Chapter 6　Chinese Language and Characters中国语言文字

Chapter 6　Chinese Language and Characters中国语言文字

1.Language

The official language of the People's Republic of China(PRC for short)is Chinese，which is based on the northern dialect．It is usually referred to in the west as“Mandarin”，but the Chinese call it Putonghua．Putonghna is variously referred to as the“Han language”(hanyu)，the“national language”(guoyu)or simply“Chinese”．

The Chinese language is among the most beautiful languages in the world．The Chinese characters have been used for the longest time，over the widest area and by the largest number of people in the world．It is the epitome of the wisdom and creativity of the Chinese people and the carrier and manifestation for the specific patterns and features of Chinese thinking，and for the rich cultural heritance．To understand the Chinese，one should set about understanding their language．

1)The Origin of Chinese Characters

The origin of the Chinese antique script is very long and there are not enough documentary resources about its history．There have been various stories about the origin of the Chinese script．In China，the invention of writing has been attributed to: (1)Fuxi，who is supposed the creator of Bagua，from which the Chinese characters evolved;(2)Shennong，who initiated the recording by tying the knots;and(3)Cang Jie，who is said to have four eyes and see the footprints of birds and beasts，which inspired him to create written characters．Anyhow，the invention of a language is a great achievement which can neither be done by a deity，nor can it be made by a single person in his life time．Its appearance and growth into maturity have to undergo a fairly long period of trial and experiment by the masses of the people to meet the needs of social life and activities of production．

In ancient China，characters began as simple drawings of natural objects—trees，river water，mountains and hills，horses and oxen，human beings themselves，etc．The earliest character-like drawings are thus“pictographic”in quality．Compared with other scripts in the world，Chinese characters appeared much earlier with the first evidence of the characters around 5，000 or more years old．More than 50 kinds of carved symbols appeared around the Banpo Site and other nearby places．They were structured and arranged in a certain order，having simple strokes and regular shapes， such as the the vertical stroke，horizontal stroke，the bevel stroke，and the angular stroke，and they have the same characteristics as today's simple characters—scholars deem them to be the original Chinese characters．From the grey pottery in the Dawenkou Cultural Ruins were found some carved pictographic signs．In fact，these signs became the later pictograms．

2)The Evolution of Chinese Characters

The evolution of Chinese characters underwent several stages．The Chinese characters were systemized during the Shang Dynasty during which Chinese civilization reached and developed to a relatively high level with the appearance of Jiaguwen (Oracle Bone Script)．Oracles are ancient characters carved onto tortoise shells and beast bones and are the earliest form of Chinese characters．

The Oracles are systematic characters which form the foundations for the development of modern Chinese characters．Later，the Chinese characters took various different forms．Jinwen(Bronze Script，inscriptions on ancient bronze objects)，Xiaozhuan(Lesser Seal Script)，Lishu(Clerkly Script)，Kaishu(Standard Script)and they have been used fairly unchanged to present day．

The Chinese characters have been gradually standardized．Xiaozhuan set down the number of strokes of each character;Lishu shaped the new forms of the Chinese characters;Kaishu helped establish the new form and basic strokes—horizontal，vertical，left-falling，dot，right-falling，rising and turning stroke．For more than 1，000 years，Kaishu remained the standard form of Chinese characters．

The most important change in Chinese writing since the standardization in the Qin Dynasty occurred in the middle of the 20th century．In 1949，the People's Republic of China(PRC)introduced simplified characters(jiantizi)to replace the traditional Kaishu characters．In addition to Mainland China，Singapore also adopted this script．However，other Chinese-speaking places such as Taiwan，Hong Kong，and various Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and the Americas rejected this new system and continued to use the traditional script．

3)Characteristics of Chinese Characters

The Chinese Han characters are neat in appearance and，no matter how many strokes they have，they all occupy the same spacing in printing．With respect to this trait，therefore，Chinese Han characters are figuratively referred to as“square script”．

The Chinese characters are a meaning-oriented character system based on pictograms and consisting of pictographic-phonetic characters．The total number of characters is around 56，000，the majority of which are archaic and only 3，000 are used frequently．They are used to construct an infinite number of sentences and meanings．

In the course of the historical development，the coinage of the Chinese characters has undergone tremendous changes．At first pictograms dominated，and later were dominantly replaced by pictographic-phonetic characters．The system of the Chinese characters incorporate sounds，forms as well as meanings．Simply put，the Chinese words have the following special characteristics:

