What should we pay attention to when exploring the original meaning of Chinese characters by analyzing their glyphs?

To explore the original meaning, we should analyze the glyphs of ancient characters.

Such as oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions.

Because oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions are relatively recent to the era when characters were created, they provide a reliable basis for analyzing glyphs and identifying original meanings.

Some characters in Xiaozhuan have lost their original appearance. For example, "行", according to oracle bone inscriptions, is a pictographic character, resembling the shape of a road, and its original meaning is road.

And "Shuowen" says: "Xing is the trend of human steps. Follow the 彳 and ??follow the Yu." The reason why the analysis of "Shuowen" is wrong is that it relies on the shape of the small seal script, and the shape of the small seal script has lost its original character.

The initial appearance.

Exploring the original meaning requires not only analyzing the glyphs, but also corroborating them with materials from ancient documents.

Combining the two, the original meaning obtained is reliable.

Extended information: Oracle bone inscriptions are characters engraved or written on tortoise shells and animal bones.

It was unearthed in the Xiaotun area of ??Anyang, Henan Province. Because it was the capital of Shang King Pan Geng to Emperor Xin in the late Shang Dynasty, it was called "Yin" in history.

After the Shang Dynasty destroyed the country, it became a ruin, and later generations named it "Yin Ruins".

Therefore, oracle bone inscriptions are also called "Yinxu inscriptions".

Most of its contents are royal divination words, so it is also called "divination words" or "zhen divination words".

This kind of writing is basically made of deeds, and is also called "Qi Wen" or "Yin Qi".

Oracle bone inscriptions date back more than 3,000 years. It is not only the earliest and systematic data for studying the origin of Chinese characters, but also an important asset for studying oracle bone calligraphy.

From the perspective of calligraphy, oracle bone inscriptions already have the three basic elements of calligraphy: pen use, word knotting, and composition.

Judging from the characters on the oracle bones, they already possess the three elements of Chinese calligraphy: brushwork, word knotting, and composition.

The lines he used were strict and thin, with both straight and thick strokes, and his strokes were folded in many directions, which had an impact on the pen and knife used for seal cutting in later generations.

Judging from the structural font, the characters not only change, but are of different sizes, they are relatively balanced and symmetrical, and also show a stable pattern.

Therefore, from the perspective of composition, although it is affected by the size and shape of the bone fragments, it still shows the carving skills and the artistic characteristics of writing.

"Oracle bone calligraphy" is now popular among some calligraphers and calligraphy enthusiasts, which proves its charm.