use, to be the symbol of another word like it in sound. An additional mark helps to indicate the new word symbolized. Sheng "sound." Hie “ agree." In Kia tsie we have borrowing without an additional mark. As in nü "woman," used for "thou," because both were called nu or nok. The six principles may be reduced to three. First, pictures of objects. Second, pictures suggestive of ideas, words or things, including the first, third, and fourth principles. Third, borrowing symbols on the ground of phonetic identity, including the fifth and sixth principles. EXAMPLES OF CHÏ SHÏ. - "heaven." Sw Sw says from yi "one," ta "great." great." Tt says, with more probability, that it is a picture of an idea. Three concave lines horizontal and parallel represent heaven in one old form. Tan "sunrise." The sun rising. Here the single stroke is the horizon. The sunrise is named tan from its redness. Tan "red" is applied, among other things, to the golden elixir, which was cinnabar, called kin tan, sien tan, "elixir of the immortals," chu sha "red sand," etc. The reference here is to red oxide of mercury. The medical properties of mercury, and its assumption of a liquid form at low temperature, led the ancient Chinese alchemists to believe that in it was concealed the elixir of life. Evening, si, zik, dik, is suggested by the half-moon just seen. A boundary between fields is represented by two fields placed side by side, kiang, with a line between and two lines above and below. The character inclosed in four detached straight lines is called hwa, gak, and means a stroke cut with a knife or written with a brush. It is a It is a picture of the four boundaries of a field. The phonetic 293 hwei, gut, “return," is in Sw a single line returning into itself. In phonetic 30 t'sai, 5, dat, we see the cutting away of useless portions of a tree, while the good parts are selected to use as building materials or for other purposes. In choosing a symbol for dzai "ability," "faculty," "capacity for usefulness," it was the dzai of a tree which suggested the required sign. This was afterwards A applied to the talent of men and the power of money, which are other modifications of the same idea. The character represents a tree partly stripped of its branches.-Li yang ping in Tt. Inshi "historiographer" a hand below grasps a writing implement, viz. 252 yü above. See the hand in Cw drawn plainly. Injen "edge of a knife" we have a knife, and a dot pointing to the edge, to indicate that this is the part of the knife to which reference is made.—Tt. EXAMPLES OF PICTURES OF OBJECTS. Rain was anciently without the upper line, and instead of the vertical line in the middle, there were four, but all shorter. Above each of them and within the concave was a dot. These four dots were rain-drops, the four lines were the direction of their descent, and the concave was the firmament. Water shui is regarded by Sw as one of the eight divining symbols known as the Pa kwa. It is supposed to bekan turned on end. This explanation was in agreement with the philosophy of the Han dynasty, according to which the origin of writing was found in the Pa kwa. It was believed that the physical theories of the Yi king, Book of Changes, influenced the makers of the characters. For us it is better to regard the old form with its three descending lines as a picture of water flowing downwards. P. 456 chui "to fall" has in the seal character a form something like that of yü "rain" and of rain-drops. It was perhaps an imitation. But see in Chapter III. Mu "mother" differs from ni "woman," by having the breasts added. This is very noticeable in the Cw. I should rather have referred this to the principle of suggestion, but Tt calls it a picture of the object. The separate provinces of the six principles of formation are not always well defined. The word Eyebrow mei. Picture of hair above an eye. Tt says that on the ancient bells and vases this character is not found. mei is symbolized by some much more complex characters. uses and below it mi, for "eyebrow" in the sentence mien wu su mi "his face without beard or eyebrow." T'si "son" is in Lw formed with J at the top to represent hair. In Kw the form is still more complex, including not only hair at the top, but arms, legs, and the second man radical at the bottom. See Sw. t'siuen, 5, dzin, "fountain." Water flows from a covered place, pe "white," which is represented in Cw by R. cover, mien. Hua "teapot," or "winepot," has several old forms which are evidently pictures of the pot with its lid. But the lower part of the character usually resembles closely ya 424, which had final k, as inngo, ak, "bad." If ak has lost an initial k, as is probable, the character hu would furnish a still closer likeness to ya 424. Pe, pak, to back. Yü, ok, "north," "back." Two men are here seen back "writing implement." Picture of a hand grasping a knife used in cutting or drawing.—Tt. Ch'eu, nieu, 6, nok, “take hold of things." A picture of the hand taking hold of something.