Zhao Shimin, teacher of Central Conservatory of Music. 1979 to 1984, majoring in philosophy of law in northwest university of politics and law. 1984- 1985, teacher of Marxist philosophy in the Second Artillery Academy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Since 1985, he has been teaching at the Central Conservatory of Music. The courses taught by the Central Conservatory of Music include: philosophical principles, the origin of Chinese characters, music criticism and writing, philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, appreciation of Shakespeare's plays, etc. Zhao Shimin is the most popular humanities teacher in the Central Conservatory of Music.

Content introduction:

/kloc-More than 0/00 years ago, Oracle Bone Inscriptions was found on a handful of keels, which was a mature Chinese character more than 3,000 years ago. Egyptian holy books and Sumerian cuneiform, also known as the three ancient Chinese characters in the world, were extinct as early as the 4th century BC, but China Chinese characters have continued to this day. Chinese characters have been passed down for thousands of years. From ancient Chinese characters to modern Chinese characters, their life span is constantly evolving and surpassing. Now, what is the secret of Chinese characters that we are already familiar with?

If you want to decipher Chinese characters, you must know the original meaning of Chinese characters and find the earliest recognized glyphs. Modern glyphs such as "Zi" seem to be related to eyes. Some people say that "ego" is like eyes with eyebrows. But "self" Oracle Bone Inscriptions is the hieroglyphic of the nose, and the nose is the external organ of breathing. Our ancestors believed that qi was the foundation of life. And once breathing is blocked, people's lives will be in danger. Even today, people test whether a person is dead or not, and they still follow the old method of putting their hands on his nostrils to see if they can vent their anger. Therefore, a normal state like breathing is the original intention of "nature". The profound philosophical thinking triggered by "nature" is all in pursuit of a normal and comfortable state of human beings, which is also their own state of life, and others cannot imitate it. The Origin of Zi, Freedom, Ego and Nature and the Words Related to Zi

Interpret the meaning of Chinese characters to reread China's classics, for example, "However, China keeps our friendship, and heaven is still our neighbor". We are all familiar with Wang Bo's poem: "All the people in the four seas know each other. Although they are far away, they are like close neighbors." If you know the whole of a word "existence" and read this couplet again, its artistic conception will be different from the original. "Cun" now finds that the earliest glyphs are composed of "Cai" and "Le". "Talent" refers to the life of plants and trees, and "Zi" refers to the life of people. People always have a loving heart when they are young, so the original meaning of "being" is "caring, thinking about each other, thinking about love, and asking questions with compassion". Looking at this couplet, the artistic conception of the poem is quite different from "keeping friends", "having friends" and "missing friends". It is because of missing each other that the two sides can penetrate the infinite distance of time and space and connect with each other.

As can be seen from the above examples, a new understanding of Chinese characters can make the classics re-read the meaning of "new". In fact, it is the original old meaning, just because our understanding of Chinese characters is not comprehensive and profound enough. A comprehensive and profound understanding of Chinese characters is inseparable from the analysis and research of the earliest glyphs of Chinese characters.

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%, that is to say, more than 90% of other characters are not pictographs, but although more than 90% are not pictographs, less than 10% are based on this pictograph. Therefore, people should generalize Chinese characters, which are basically pictographs. Then let's look at the word I just said. What does its own "son" look like? Some people will say that it looks like an eye with circles on it. Some people say it may refer to eyebrows. So if an eye is curly, what does this glyph have to do with the meanings of the words nature, self, freedom and self I just said? What does it matter? In fact, as a philologist in Han Dynasty, Xu Shen was a very great philologist. He can't explain why, because it is this glyph, which is different from the earliest glyph created by our ancestors. So, what should we do if we want to find the earliest glyphs? We should look for ancient Chinese characters. This phenomenon is very interesting. At the beginning of last century, we know that Oracle Bone Inscriptions was unearthed in Yinxu, Henan.

