Material 1: Chinese Characters are the Deepest Cultural Transmission Li Tusheng: Chinese Characters Are a Culture in and of Themselves

Chinese characters, as the only remaining ideographs stil

Material 1: Chinese Characters are the Deepest Cultural Transmission Li Tusheng: Chinese Characters Are a Culture in and of Themselves

Chinese characters, as the only remaining ideographs still in use in the world, are known as the "fossil" of history and culture. Chinese characters have not only recorded the history of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, but also embodied, in their unique form, the specific way of thinking and aesthetic habits of the Han people in recognizing things. Li Tusheng, a famous scholar, has been researching Chinese characters for ten years, and has finally completed a 10-volume series called "Tusheng Speaks of Characters". A few days ago, Li Tusheng was invited to give a lecture on traditional Chinese culture and Chinese characters at the News Building, and was interviewed by the Beijing Evening News.

Chinese characters can't be simplified or "retrofitted. What triggered your interest in Chinese characters, which led you to embark on a decade of research?

Li: I have been engaged in the study of traditional Chinese culture since I was transferred from the army, and the study of Chinese characters is the most fundamental part of traditional cultural research. Since Chinese characters are the information carrier of inherited culture and the constituent factor of the whole Chinese culture, only when we have a full understanding of Chinese characters can we grasp the Chinese culture by searching for the pearls. It is inconceivable to study Chinese culture without studying Chinese characters, and it is equally inconceivable to study Chinese culture without understanding the profound connotations of Chinese characters. However, the movement to simplify Chinese characters, which has lasted for more than half a century, has resulted in excessive "blood loss" of Chinese characters and a massive loss of cultural information, as well as a rupture between words and culture. A prominent feature of this is that the younger generation has lost more and more understanding of the ancient Chinese language, and even the ability to recognize traditional Chinese characters, and most people have become accustomed to communicating in simplified characters, a reality that must be faced squarely. This is a reality that must be faced squarely. For example, the traditional form of the Chinese character "医" is "医" or "医". The traditional form of the character "医" is from (殹), from (巫), and "医" is from (殹), from ()you. "殹" is the sound of knocking when healing, "" 殹 "有 "殳"，for knocking, referring to the transfer of medicines with a wooden stick or patting, knocking, pointing, nudging, massaging and other techniques. "Wu" for witch doctor, "medical" from the witch, because the early stage of medicine and witch is a combination of one. The original meaning of "You" is a wine jar, "You" is the essence of wine, wine is the introduction of medicine or refers to the pot for boiling medicine or brewing medicinal wine, the so-called "no wine is no medicine". The evolution of the Chinese character "医" from traditional to simplified is in fact a refraction of the influence of Western medicine on Chinese medicine in the process of development, especially in modern times. Its simplification means that modern Chinese medicine has gradually weakened the traditional Chinese medicine methods of "looking, smelling, questioning, cutting, acupuncture, massage, tui-na, acupuncture" and other holistic diagnosis and treatment methods, and consciously or unconsciously practiced the local diagnosis and treatment theories of "Western medicine is the treatment of people's illnesses", and stayed away from the theory that "Chinese medicine is the treatment of illnesses". "Chinese medicine is to treat the sick person" of the overall diagnosis and treatment of the fine tradition. Therefore, the simplified Chinese character "医" reflects the current situation of modern Chinese medicine. To ensure that Chinese characters can adapt to the needs of the times and society, it is extreme and impractical to seek simplicity or to advocate "retrofitting" - resuming the use of traditional characters. Nowadays, people only regard simplified characters as boring and difficult symbols, and abuse, misuse, misunderstanding, and misinterpretation of Chinese characters abound. Based on this current situation, I adopt the research method of recognizing traditional and interpreting simplified characters to build a bridge between the perception of traditional and simplified characters.

Q: At the beginning of the 20th century, there were many calls for the elimination of Chinese characters; at the end of the last century, some experts and scholars put forward the diametrically opposed argument that the first language of the 21st century will be Chinese characters. What is your opinion?

Li: At the beginning of the last century, there were indeed some "Chinese character backwardness theory" advocates who advocated the abolition of Chinese characters and the pinyinization of Chinese characters, and even went to the extreme of arguing that if Chinese characters were not extinguished, China would surely perish, and blamed the Chinese characters for China's academic underdevelopment and economic underdevelopment. It took a century of stormy weather for the vigorous Chinese character reform movement to survive peacefully. After this baptism of war, not only have the Chinese characters not been eliminated or abolished, but with their tenacity and natural advantages, they have increasingly been highly valued and emphasized. Experts and scholars at home and abroad have been re-examining Chinese characters with fresh eyes and discovering their rich cultural information and profound cultural heritage. The Chinese language carries a long civilization of 5,000 years, and the rich information and subtle art contained in the Chinese language and Chinese characters have their unique advantages compared with pinyin characters. The functions of imaginative thinking (not figurative and image thinking) and self-organization of Chinese characters are destined to surpass all existing world languages in the future information society of mankind.

