{"id":10901,"date":"2022-06-07T08:42:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T08:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurologos-milano.com\/?p=10901"},"modified":"2022-06-07T08:46:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T08:46:52","slug":"chinese-characters-as-hieroglyphs-in-brief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurologos-milano.com\/en\/chinese-characters-as-hieroglyphs-in-brief\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese characters, as hieroglyphs in brief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese characters are unique among all the existing languages on the planet. Compared to English, the biggest difference between these two languages is that e<\/span>ach <\/span>Chinese character or word has an individual meaning itself; English, on the other hand, is made up of 26 alphabet letters. Each letter has no meaning of its own; a word is a combination of letters.<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The origins<\/h2>\n

It starts with the origin of Chinese characters. In the earliest ancient time, people curved some symbols on the turtle shell or tortoise shells or animal bones by the<\/span>\u202froyal\u202f<\/span>family in the late<\/span>\u202f<\/span>Shang Dynasty for<\/span>\u202f<\/span>divination<\/span>, which is called and known as Oracle Bone<\/span>\u202f<\/span>Script<\/span> nowadays.<\/span>\u202f<\/span>It is the earliest known mature script in China and East Asia.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, these scripts are drawings. Some of them simply mean some specific object, for example, the script of the meaning \u201csun\u201d is a circle, the shape of the sun, <\/span>with<\/span> a dot in the middle. Except in a direct way to describe the meaning of obvious things like \u201csun\u201d, the ancient people also are so intelligent to be able to draw an abstract meaning, like verbs, etc., into a picture in a smart way. For instance, the character \u201c<\/span>\u5305<\/span>\u201d, which means \u201csurround\u201d in English, is a man in a sealed circle in Oracle Bone<\/span>\u202f<\/span>Script<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These characters that express more complicated meanings usually use the symbol of man (or more than one man) to make the main meaning pop out, examples like \u201c<\/span>\u4ea4<\/span>\u201d, means \u201ccross\u201d, is a man sitting down with crossed legs; <\/span>\u201c<\/span>\u5e76<\/span>\u201d, means \u201ctogether\u201d, is two men standing in the same direction and carrying a stick on their shoulders.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The evolution<\/h2>\n

Since Oracle Bone<\/span>\u202f<\/span>Script<\/span>,<\/span> Chinese <\/span>characters has evolved according to the appearance of oracle bone inscriptions and into the modern square-shaped characters nowadays. That\u2019s why every single Chinese character has its own meaning. Also, you would find that, some characters still obviously look like their \u201cancients\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In nowadays, traditional Chinese is actually the characters coming from Oracle Bone<\/span>\u202f<\/span>Script<\/span>. Simplified Chinese surely has its advantages, yet, as it named, it does remove a lot of features of traditional characters. It\u2019s difficult to tell or read a simplified Chinese character\u2019s meaning or its history.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n