Let's go back to the topic just now. As we said, this is "Zi". So what did the earliest glyphs look like? Oracle Bone Inscriptions is like this. We say it is hieroglyphics. According to the current statement, it is the eyes, and the eyes refer to the eyes. This curly hair looks like an eyebrow. In fact, we will study this problem later when we understand ancient glyphs. There is no boundary at all. I guess anyone with a little life experience will find out what it actually looks like, like a human nose. Let's see why our "self" is pictographic with our noses. What's the point? In fact, when we ancient people invented this word, we already implied a lot of ideas here. For example, our ancestors knew what the most fundamental person was, whether it was qi or nose. Now some of us watch movies and TV, and when we know that this person is alive or dead, we put our hands on his nostrils to see if he is breathing. So we can infer that when the ancients used their noses to symbolize themselves, we can see who else is there until today. I mean my nose, so it just symbolizes that I am angry, I am alive, I am alive. It can be seen that the excavation of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, that is, the excavation of ancient Chinese characters, really built a bridge between us and the ancients today, enabling us to go to the hearts of the ancients and explore their true thoughts.

Let's look at this word again. The word is "hit", which means "hit". At present, the earliest glyph found is Xiao Zhuan, which is similar to the current regular script. What does it mean when it is combined with one diced in one hand and one diced in the other? As we know, today's "da" means that Modern Chinese Dictionary has 26 meanings and The Great Chinese Dictionary has 29 meanings. A linguist named Chen Yuan wrote an article called Magic Beat. Why is this "fight" amazing? We saw that when I met my enemy, I punched him, which was contradictory to him. Besides, we are going out now, so many friends are coming today. Why are you raising your hand? We didn't take a taxi. Why do we take a taxi? Besides, there are many lesbians here, and most people don't play this game now. However, in the past, lesbians knitted this by themselves. At that time, it was not knitting, but "knitting". We picked up the phone and called, and then recalled buying soy sauce, vinegar and wine as children, called "drinking", and so on. What does it have to do with this glyph? There is a tripod in one hand, so Chen Yuan said this sentence: "Chinese characters are amazing. Just playing this glyph contains so many meanings, but it is not necessarily unified. " Then it is necessary to study how the ancients invented this word and why it can derive so many meanings. Of course, we can say that after Chinese characters are created, they are like a truck. As it gets closer and closer to us, its weight is getting bigger and bigger. But we can't deny that when it was just created, it already carried some goods, that is, information. This is the most fundamental and primitive. So I tried to understand the word "big". I didn't pay much attention to this word at first, but I have a friend who teaches at Renmin University. He speaks Chinese to foreigners, Canadians, Indians and British people. He said that these foreign friends can't understand the word "big" and can't understand why this glyph can have so many contradictory meanings. He said, let me talk about it. This is right for me. That is, reduction. This glyph consists of two parts, one in each hand and one in the other. When it was restored to the earliest, we imagined what our ancestors would do with this symbol. Of course, it must be in a specific state. After entering the state, I thought of it. In other words, our ancestors held a thing and nailed a nail. Of course, the nails in the past were not necessarily metal, but could be wood or stone. Such as trees, such as soil, in this case, all the meanings just said can be restored through this action. We can see that according to the current action, if you hit this nail with a hammer, what is the first action? The first is to lift, the second is to swing, the third is to hit, and the fourth is to advance. Then we think that a typing is just four actions of a person, and sum up such a glyph. If you don't restore it, you won't know that there are these four actions. Of course, the score is solved. How do you know that this "typing" can break down so many meanings? Now let's see, all the meanings of "playing" we just said can be broken down into these four actions. What does knitting mean? Playing with wine vinegar is now hydraulic. Of course, now even the hydraulic pressure doesn't need a barrel, so it's in; Who is one is to enter; At first, I called by telegraph, which meant to knock by hand. In other words, when we understand this Chinese character, the earliest font and the earliest meaning, we will understand that these 29 meanings, or the 26 meanings mentioned in Modern Chinese Dictionary, are well-founded.

