he was admitted to Shandong University for graduate school, and then met Mr. Jiang Weisong, and under his influence, he finally embarked on the academic path of combining academia and art. In Xu Chao's view, this is a kind of inheritance.
"As big as a nation, as small as a unit, as small as a family, no matter which kind of scholarship, or which kind of skill, such as endless fire, passed down from generation to generation, the starting point is the commanding heights." The key lies in the word 'inheritance'. If you want to pass it on, you have to read, study and study. Just like digging a well, it will be clear until it is clear, so that it can increase and carry forward. Xu Chao said.
Xu Chao admits that he is a "cultural hierarchy theorist". His classes are discussion-style, with master's and doctoral students discussing together. For example, when teaching paleography or ancient literature, at the beginning, everyone expresses their opinions, and as the discussion deepens, there are fewer and fewer students who can speak. In the end, only one or two PhD students could talk to him. This is a great touch for master's students. They say that the last kilometer, the last centimeter, the millimeter, is the responsibility of a very small number of people. The real contest is the "last little bit" contest. For that "last bit," they had to devote their whole lives.
The "last bit" that Xu Chao was responsible for had to do with Chinese characters, literature and calligraphy. He grew up with a love of classical culture, and was deeply fascinated, immersed for a long time, and gradually became able to do these things. To outsiders, those ancient texts are too mysterious, and the ancient texts are too obscure to imagine what it would be like to live in the face of them all day. But in Xu Chao's eyes, those are treasures, the words are alive and jumping, and the language is vivid and vivid. Xu Chao said that there was no tape recorder in ancient times, and the Great Wall could not speak, and literature, such as bronze inscriptions, was what the ancients said, that is, the notes of the ancients, and the details of China's ancient culture and the process of civilization were recorded in it.
Many times, we ignore the importance of language and writing, and underestimate the wisdom of the ancients. Xu Chao believes that the wisdom of the world is nothing but the wisdom of the writers, and the ancient characters are the abyss of wisdom. Ancient documents record history, science and civilization, and learning to unravel these cultural codes can obtain endless wisdom and learn the cultural spirit of our ancestors.
Source: Shandong University Daily, Jinan Times