Chinese

Reading the Past

by Oliver Moore

Any account of reading the Chinese past is enriched by the fact that Chinese writing is both ancient and current. No other writing system of antiquity enjoys this benefit. Since the emergence of the earliest discernible process of writing, in northern China around 1200 b.c., the Chinese system has been used by millions of speakers, and today more people speak a Chinese language than any other. In his accessible, straightforward book, Oliver Moore demystifies one of the world's oldest writing systems, introducing the basic principles of the language, the formation of written characters, and the ways these characters have developed. Drawing on evidence from numerous artifacts in the British Museum and elsewhere, he describes, chronologically, several of the major scripts used to write on each material, from the earliest oracle bones to calligraphic works of art.

Moore defines the Chinese language both as a member of an East Asian language family and as a broad term covering quite distinct variations in speech within the borders of modern China. He discusses how the Chinese writing system works today, demonstrating how it exerts its influence far beyond the traditional borders of China. The last chapter illustrates instances of Chinese characters borrowed to write non-Chinese languages.

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book from the British Museum; they have a whole series of them. They look like rather simple language introductions, being less than 100 pages and heavily illustrated, but as Bill says, “they’re not kidding around”. The cover of the book contains a Zhou bronze inscription from the 11th century BC; this is not just nice cover art but is translated, into modern Chinese characters and English, in one chapter of the book. The book begins by looking at the way modern Chinese is written and spoken, it does a very good job at combating a lot of the myths about Chinese and explaining it all clearly. The next chapter is a breakdown of Chinese characters, and how they are written and how they are created, and broken down, and include tones and similar pronunciation. Moore then looks at early oracle bones, he always includes the modern Chinese and English versions of the characters he discusses, he translates the texts, and explains the divination process. Not only this but he also had the BEST explanation of the “ten stems and twelve branches” that I’ve ever read. I’ve always been just about to get my head around it, but with one simple illustration it all made sense. It also contained a bone that was a fragmentary text of all the days of the sixty-day cycle, which Moore speculated was a handy reference for the diviners. After the oracle bones he then looks at the bronze inscriptions of the Zhou, including as I mentioned a complete example of the cover illustration text. He looked at the standard characters as well as some variations. One of these variations was the bird script from Chu. I have to say Chu is the most fascinating of the Zhou cultures. They are responsible for the poems and beliefs of early spirit-possession, and here they had the MOST beautiful Chinese writing I have ever seen! I’ve never come across it before; it is called “bird script” and has birds added to the characters. The next chapter looks at the writing under the unified Qin Empire, and examines in detail the seal script, which he describes as a very conservative script. I also learned that seal script was only used for inscriptions, and that a different style was used for writing on bamboo strips. I also learned that the bamboo strips could be re-used. There was a knife that could scrape the characters off the strips so they could be changed, and that early pictures of scholars showed them wearing these knives. Because this book focused on writing as functions rather than writing as art, it paid less attention to the developments of different types of calligraphy developed, giving only a brief outline of these forms. He looked at the development of the language and how it has been changed down to changes being made today. It was a fascinating book, and despite its size I found I learned a lot of interesting new information. I would highly recommend it to people interested in the history and development of Chinese language. It also included a list of books in English, French and Chinese about the development of the language for further reading, several of these I shall have to track down and read.

[David Scarratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to the history of a fascinating script, but could easily have been expanded beyond the constraints of the series. Probably best read together with a history of China, and perhaps an anthology of Chinese writing about writing.