What a delight - and you gave us many pages, too ! :))
I picked up a similar book in China with lots of information called "Origins of Chinese Language." It was printed in Singapore by AsiaPac Books and may be available to you. There are stories about the development of the characters, often in illustrated comic book fashion, but the depth of the material is quite useful.
This book contains only simple characters mostly normal objects. For more abstract characters like 德(de2) in "Tao De Ching", we need to know that the thinking of ancinent people Xia,Shang,Zhou dynasties is different and we can not use nowadays thinking to interpret. Actually I think there is no direct translation of english word for 德.
I recommend you to study traditional characters if you care more about meaning and the 5000-8000 years of development. Many of the simplified characters ignore the fundamental construction of ancient characters (icon, index & symbol) so they are easy to write only (less strokes) but not easy to recognize and not traceable. Maybe I can show you an example later.
Virtue has a close meaning to thinking in the present time already. 德 contains the symbols of an eye looking and straight meaning "not afraid". During Shang dynasty, people's thinking was different. Their belief was very superstitious and everything was about ghost. I need to find my text book so I can give you more detail about 德. The word like god and 孝 are different too. Just like geometrical forms have no meaning for the American Indian. The shapes of trees, mountains, animals & etc. have. You may know better than me because you live there.
An example why I think simplified char. have problem : The word like 斗 (meaning "to fight" in simplified) is very strange. It contains drops of water or grains and something to scoop up like dipper or cup. The original meaning is a unit of dry measurement of grains or etc. You see this character in 抖 which means tremble which is quite opposite meaning to "to fight" . And the words 斗渠, 斗膽, 斗升機 (in traditional char.) all conform the original meaning of 斗.
The word like 斗鸡(simplified), you don't know it's cockfighting or a tremble chicken.
If you see in this book ( 110812_IMG_8949E.jpg) how they derive 鬥 (means to fight in traditional char.) then it is very clear and understandable.
If I were writing Chinese, I think I would like the simplified characters. But I love looking at how the characters are put together - it gives me a more poetic heart understanding of their root. for an example, I saw that 德 has the character for "heart" in it - and that says something about the feeling tone of what is being said.
The Shang had more of the early shamanistic roots in their practices. The Zhou I Ching by King Wen simplifies the core of this with it's repeated words about making a "sacrifice" or "offering", and then receiving "omens" and "truth". This seems to be the basic shamanistic path of psychologically "opening" and "receiving". Even Taoism continues this tradition of "emptying" and "receiving" the Tao.
I think the Shang's main god was Di. I had the impression that some reference to this deity was carried on by the Zhou in their respectful reference to Heaven.
There is such a rich rich rich heritage that came out of that period. :))
What a delight - and you gave us many pages, too ! :))
ReplyDeleteI picked up a similar book in China with lots of information called "Origins of Chinese Language." It was printed in Singapore by AsiaPac Books and may be available to you. There are stories about the development of the characters, often in illustrated comic book fashion, but the depth of the material is quite useful.
หนังสือดีครับ ได้เรียนรู้ที่มาด้วย
ReplyDeleteดูเล่นๆครับ เอาไปอวดสาวได้
ReplyDeleteThis book contains only simple characters mostly normal objects.
ReplyDeleteFor more abstract characters like 德(de2) in "Tao De Ching", we need to know
that the thinking of ancinent people Xia,Shang,Zhou dynasties is different and we can not
use nowadays thinking to interpret.
Actually I think there is no direct translation of english word for 德.
I recommend you to study traditional characters if you care more about meaning and the 5000-8000 years of development.
Many of the simplified characters ignore the fundamental construction of ancient characters (icon, index & symbol) so they are easy to write only (less strokes) but not easy to recognize and not traceable.
Maybe I can show you an example later.
Thanks for the rest of the pages you posted. I am going to create a link for myself to your book. :)
ReplyDeleteเสียดายไม่น่าขาดเลยนะครับ
ReplyDeleteเป็นอักษรที่ชอบมากเลยครับ หลง
ReplyDeleteVirtue has a close meaning to thinking in the present time already.
ReplyDelete德 contains the symbols of an eye looking and straight meaning "not afraid".
During Shang dynasty, people's thinking was different. Their belief was very superstitious and everything
was about ghost.
I need to find my text book so I can give you more detail about 德.
The word like god and 孝 are different too.
Just like geometrical forms have no meaning for the American Indian.
The shapes of trees, mountains, animals & etc. have.
You may know better than me because you live there.
An example why I think simplified char. have problem :
The word like 斗 (meaning "to fight" in simplified) is very strange.
It contains drops of water or grains and something to scoop up like dipper or cup.
The original meaning is a unit of dry measurement of grains or etc.
You see this character in 抖 which means tremble which is quite opposite meaning to "to fight" .
And the words 斗渠, 斗膽, 斗升機 (in traditional char.) all conform the original meaning of 斗.
The word like 斗鸡(simplified), you don't know it's cockfighting or a tremble chicken.
If you see in this book ( 110812_IMG_8949E.jpg) how they derive 鬥 (means to fight in traditional char.) then it is very clear and understandable.
แจกซ๊ะเลยครับ pdf
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediafire.com/?m0uq0l1di6srcst
password 0000
If I were writing Chinese, I think I would like the simplified characters. But I love looking at how the characters are put together - it gives me a more poetic heart understanding of their root. for an example, I saw that 德 has the character for "heart" in it - and that says something about the feeling tone of what is being said.
ReplyDeleteThe Shang had more of the early shamanistic roots in their practices. The Zhou I Ching by King Wen simplifies the core of this with it's repeated words about making a "sacrifice" or "offering", and then receiving "omens" and "truth". This seems to be the basic shamanistic path of psychologically "opening" and "receiving". Even Taoism continues this tradition of "emptying" and "receiving" the Tao.
I think the Shang's main god was Di. I had the impression that some reference to this deity was carried on by the Zhou in their respectful reference to Heaven.
There is such a rich rich rich heritage that came out of that period. :))
VERY cool !!! Thanks.
ReplyDelete