(1)The Chinese words are ideographs that are not connected directly with pronunciation．In the respect of the forms，the Chinese words in their square forms can reflect directly and comprehensively their meanings and their pronunciations．For instance，the word“忍”(endure)is composed of“心”(heart，mind)and“刃”(knife with an edge)．“人”(man)indicates a person with his feet standing on land．The meaning is evident upon a glance at it．They are all vivid and perceivable images．

(2)Chinese is a tonal language that belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family，whereas English is an intonation language that belongs to the Indo-European family．In the light of pronunciation，the Chinese words are syllabic．One Chinese word requires only one single syllabic pattern．It depends on its sound and its tone to convey its meaning jointly．That also explains why Chinese has so many homophones．Tones provide wider range for the use of the words in the Chinese language．A very typical example is the word“ma”，which may mean differently such as mother，numb，horse，and curse by the 4 different tones．

(3)In terms of connotations，the Chinese words are imaginable and perceivable．Since the Chinese words are combinations of forms and meanings，they have the property of imaginableness and comprehensibility．For instance，the Chinese women in the old days had a low social status and were looked upon as the sources of disasters and evils．So such words that have“女”as radical bear，more or less，a derogatory sense，as“奸”(treacherous)，“婪”(avaricious)，“娼”(bitch)，“妓”(prostitute)，“妖”(demon)etc．Even some words with neutral meaning show male-chauvinism，such as，“安”(safe)，implying a woman staying at home and not going out，and“妥”(appropriate)implying a woman under the control of man．Of Chinese words，a character has in itself an actual meaning．And phrases，sentences and articles composed of meaningful characters can make their contents even richer and more effective．

(4)Succinctness and brevity is another feature of the Chinese language and the Chinese words．According to statistics，of all the United Nations documents printed in different languages，the Chinese version is the thinnest copy．So，with regard to frugality in time and paper，the advantage of Chinese words is far superior to the Western words．

4)The Formation of Chinese Characters

As is well known，written Chinese is not an alphabetic language，but a script of ideograms．Their formation follows three principles:

(1)Hieroglyphics or the drawing of pictographs

As explained before，this was the earliest method by which Chinese characters were designed and from which the other methods were subsequently developed．For instance，the sun was written as ，the moon as ，water as ，the cow as and so on．These picture-words underwent a gradual evolution over the centuries until the pictographs changed into“square characters”，some simplified by losing certain strokes and others made more complicated but，as a whole，from irregular drawings they became stylized forms．

(2)Associative compounds

The principle of forming characters by drawing pictures is easy to understand，but pictographs cannot express abstract ideas．So the ancients invented the“associative compounds”，i．e．，characters formed by combining two or more elements，each with a meaning of its own，to express new ideas．Thus，the sun and the moon written together became the character (ming)，which means“bright”;the sun placed over a line representing the horizon formed the ideogram (dan)which means“sunrise”or“morning”．

(3)Pictophonetics

Though pictographs and associative compounds indicate the meanings of characters by their forms，yet neither of the two categories gives any hint as to pronunciation．The pictophonetic method was developed to create new characters by combining one element indicating meaning and the other sound．For instance，“爸(ba)”the Chinese character for“papa”is formed by the element“巴(ba)”which represents the sound and the element“父(fu)”which represents the meaning (father)．Likewise the character“芭(ba)”is formed by“巴(the sound)”and“艹”，indicating a plant．In this way，more and more characters were made until such pictophonetics constitute today about 90%of all Chinese characters．

2.Grammar and Tones

Chinese grammar is much simpler than that of European languages．There are no article(a，an，the)，no tenses and no plurals．The basic point is that，like English，Chinese word order is subject-verb-object．In other words，a basic English sentence like“I(subject)love(verb)you(object)”is constructed in exactly the same way in Chinese．The catch is mastering the tones．

Chinese is a language with a large number of words with the same pronunciation but a different meaning;what distinguishes these“homophones”is their“tonal”quality—the raising and lowering of pitch on certain syllables．Chinese has four tones—high，rising，falling—rising and falling，plus a fifth“neutral”tone which can be all but ignored．The pronunciation of the Chinese words to indicate four kinds of life style for getting weight is“tang”．When pronounced with the four tones respectively，it means having a lot of soup or broth，favoring sugar or sweet food，sleeping or lying excessively and eating food while it is boiling hot，and they will sure make a person put on extra weight．The variation of tones not only affects the meaning，but also the grammatical functions．

