Do you know three characteristics of Chinese characters?

Language is the carrier of culture. Chinese characters, together with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and Babylonian cuneiform, have contributed to the entry of mankind into the civilized era. But Egyptian hieroglyphics disappeared 1400 years ago, and Babylonian cuneiform characters disappeared with the Persian kingdom as early as the fourth century BC. Only with the development of China culture, Chinese characters are still independent of the world literature, because Chinese characters have three characteristics. Let's take a look together.

Adaptability of Chinese characters

The vitality of Chinese characters first stems from its adaptation to the characteristics of Chinese. Chinese is a monosyllabic morpheme language. Generally, one Chinese character has one syllable. Its form, sound and meaning are in line with the characteristics of Chinese, which perfectly realizes the function of recording Chinese expression. Chinese characters also conform to Chinese word order, the most important grammatical expression. For example, "A guest comes from nature" can be read from the left or from the right, each with its own meaning. Another example is: "The old vines are faint crows, the bridges are flowing, and the ancient roads are thin." Through the combination of words, the meaning is clear; There are pictures in the words and feelings in the scene.

The number of syllables and tones in Chinese is limited, and there can be more than 1000 syllables with tones. But this is far from enough to record more and more new words and phrases. Chinese characters make up for the shortage of spoken English. "One word with multiple sounds" and "one sound with multiple words" have solved this problem very harmoniously, which has kept Chinese stable and flexible for thousands of years.

Chinese characters have also played an important role in the development of Chinese from monosyllabic words to disyllabic words, and they have very strong word-formation ability. For example, the word "chicken" includes corn, chicken breast, chicken head, chicken comb, chicken skin, chicken bone, chicken heart, chicken cage, chicken flock, wooden chicken, turkey, waterfowl, native chicken, golden rooster, domestic chicken, golden rooster, black chicken, pheasant, pheasant and capon. This is very difficult to do in the phonetic language. For example, English generally doesn't use chicken as a morpheme, but groups words such as "chicken eye" Heloma, "chicken head" Foxnut, "turkey" and "pheasant" pheasant.

Chinese syllables are limited, so it is inevitable that homophones will appear in monosyllabic words and disyllabic words. For example, "g not G not gōng sh?" The meaning of monosyllabic sounds is often unclear, but once written in Chinese characters, it is immediately clear: "propaganda, formula, commerce, attack, fortifications, palaces." This is also the vitality of Chinese characters.

Chinese characters come from graphic characters, and their squares leave traces of pictures. When writing, it is easy to beautify them with the writer's aesthetic perception and become artistic figures, thus developing the art of calligraphy. Classical poetry pays attention to word equivalence and rhythm correspondence. From The Book of Songs to Han Fu, from Tang Poetry and Song Poetry to Yuan Qu, the integration of form, sound and meaning of Chinese characters provides great convenience for the rhythm of Chinese poetry and forms a unique literary style of Chinese. Exquisite and meaningful couplets and riddles all rely on the structural characteristics of Chinese characters. In a word, Chinese characters have made outstanding contributions to the prosperity of China culture and the formation of national character.

Openness of Chinese characters

Chinese characters are characterized by openness. Chinese characters, as ideographic characters with three-dimensional combination of form, sound and meaning, have a very stable core "word meaning"; Its writing "glyph" can be simplified or complicated according to the development of the times; Its "pronunciation" can be pronounced according to the requirements of dialect systems in different regions. No matter how the "sound" changes, the meaning will remain unchanged. This open feature makes Chinese characters have tenacious vitality and external radiation extension ability.

Chinese has been a multi-dialect language since ancient times. The development of Chinese is a process of continuous integration and differentiation. The greatest advantage of Chinese characters is that they can meet the needs of many dialects. No matter what dialect you pronounce to express them, their meanings remain the same. Yang Xiong recorded thirteen Chinese dialects in the Han Dynasty in Interpreting Other Languages in Xuan Di. At present, there are 68 sub-dialects in seven dialects (or ten dialects) of Chinese, and 85 sub-dialects can be divided under them. From the investigation of Chinese dialects and people's actual communication, it is difficult for dialects to understand each other, that is, because of regional and ethnic differences, there are also phenomena that you can't understand, but these are basically solved because of the existence of Chinese characters. No matter where the dialect is used, the ideographic meaning of Chinese characters is the same. All communication barriers can be understood by writing Chinese characters. Local dialects can be pronounced according to their own phonetic system, but their meanings are the same. The super dialect of Chinese characters enables the rich and colorful Chinese dialects to be passed down, the characteristics of Han nationalities to be preserved and the diversity of Chinese culture to be developed. Chinese characters have made great contributions to the prosperity and charm of China culture.

Chinese characters not only have the function of super dialect, but also have the function of super language. Chinese characters have been borrowed by many ethnic minorities in China, forming Zhuang Chinese characters, German Chinese characters and Dong Chinese characters. Historically, Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, etc. China culture and China immigrants were also accepted in large numbers, and their languages were recorded in Chinese characters. Vietnamese have been using Chinese characters since ancient times. It was not until modern times that it became a French colony that a new phonetic symbol was exhibited. Chinese characters have been used for a long time on the Korean peninsula. Only four hundred years ago, I had my own phonetic alphabet. Now I don't use Chinese characters any more. After the introduction of Chinese characters into Japan, it filled the gap that Japanese people did not have a writing system. The early official letters, documents, historical and cultural classics of Japan were written in Chinese characters. In modern times, although Japan also advocated abolishing or restricting Chinese characters, it could not change the Japanese Chinese character complex in the end.

The openness of Chinese characters has made great contributions to the cultural heritage of many nationalities and countries, and has built a far-reaching cultural circle of Chinese characters in Asia.

Cohesion of Chinese characters

China has a history of 5,000 years. In this long history, China has merged excessively, but eventually they all moved towards unification, which is inseparable from the role of Chinese characters in enhancing national cohesion and national identity. After Qin Shihuang unified China, Tuoba Hong, the leader of Xianbei people in the Northern Wei Dynasty, occupied China militarily, requiring Xianbei people to speak Chinese and write Chinese characters, and so did the rulers of Yuan Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. The cohesion of Chinese characters should not be underestimated.

Chinese characters have always been the most important carrier of China culture. The vast ancient books of China culture have gathered the wisdom of the Chinese nation, and all kinds of ancient books have been preserved intact to this day, and Chinese characters have contributed greatly. From the Chronicle of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Historical Records of Pre-Qin philosophers and Shuowen of Sima Qian and Xu Shen, to Tang Poetry, Sikuquanshu and Dream of Red Mansions in Qing Dynasty. Chinese characters maintain a unified written language and promote the inheritance of a unified national culture.

Chinese characters have long been respected by people. For thousands of years, the teaching of reading and literacy in schools (private schools) has taught us to have awe of language and writing. Our ancestors told us that writing paper should not be discarded at will, otherwise it would be a blasphemy against Confucius. How many generations have passed since the concept of "respecting and cherishing word paper"? People respect teachers, respect language and writing, and even have the phenomenon of language fetishism. The aesthetic features of Chinese characters fully reflect the harmonious thought of China culture. The wholeness and unity of China cultural spirit shown by Chinese characters have been passed down from generation to generation. China people have always said that people can be known by their words. The spiritual accomplishment of ancient China literati can often be seen through the pen container.