Introduction to the Study of the Chinese Characters

by Joseph Edkins

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...one, two or more objects in a picture suggest another. In Chwen chu "turn the explanation," we have a change in the meaning accompanying a change in the posture of the figures. In Hiai sheng we have the borrowing of a word symbol already in use, to be the symbol of another word like it in sound. An additional mark helps to indicate the new word symbolized. Hie "agree." Sheng "sound." In Kia tsie we have borrowing without an additional mark. As in r nii "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 Chi' Shi. 5 "heaven." Sw says from--yi "one," ta "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 H "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," elm 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. TM A boundary between fields is represented by two fields placed...

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2013