Lectures on Chinese Character Studies

Author: Lü Hao / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Chinese characterology is a discipline established as the study of Chinese characters. Ancient Chinese characterology was a category of "Xiaoxue" (elementary studies), which served to interpret classics and was subordinated to Confucian studies. From the perspective of its content, the study of Chinese characters can be approached from three aspects: the systemic structure of the characters, the systematic orientation of their formation, and the cultural connotations they embody. Research topics include ontological studies, applied studies, artistic studies, and etymological studies, among others. Additionally, Chinese characterology encompasses historical Chinese character studies, studies on character forms, colloquial character studies, dialectal original character studies, the spread of Chinese characters, the history of the development of Chinese characters, studies on ancient and modern characters, studies on variant characters, studies on phono-semantic compounds, studies on semantic-combinational characters, and more. This book is compiled for the teaching of textual studies courses and arranges the teaching content in a thematic lecture format. It primarily covers ten aspects: the origin and orientation of Chinese character creation, preliminary studies on ancient characters, preliminary studies on modern characters, modern Chinese characters, the nature of Chinese characters, the theory of grapheme and character formation analysis, the theory of the "Six Books" and the "Three Books" theory, the theory of phono-semantic compounds, the theory of variant characters, and the distinction between characters and words. It includes both introductory knowledge and in-depth thematic discussions, helping readers to understand, appreciate, and apply Chinese characters.