Let's give another example. We know that the words "harmony" and "harmony" have at least four meanings now, but two of them are the most important. What's the first one? It is progressive. For example, the Analects of Confucius, everyone here may know its name. "Learn from time to time", then this "harmony" plays a progressive role, and the second is a turning point. Then, of course, this progressive turning point is not a real word in modern Chinese, but a function word. But how did this function word come from? It is also related to this glyph. Then it is also through previous research that such a glyph was found on the Oracle bones in Yin Ruins. After that, Xu Shen and I felt this. What is this pictogram? This is a pictogram of human beard. Let's see if it looks like it. Of course, there are many kinds of this glyph. Let's have a look. I won't write this word There is a play in Chinese characters. The "play" is above and the woman is below. Therefore, in the past, men in ancient times had to grow beards, which meant disrespect for women. Teasing a woman with a beard is fun. There is also a word, one inch here, and some have vertical knives. Why? Because in ancient China, if your mistakes were not particularly serious, you shaved your beard, which was tolerable, so it was called "resistance". But what does this "harmony" have to do with progression and turning? I've been thinking about this word for a long time and I can't figure it out. Of course, you can simply paste it, with a softer beard and a better turn. What about progressive? I often don't think about this, so I put it aside and read other books. One day, I suddenly found this "harmony" that Wang Fuzhi understood in "Talking about Wen Wen Guang Yi", that is, Wang Chuanshan. This record is too precious, because I didn't find anything else except his record. In other words, our ancestors called people's beards fins. As we know, fish have ventral fins, dorsal fins, pectoral fins and caudal fins. Like little wings, this is really like a beard. So our ancestors also called this thing "er" of fish, but many dictionaries and dictionaries did not have this explanation. So now we can figure out what to do when a fish wants to move forward, and poke its fin hard. What about the fish turning a corner? Poke its tail fin.

Let's look at another word, which we all know is the "music" of music. So what does this glyph have to do with the music we listen to today? This word also has a pronunciation. What is it called and what does it have to do with our happiness today? See the oldest glyph and you will understand. This is the font of Oracle Bone Inscriptions. This is a hieroglyph. What does it look like? It's like a musical instrument. Some people say it's a drum on a shelf and some people say it's a broken silk string on a wooden shelf. It doesn't matter, but I'm sure it looks like a musical instrument, so now I understand. So what is the earliest word "music" in this musical instrument? The hieroglyphics of musical instruments, so what is it called? It's called music. What does it bring us when it makes sound? Happy, how about this glyph? It contains three meanings, all of them. When you don't know the font, just look at this and you can't understand it.

Now, I think everyone will have a problem. What's your purpose? What is the purpose of thinking so much about Chinese characters? Of course, it can be said that the simplest purpose is to satisfy my curiosity, because I have always had a sense of mystery and curiosity about Chinese characters, but is this enough? If I am just curious and satisfy my mystery about Chinese characters, it will not constitute my motivation to learn Chinese characters. There is a fundamental purpose here, that is, I want to interpret the classical culture of China. In my opinion, China's cultural Kunlun, the real cultural Kunlun, was in the pre-Qin era, when our country's culture was the most developed.

Some people will ask, many old people, our ancestors, have annotated these words, so you can't read ancient books just according to his annotations. But according to my research, I found that a book, a word, often have different interpretations, some of which are the opposite. Who did you say you listened to? I don't listen to anyone at this time, I listen to the ancients. Let's see what they thought when they coined the word. For example, in the Analects of Confucius, which I just mentioned, the first sentence is called "Learning while having fun", the second sentence is "It's a pleasure to have friends from afar", and the third sentence is "It's a pleasure for a gentleman not to know"

Let's look at the first sentence of these three sentences. When I first learned, my teacher told me that you are students and it is very happy to review your lessons frequently, so I think this sentence of Confucius is particularly common, because I also study Laozi, and I think Laozi is great. Everyone here must know the first sentence of Laozi's Tao Te Ching. Then, when I was studying ancient Chinese characters, I read this passage again. I found that I looked down on Confucius in the past. For example, let's look for the word "Xi", which is very simple. This is the earliest glyph, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which is very similar to today's traditional Chinese characters. The word "Xi" has feathers on it and days on it. What does this mean? In other words, the first meaning he extended was not to review lessons but to do things and practice. Now let's look at the first sentence of Confucius, "learn from time to time" and "learn". We all know, or imitate, or accept, I have also learned and accepted. Just now we said that this "harmony" means gradual progress. What else do we need, Xi Zhi?