-Tt. Yin, yi, "he." The original of this, without A, is a picture of the hand grasping something. The thing grasped is the downstroke, and is here the symbol of authority. A ruler is called yin. In Kw there are two hands and the symbol of authority is represented by four strokes. Heu "ruler". The first two strokes are a man, the ruler, who expresses his will by "one" "mouth." Din "a subject," c'hen, is expressed by a character which pictures a person bent and prostrate before his chief. C'hwen JI "streams of water" becomes an island when written HH cheu, and a "calamity" when written tsai. The last as it stands is composed of c'hwen "descending calamities" and fire below. Unaccountable disasters are supposed to come from above. Yung "constant," "constantly flowing." Two streams of 永 water uniting are here pictured.-Tt. Shen "stretch out straight." Picture of ribs in two rows 申 with the backbone dividing them. The three horizontal strokes are all divided in the middle in old forms. In the oldest forms of the characters for "right" and "left," tso "left" is three fingers and an arm bent downwards to the left , while yeu "right" is three fingers and an arm turned down to the right. Pictures of animals are tripled with the sound piau, probably for an older bok, "to run." Thus we find a picture of three horses running called piau, and the same of three dogs. The same sound, piau for bok, is applied to a triple picture of a dog or "fire", with the character "wind" on the right in the sense wind. The use of fire is probably an error. Yem is the sound for the triple picture of "fire," old sound dam. "Flame." "Shining." It is sometimes called hek, because a root represented by that sound also means "shining." Further, it is called yi for dik, for a like reason. Hung, 1, kom or hum, is the sound assigned to a picture of three carts whose rumbling is thus represented. Lui, 5, dut, is the sound assigned to a triple arranged as in . This represents, for example, layers of stone in walls or sun-dried bricks in earthworks round a camp. On account of resemblance in sound, "thunder" is also thus represented. EXAMPLES OF HWEI YI, "SUGGESTION." Characters formed by the principle Hwei yi consist of two or more parts which by juxtaposition suggest the word intended. The sound is not expressed, and must be retained by the memory acting on the principle of the association of ideas. King "to congratulate," "happiness," king, 3, k'ang, kam, is Formerly the skin of a deer was taken as a present at visits of congratulation. As often happens in compound characters, part of one of the component characters is omitted. One of the words for "all" t'sien, 1, tsim, is composed of a man above, two mouths in the middle, and two men. below. It is intended as a picture of several persons conversing together, and accompanying each other as they walk. Some characters formed on this principle, according to the Lu shu tsung yau, are made phonetic in Sw, as c'h "shame." Sw says, "from heart, ni ear giving the sound." Lsty says, "from heart and ear by suggestion." When a man hears his faults mentioned, he is ashamed. His ear grows hot and his face red as a consequence of the shame he feels, c'hi, 2, t'i, t'ip, "shame." Sü hiai, editor of Shwo wen, sometimes errs in inferring the principle of formation in characters to be that of suggestion. He says that in R. words, ku "sayings," "sayings of old," we have ku "ancient," acting the part of a suggester of the thought. It is more likely that the word properly meant in the first place only "words," "sayings." From its having the same sound with ku "ancient," scholars took it to mean ancient sayings in particular, and hence the explanation. The bow of five short feet in length being used in measuring land, two bows side by side were anciently used as a symbol for field boundaries, with the name kiang or kong. Two trees side by side suggest lim "grove". c'hwen "streams flowing" on the right. Lin "avaricious" is formed by "words" on the left, and JIJ wen "elegant" above, and k'en "mouth" below. Fair speeches are the cloak of covetousness. Wai "crooked" consists of put "not" above, and cheng E "right" below. T'sieu, 5, du, dut, "a captive," is represented by a man in a square inclosurekio. Si "four" si is formed from the character Apat "eight," within a circle, which here marks the horizon. The idea is "parting" a circle, since pat is to "separate," "part." Tsiang "workman" is composed of kin "knife," "hatchet," within, and fang "a vessel of capacity" outside on the left. Sien "before", from chi 2 "to go," and beneath it man, i.e. gone before some one else. Kwang "light". Formerly fire above, and man below A, i.e. light above man. K'e “able,” “conquer," "can," , consists of kien “shoulder" contracted, and man below, i.e. what can be carried on the shoulder. Ch'i "red" tak "red" is an older form composed of ta "great" above, and huco "fire" below, to suggest the colour of a great fire.-Tt. This character repeated has the sound he, 4, kek, and means "bright," "glorious." Chi "to cauterize" tak. Flesh over a fire. This suggests the sense of the verb. Tso, dzak, "to sit," 4. Two men are sitting ris à ris on the ground. Chu, to, "beginning," J. From clothes and scissors. The beginning of clothing is in the action of scissors cutting cloth. |