3.Pinyin

The Chinese in 1958 adopted a system of writing their language using the Roman alphabet．It's known as pinyin．Since 1979 all translated texts of Chinese diplomatic documents，as well as Chinese magazines published in foreign languages，have used the pinyin system for spelling names and places，pinyin replaces the old Wade-Giles system of Romanizing Chinese script．Thus，under pinyin，“Mao Tse-tung”becomes Mao Zedong，“Chou En-lai”turns into Zhou Enlai，and“Peking”is now read Beijing．The name of the country remains as it has been written most often into“China”in English and German，and“Chine”in French—in pinyin it's“Zhongguo”．The same is true of some other names which still remain as they are，such as“Peking University”，“Qiang Kai-shek”(Jiang Jieshi)，“Kuomintang”(Guomindang)，for they are already widely accepted worldwide．

4.The Future of Chinese

As it is said that in the light of examining the cultural traits of a nation it is imperative to acquire a perspective through a window of its language and script．Language and script function as a threshold leading human beings from ignorance to civilization．The language and script of every nation are not molded at random，but hinge on the features and patterns of thinking of that nation，carry its rich cultural contents．Thus the Chinese language truly and fully presents the way of life and the thinking pattern of the Chinese．

The creation and application of the Chinese characters has not only propelled the development of Chinese culture，but also greatly influenced world culture．For instance，the creation of the Chinese characters profoundly influenced the writing systems of neighboring countries．The characters of Japan，Vietnam and Korea were all created on the same basis as the Chinese characters．

A language is the cultural sign deeply rooted in the soul and flesh and blood of a nation，providing a true record of the nation's progress and enabling the extension of the culture to the future on the very basis of its history．To us Chinese，any abandonment and ignorance of our own mother tongue is an unpardonable crime that will surely bring shame on us．

Word Bank

pictographic象形文字的

stroke笔画

vertical stroke竖

horizontal stroke横

bevel stroke斜

angular stroke叉

ideograph象形文字，表意文字

homophone同音字

connotation含义

derogatory贬损的

succinctness简洁

brevity简短

hieroglyphic象形文字

associative compound会意词

pictophonetics形声字

four tones四声，声调

high tone阴平

rising tone阳平

falling-rising tone上声

falling tone去声

the Wade-Giles system威妥玛式拼音法

参考译文

1.汉语

中华人民共和国的官方语言是汉语。汉语在西方被称作“官话”，但中国人将其称为“普通话”，普通话也叫汉语、中文。

汉语是世界上最美的语言之一，是世界上使用时间最久、空间最广、人数最多的文字之一，它是中国人民智慧和创造力的集中体现，是中国人民思维形式与思维特征的载体和表现形式，有着丰富的文化传承。想要了解中国人，就必须着手了解汉语语言。

1)汉字的起源

中国汉字的存在已经有相当长的历史。有关汉字的起源，自古以来众说纷纭。有的说汉字是伏羲氏发明的;还有的说是神农氏创造的;第三种说法是仓颉用自己的四只眼睛看着鸟兽的足迹想出来的。无论如何，文字创造是一件伟大的功绩。汉语文字的产生既不是神造，也不可能是某个个人的行为。它的出现和成形经历了一个相当长的过程，经过很多人的使用、完善，以满足社会生产活动的需要。

中国汉字起源于先民对周围自然景物如树木、河水、山川、马牛、人等的简单描摹。这些早期的描摹实际上就是象形文字的萌芽。与世界上其他文字相比，中国汉字起源较早。大约在距今5 000多年的半坡遗址等地方，已经出现刻画符号，共达50多种，符号笔画简单，形状规则，竖、横、斜、叉均有，有一定的规律性，具备了简单文字的特征，学者们认为这可能是汉字的萌芽。在距今5 000年前的大汶口文化遗址中还发现灰陶器上刻有一些象形符号，这些符号实际上就演变为后来的象形文字。

2)汉字的演变

汉字经历了种种演变。汉字成为系统的文字大约是在商朝。考古证实，在商朝早期，中国文明已发展到相当高的水平，其主要特征之一就是甲骨文的出现。甲骨文是刻在龟甲和兽骨上的古老文字，是汉字最早的形式。

甲骨文是一种成熟而系统的文字，为后世的汉字发展奠定了基础。此后，汉字又经历了金文(铜铭文)、小篆、隶书、楷书等形式，并一直沿用至今。

汉字的演变过程是汉字字形、字体逐步规范化、稳定化的过程。小篆使每个字的笔画数固定下来;隶书构成了新的笔形系统，字形渐成扁方形;楷书诞生以后，汉字的字形、字体就稳定下来，确定了“横、竖、撇、点、捺、挑、折”的基本笔画。1 000多年来，楷书一直是汉字的标准字。