We jumped from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty. In the early Tang Dynasty, there was a poet named Wang Bo. Everyone here must know a poem by Wang Bo. I just want to say a few words. This is Du's assignment to Sichuan as an official. There is a proverb that says, "However, as long as China keeps our friendship, heaven is still our neighbor". I think people my age will be more familiar with these words, because in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a song about the relationship between China and Albania, which was called "However, when China keeps our friendship, heaven is still our neighbor", because Albania is far away from us. This poem, let's first understand a word, save, the word "save", this is and, and China holds our friendship. In "Hundred Poems of Tang Poetry", the author of "Hundred Poems of Tang Poetry" is Shi Zhecun. Everyone who is a little older knows this man. He lived for more than 90 years. One of the writers of Yuanyang Butterfly School, a novelist, poet and critic, teaches at East China Normal University. As close as a neighbor, why should I accept Shi Zhecun's explanation? Because there is a word "inch" in his name, but this old gentleman doesn't understand the word "inch". The earliest glyph here is gifted scholar, which is stature, meaning saplings, flowers and plants, which have just grown out, and children mean children. So when people see saplings, flowers and children, what will it lead to? Love leads to missing. Then let's look at this poem, or this couplet, "However, when China keeps our friendship, heaven is still our neighbor". I miss my bosom friend in the sea. He's nearby. It is this lack that makes this space so short and as close as the neighborhood. Let's take a look at the different interpretations of this word. One is to have and the other is to miss. So what is the context of this couplet? This is also a different world.

We returned to the pre-Qin era from the Tang Dynasty. In the pre-Qin period, there was a great philosopher who was also a great writer. Everyone here must know that Zhuangzi usually puts him and Lao Tzu together and talks about Lao Tzu's philosophy. Zhuangzi has a fable in "The Lord of Health Preservation", which tells how complicated it is before "I know cows skillfully" and "I know cows skillfully". I won't talk about it. I only said it was related to this word, which was called "playing with a knife". Do you remember? It is called "playing with knives is natural, and it is all in the middle, suitable for mulberry." Aside from this passage by Zhuangzi, we want to know what the word "play" means. Recently, there are many dramas of the emperor on TV, and the commonly used word is "commemoration". All right, let's get rid of the emperor. We see that in our daily life. For example, we go to a concert. There is a man playing the piano at the concert. What should we call it? It's called piano solo, but what should be the most accurate verb? It should be playing. Why not call it "piano solo"? There is also a man who plays the violin. The most accurate verb should be called La. The most accurate verb should be La. What should I call it? " Violin solo ",but if a host announces a curtain call at a concert like this, what will happen next? Laugh. Violin solo, five brass instruments playing together, what is the exact verb? "Woodwind played five times", so did your announcement. People are laughing. What do you call it? The woodwind quintet shows that the word "play" is unusual. People would rather give up its most accurate verbs, such as blowing, pulling, beating and singing, and use the word "beating" to indicate that there is something in it. What is this? This glyph created by our ancestors is like this. This is Oracle Bone Inscriptions. What does it mean after being deciphered by the previous generation? That's what hands mean. Two hands. Singing and dancing, if you are familiar with the history of China, you may see such cultural relics. A pottery basin with paintings was unearthed in Qinghai. There are people dancing hand in hand in the painting, especially like today's ballet. Just a bunch of people, or a group of people, singing and dancing together. Why are they singing and dancing? Sacrifice to heaven, land, ancestors and harvest? Then we know that this glyph expresses this meaning, and then we can understand, for example, commemoration, because what is the behavior of beating? Of course, it is upward, and it is also head-up. For example, what did we say at the concert just now? It shows that the performers on the stage and the appreciators under our stage form a circle, which is a very important atmosphere for appreciating music art. Let's go back to Zhuangzi's "I Know Cows Skillfully" and Zhuangzi's "I Know Cows Skillfully". Many people interpret this kind of "playing" as "entering the knife" or "transporting the knife". However, I have looked up all the dictionaries. What is one of the meanings of playing? Is it feeding or transporting knives? According to an example, it is Zhuangzi's My Skillful Hands Help Cattle. The meaning of playing with knives and transporting knives is only used by Zhuangzi, but never used by later generations. What is the reason? People don't know what this word means. No, I don't think many people understand the usage of typing in Zhuangzi. Here, the head must be restored to the original meaning of "play", so now let's think about it. I play with knives, which is very natural. So what? The sound of swimming between the bones and muscles of the cow, not the cry of the cow, finally became like that, and the cow didn't know that she was dead. So, what does Wen say? Great technique. Think about it, one cuts and the other plays with the knife. If we regard this cow as a ceremony, as a work of art and as an artistic activity, it can enter an aesthetic state. In fact, Zhuangzi regarded it as an allegory, not really talking about killing cattle, because what was his general title? Health care focuses on how people live in the world, just right. This "alto", this "sound" does not mean sound, but music. In a word, it means "dancing in the mulberry forest". What is "mulberry forest"? It is the name of an ancient music in China. What is the last sentence "it is the meeting of the first classics" and "the first classics"? It is also the name of ancient music and dance in China, together. Let's see what Zhuangzi played with this. There are results before and after, and how consistent they are. Then there are different interpretations of the word "play", so that we can distinguish what one is, one is a butcher and the other is a master of aesthetics.

