Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 114

CHINESE LANGUAGE AND WRITING
113 being an overwhelmingly agricultural country, the characters connected with agriculture are numerous; for instance,"field" +"strength" = "young"; "tree" +"hand"="to collect"; "wheat" +knife"="profit."
(4) Chuan chu (Fig. 59, 1), "Deflections and Inversions"; the meaning of certain words is indicated, by generalization or analogy, by characters
Ancient
Modern
Ancient
Modern
Ancient
Modern
"East Meverywheretur
2x woman
quarrel (tod)
x horseto wallop" (CV)
Ancient
Modern
Ancient Modern
Ancient
Modern
Ancient Modem
DAS PA ONDA
"mouth
"bird"
to sing"
"moon
"bright, clear
" " "word "ru" "un" Fig. 58-Hui i symbols
representing other words, or by turning the sign upwards, downwards or sidewards; for instance, the character "prince" written in a different way, gives the meaning "officer" or "clerk"; the character "corpse" is a derivation from the symbol "man." The character for tzu, "child," turned upside-down, is used in ancient inscriptions to represent t'u, "childbirth"; the symbol shan,"mountain," rotated through a right angle, indicates fou, "tableland," "huge" (Yetts).
ZI -7UB
AR
an corps
Prince officer
clerk
z
peron"
3
ed its
med in "foot, "cate stead of "old"
woman" tead of "you" as
also to come brulicient"
Fig. 59 1, Chuan chou symbols. 2, The nine basic strokes of Chinese writing. 3. Chia chieh symbols
The exact meaning of chuan chu is uncertain. Prof. Yetts suggests "shifted axes." "Sometimes the entire character is reversed, while the pivotal axis remains constant." Prof. Latourette suggests turned round" or characters related in sense. However, as Latourette points out, this class is concerned only with peculiarities in the use of characters.