自秦朝规范汉字以来，汉字的重大改革发生在20世纪中叶。中华人民共和国1949年成立后即着手简化汉字以取代传统楷书。除了中国大陆地区外，新加坡也采用了简体汉字。不过其他说汉语的地区例如中国台湾、中国香港以及东南亚和美洲的华人地区没有采用简体汉字，仍然继续使用传统的汉字书写体。

3)汉字的特点

中国的汉字，形状整齐，无论一个字笔画是多是少，占的地方都一样大。因此，针对汉字的这个特点，人们形象地称汉字为“方块字”。

汉字是以象形字为基础、以形声字为主体的表意文字体系，总数约有56 000个，其中大部分为古汉字，最常用的有3 000个左右。这些常用汉字可以组成无穷多的词组，进而组成各种各样的句子。

从历史发展来看，汉字造字过程经历诸多变化。从最初以象形字为主，到后来发展为以形声字为主的音、形、义结合的文字系统。简单说来，汉字具有以下几个特点:

(1)汉字是表意文字，它不和语音发生直接联系。从字形来说，汉字以它的方块形式直接反映它的意义和发音方式。如“忍”字是“心”上一把“刃”，“人”指示的是两脚立地的形象。从字形可以一眼看出字的含义，生动且易于表意。

(2)从字音来看，汉字是音节字。汉语是声调语言，属于汉藏语系(而英语是语调语言，属于印欧语系)。作为音节字的汉字，其音节结构简单，一字只有一个音节。词的信息由靠音节的声音结构和声调来承担。这就说明了汉语中同音字特别多的原因。不同的音调能传达不同的意思，一个典型的例子就是“ma”，赋予其不同的音调就有不同的意思，它可以是“妈”，或“麻”，或“马”，或“骂”。

(3)从字义来看，汉字是具象可感的。汉字是形意合一的，所以都是具象的，带有明显的可解性。例如，中国古代妇女地位低下，女人常被看成祸水，因而许多与“女”有关的字都带有贬义，如“奸、婪、娼、妓、妖”等。即使一些中性词，也带有对女性的歧视，如“安”表示女人在家不出门，“妥”表示女人在男人的手爪之下，即控制之下等。单个汉字本身就有实际的意义。由本身就有意义的字组成的词、句、文章，内容则更加丰富。

(4)中国文字还有一个特点是简洁。据统计，用各种文字来记录的联合国的文件，只有中文的文件是最薄的。单从节约时间、节约纸张来讲，中国汉字的优点也是西方文字所不及的。

4)汉字的组成

众所周知，汉语不是拼音语言，而是表意文字。汉字的组成方式有以下三种:

(1)象形字:如前所述，图画符号是汉字最早形成的方式，在此基础上逐渐产生了其他的造字方法。例如，太阳就写成，月亮是，水是，而牛就画成的模样。多少个世纪过去了，这些图画字经过不断的演变进化，直到变成“方块字”，有些字减少了笔画变成简体字，而有些字变得更加繁复，但总的说来，汉字从不规则的图画符号变成了规范的字形。

(2)会意字:以象形图画的方式造出的词意思容易明白，但是象形文字不能表述抽象意思。因此古人就创造了“会意词”，即由两个或两个以上的字合并在一起，并把它们的字义合起来，就组成一个新字。这样，把太阳和月亮写在一起就成为，意为明亮，在太阳的下面画一条横线，就可表达“日出”或“早晨”的概念。

(3)形声字:象形字和会意字可由其形来断定其义，然而却不能依其形来决定其读音。因此人们用形声组词法把表义的和表读音的两个字结合在一起组成新字。例如，汉语中表示父亲的字是“爸”，它是由表发音的“巴”和表父亲意义的“父”组成。同理，芭蕉的“芭”字也是由表音的“巴”加上表示植物意思的“艹”组成。很多字都是以此种方法构成，现在形声字已占汉字的90%左右。

2.语法和声调

汉语语法比欧洲语言的语法简单得多。汉语里没有冠词，没有时态，没有复数形式。但基本的一点同英语一样，汉语语序也是主—谓—宾。换言之，像“I(主)love(谓)you(宾)”这样的英语句子，其结构与汉语完全相同，关键在于声调的掌控。

汉语是由大量同音不同义的字组成的语言;区别这些同音词的标志是声调，也就是某些音节上音高的升降。普通话有四个基本声调，阴平、阳平、上声、去声，还有第五种轻声。比如说，可能让人长胖的四种方式的拼音都是“tang”，但是如果按照这四个音调来读就成了“汤”“糖”“躺”“烫”。汉语声调变化不仅具有语义功能，更有语法形态上的功能。