Let's look at another word. This word is indomitable "Yi". This is the earliest glyph. This is a bronze inscription. There is a saying in The Analects that "a scholar is unyielding, and the road is long and its Xiu Yuan is Xi". How to understand this "Yi"? According to today's glyph, we all know the word "taping" below. What is a video? It means pig. This glyph is our today's symplectic, spicy "symplectic". What is Xin? Torture device is a kind of torture device in ancient China. This kind of torture device is very thin and sharp, which can stab people, cut people's ears and tattoo words on their faces. Is there no such punishment? It's called "Guan Shou" and it's tattooed on your face. Xin is such a torture device. Then let's think about it. What does the word "Yi" with this luster mean to pigs? Don't look at this half yet. In the past, there were two kinds of pigs. What is one, a domestic pig in captivity, and what is the other? Wild boar, also known as porcupine, what about wild boar? The hair on the dorsal spine, or mane, is very sharp, sharp and hard. Of course, if we raise pigs, especially male pigs, this kind of hair is also very sharp and can pierce people's hands. So what does this mean? What is perseverance? Moreover, the earliest glyphs did not have this. Refers to the hair of pigs, especially the hair on the back spine. Under what circumstances did the pig's hair stand up? It's clear when you think about it, but not when it's prosperous. It must be dangerous. For example, if you meet a stronger beast or your own kind, you will compete for the opposite sex. What is its purpose? The first is self-defense and the second is attack. It can be seen that we can feel the connotation of this "Yi" in this way. What is the connotation? Is to cheer up in difficulties and then add another one. This is one thing. This is beating a pig with a stick. What does this mean? It means that there are external factors forcing pigs, making pig hair stand up and making pigs forge ahead. This is the original meaning of Yi. Looking back, Confucius said that "a scholar should not be unfaithful", that is, as a scholar, he belongs to a higher class, so you should have perseverance. Now let's talk about perseverance. What must you do? Where should you always put yourself? In trouble, you may be in prosperity, but you should think that you are in trouble. Why? Because it's a long way to go, you can't persist without perseverance.

We see, I only know Confucius and Zhuangzi, just because I have different interpretations of these words. Note that this difference is not because I intentionally want to be different from modern annotations, but because I want to find out what our ancestors meant when they dug up this word and created it. Then we found that the works of our ancestors contained so many things, which means we can't understand them now. That's what I just said. I study Chinese characters.

The Exploration of Chinese Characters in China (Ⅱ)

Speaker profile:

Zhao Shimin, teacher of Central Conservatory of Music. 1979 to 1984, majoring in philosophy of law in northwest university of politics and law. 1984- 1985, teacher of Marxist philosophy in the Second Artillery Academy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Since 1985, he has been teaching at the Central Conservatory of Music. The courses taught by the Central Conservatory of Music include: philosophical principles, the origin of Chinese characters, music criticism and writing, philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, appreciation of Shakespeare's plays, etc. Zhao Shimin is the most popular humanities teacher in the Central Conservatory of Music.

Content introduction:

The birth of Chinese characters marks that the history of China has entered the era of written records from oral legends, and there are documents when there are words. Therefore, the descendants of the Chinese people have summed up historical experience from generation to generation, creating and promoting the process of social development. It can be said that our ancestors bid farewell to ignorance and entered civilization, and Chinese characters made a landmark contribution.

How much do we know about Chinese characters today when Chinese is popular all over the world? How did Chinese characters come into being? Do Chinese characters really contain the thoughts and wisdom of ancestors? What is the meaning of reading Chinese characters?

First of all, Chinese characters are the embodiment of China people's understanding of nature in the pre-writing era.

For example, the word "live", the earliest font shows that only water and roots can live.

For example, the word "home", the earliest font room has pigs, and pigs are very fertile. At that time, human productivity was the most important production, and productive pigs symbolized the prosperity of the family.

Second, Chinese characters condensed the scientific essence of China people in the pre-writing era.

For example, the word "thought" now means "field" and "heart", as if "heart field" is in charge of thought. Some people have concluded that the brain is a thinking organ that China people didn't know earlier. This is the earliest glyph that he didn't read "si". The earliest "four-character" with "Xin" on the bottom and "Gui" on the top is an ideograph. Like skull confluence, do not believe you go to the hospital to find a personal skull specimen. You can see the lines and figures on the top of your head. Then, "thinking" does not mean "heart", but refers to the connection between fingers and heart. This understanding of our ancestors is very avant-garde. Today's science confirms that the shape of "heart" and "thinking" is also called emotion.

Third, Chinese characters reflect the philosophical speculation of our ancestors.

For example, "silence" means silence. It is said that only one word "black" is enough to symbolize it. Why do you want to add a word "dog"? Everyone knows that dogs bark best. Using a barking dog to approach silence can better reflect the rich content of "silence". Ideologically, "silence" was put forward by a eloquent wise man, and ideologically, "silence" was symbolized by a barking dog. "Silence" can be said, and it can also be said silently. If a natural idiot stops talking, we won't describe him as "silent", just as we won't say that a piece of wood is blind.

Chinese characters not only construct China's potential philosophical system, but also shape the psychological structure of China people. On the surface, Chinese characters are just a symbol, referring to the corresponding things, but behind this correspondence, there are feelings, habits and even instincts of China people.

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My theme is to explore China's Chinese characters. I think all of you here are very familiar with Chinese characters, so we all know that compared with other countries' characters, especially pinyin characters, we are called pictographs. Why is this Chinese character called pictograph and how did it come into being? Who invented it? Who created it? As we all know, there is a legend in ancient China called Cang Xie.

We all know that this word is alive, and it is meaningful to read the words. Water and tongue are very flexible. The tongue is thirsty and can't move, so we have to add water and use the tongue as a symbol. In fact, this is not correct. As I said just now, if we want to know Chinese characters, we must find the earliest font, of course, as far as possible, because we know that the Oracle Bone Inscriptions we are digging now has four or five thousand words, and now there is a conclusion, less than two thousand words. Of course, I believe there are many Oracle bones buried underground, that is to say, maybe one day, we will find them. So the earliest glyph of this creature is like this, this is water, and this is the clan "surname" we are talking about today. This is the mouth. Some creatures have no mouth, and there is a point at the bottom. What does this mean? It means root, so let's look at our ancestors. They're amazing. How can they live with roots and water? This is an observation of natural phenomena, which is expressed by the word living.

Let's take another look. The word is pig, and the earliest glyph is Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Anyone can see what's in the house. There are pigs. I remember when I was in primary school, the teacher gave us such an understanding. If there are pigs in the house, it is home. Why is there a pig in the house? Our teacher did not explain. I read the explanations of some people who study Oracle Bone Inscriptions before. What did they say? It is said that pigs were very important property in ancient China, just like sometimes Shanxi people get married now. What is the dowry for him? Not now, but before. That depends on how many cans of vinegar you have at home. If you have seven jars and eight jars of vinegar at home, it means that your family is very rich. So in the past, pigs were important property. If you have pigs at home, your family will be very rich. However, I have a question. I won't write this word It is also a house with a cow in it, which is a "prison" of a cell. So what is this logically called? It cannot be called GAI. Oracle Bone Inscriptions, on the other hand, has such a glyph, with the sheep below and the cell below. Are the sheep and cattle of our ancestors not property? It is the same. Why put pigs at home and sheep at home is a prison? It doesn't make sense logically. that