3.汉语拼音

1958年，中国开始采用罗马字母来书写汉字，即拼音。

从1979年起，所有中国的外交文献译文以及外语出版的中国杂志，都采用拼音来拼人名、地名，拼音取代了威妥玛式罗马拼音法。因此，“Mao Tse-tung”改为Mao Zedong，“Chou En-lai”改为Zhou Enlai，“Peking”就拼成Beijing了。“中国”的国名仍旧保持原来的形式，英语、德语中是China，法语中是Chine，汉语拼音则是Zhongguo。由于有些名字已经在世界范围内被广泛接受，因此仍然沿用原来的拼法，比如说“北京大学”“蒋介石”“国民党”等。

4.汉语的未来

正如人们所说，考察一个民族的文化特征，必须透过语言文字这个窗口。语言文字是人类脱离愚昧、跨入文明的门槛。而且，每个民族的语言文字都不是随便形成的。它取自于民族内部的思维特征和思维模式，承载着民族本身丰富的文化内涵。

汉字的创造和应用不仅推进了中华文明的发展，而且对世界文明的发展产生了深远的影响。例如，汉字产生以后，对周边国家产生了深刻影响。日本、越南、朝鲜半岛等国家和地区的文字都是在汉字的基础上创造的。

语言是根植于民族灵魂与血液中的文化符号，真实记录了一个民族的文化进程，成为接续历史与未来的血脉。丢弃了母语、冷落了母语，我们以及我们的后人都将会愧对列祖列宗，成为千古罪人。

Exercises

Section A　Thought-provoking questions

1．What does it mean by the six categories of Chinese characters？

2．Do you know how the Shang bone oracles were found？

Jiaguwen，or Oracle Bone Script is the earliest form of Chinese writing，likely used from the Middle to the Late Shang dynasty and was etched onto　1　shells and animal bones，which were then used for divination in the royal Shang court，hence the name“oracle bones”．The shape of these characters are often described as“pictographic”，in that they　2　stylized drawings of objects they represent．

Dazhuan，or Greater Seal Script．This stage of Chinese writing flourished from the Late Shang to the Western Zhou dynasties．Unlike　3　，which was carved on bones，Dazhuan mainly appeared on cast bronze vessels．In fact，Jiaguwen and Dazhuan overlapped in time，and they might have been the same script but as they were inscribed on different surface types their visual styles differ due to the quality of the surfaces．

Xiaozhuan，or Lesser Seal Script．This elegant script is the direct parent of the modern，unsimplified Chinese script．Whereas Dazhuan characters still resemble Jiaguwen and hence somewhat“　4　”，Xiaozhuan characters are more linear，but have not attained the“angular”look of later Chinese scripts．This script has survived the passage of time and continues to be used in the present age in　5　and seals．

Lishu，or Clerkly Script．As its name implies，this script was used by government bureaucrats．While it probably appeared at approximately 500 B．C．，Lishu became widely used in the Qin and Han dynasties when the bureaucrats needed a fast and　6　script to handle state matters．The marked difference between this script and the Xiaozhuan is that Lishu characters have　7　strokes and a more flowing style，therefore easily adaptable to brushes and pens．Lishu is still occasionally used in the modern age．

The shape of Lishu characters are identical to　8　Chinese characters．Furthermore，characters were standardized to remove regional variations，and these standard characters are for the most part the same characters written in the present．Therefore，it can be said that Chinese writing reached its maturity at this time(until the 20th century)．

Evolution of Chinese writing after Lishu is a trend of increasing cursive scripts．These scripts are the ones used in calligraphy．

Kaishu，or Standard Script，is essentially the traditional script used today．It is very similar to　9　，but slightly more cursive and contains serif-like(hook or anchor-like)elements at the corners and end of strokes．Kaishu appeared toward the end of the Han dynasty．

Xingshu，or Running Script，can be considered a cursive version of Kaishu．Often several strokes are merged into one，especially sequential dots or two strokes perpendicular to each other．It also appeared shortly after the Han dynasty．

Caoshu，or Grass Script，is the most cursive Chinese script．It appeared during the Qin dynasty．The shape of its characters often do not resemble the corresponding Lishu or Kaishu character，because in that some strokes are merged into one and　10　are simply left out．

※He who grudges expense pays much more in the end.He who has hoarded most will suffers the heaviest loss.

From Laozi:Dao De Jing

(甚爱必大费，多藏必厚亡。)

——老子·《道德经》

※Water is the softest thing in the world;but when at tacking things hard and resistant，nothing is superior to it.

From Laozi:Dao De Jing

(天下莫柔弱于水，而攻坚强者莫之能胜。)

——老子·《道德经》