Language and writing are alive and the study of Chinese characters should also be alive

Q:Why is it said that Chinese characters themselves are a culture?

Li: Chinese characters are the world's oldest, most continuous, most beautiful, most expressive, and most intelligent scripts, which have contributed to the development of human thinking, cultural prosperity, the transmission of information, and the evolution of civilization. Although the evolution of Chinese characters has passed through many stages, such as oracle bone inscriptions, gold inscriptions, seal scripts, official scripts, regular scripts and so on, its form still preserves rich cultural connotations, and each Chinese character is almost a storage box of historical information, its structure and its strokes contain a large amount of cultural information, which can reflect the past and visualize the present. The first people to create words, far from all things, close to the body, up to observe astronomy, down to observe geography, it can be said that the Chinese characters, heaven and earth, ghosts and gods, mountains and rivers, grass and trees, birds and animals, insects, the king's rituals are not contained, the survival of the ancient people's wisdom, life experience, social consciousness, aesthetic taste, cultural psychology and so on, are all y molded in the Chinese characters. Unlike the rational thinking of the West, which uses purely abstract concepts and strict logical deduction to reveal the world of objects, the Chinese focus on intuition, image and perception, that is to say, a kind of "elephant thinking" that embodies the abstract meaning of the world of objects through sensual, intuitive, and figurative symbols. Image thinking is an important rationale for the formation of Chinese characters. In Chinese characters, the proportion of words related to the parts of the human body alone accounts for as much as 35%, the words related to the five substances of gold, wood, water, fire and earth account for 36%, the words related to birds and animals account for 14%, and the words related to the sun, the moon and the colors also account for 14%. How does "Xiang" fulfill its meaning? The means is to resemble the feelings of all things. When the ancestors created Chinese characters, no matter what kind of characters they created, they always wanted the characters to "resemble" the objects they were expressing. For example, mountain has the shape of a mountain, water has the appearance of water, deer has the appearance of a deer, and bird has the image of a bird. The character for "cow" has horns that extend forward, the character for "sheep" has horns that curl back, the character for "boar" has a drooping tail, and the character for "dog" has a cocked tail, etc. If the character is invisible, it is important to make the character "resemble" the object it expresses. If the word is invisible like the word, it will try to find ways to go on the basis of the pictogram to indicate or will mean, with a specific elephant to express the abstract concept. For example, the word "death" borrowed "people kneeling in front of the withered bones crying" shape, expressing the meaning of "death"; "weak" character Oracle for "a dead person next to three children" shape, three means more, meaning "people die and leave a lot of unsupported children", thus expressing the meaning of "weak". "Supervisor" is like a person lowering his head to look at the shadow in the water, "Supervisor" character, the vessel below the water, above a person bowed down to look at the water, the water also has a vague reflection, living a picture of the image of the water photo form. Another example is the word "Dan" which means the sun has just risen, and the horizontal line below is the horizon. It seems that the characters are being dismantled in a dialog with the Cangjie people, and each stroke and each component is given a new lease of life. I regret that many people only know the wonders of Chinese characters but not the reasons why; or know but do not know. With the development and changes of the times, how have the sounds and shapes of Chinese characters changed, and how have the meanings of the characters become richer and richer in the long flow of history, thus accumulating into the magnificent humanistic landscape of Chinese characters. In this sense, the characters themselves are a kind of culture, and the development of the characters and their shapes are all the accumulation of culture. Chinese characters are not only characterized by the flexibility of putting together in the form of building blocks, but also, like the Rubik's Cube, by the wonders of infinite variations. Chinese characters are "both form and spirit" and have a strong sense of meaning. Language and writing are as alive as our lives, and the study of Chinese characters should also be alive, and fresh blood should be constantly injected into them.

Chinese characters condense wisdom and culture, but they also transmit the spirit of the nation

Q: In ancient times, there was Cangjie's creation of characters, and in Han Dynasty, there was Xu Shen's "Explaining Characters in Chinese," so what kind of thinking was used in the study of "Tusheng Saying Characters"?

Li: I tried to put forward my own ideas on the basis of fully absorbing and learning from the results of the previous generation, and tried to be reasonable and well-founded. The book "Tusheng Saying Characters" follows the style of first breaking down the characters, then explaining the basic meaning of each character, and finally giving a cultural interpretation of the character. For example, the traditional Chinese character "Guo" consists of "囗" and "或", with "囗" being the scope. Sovereignty, territory and population are the three elements of a nation. A country can only be considered sovereign and independent if it maintains the integrity of its territory. The "Go" in "Or" is a weapon for the defense of the country and its sovereignty; when the sovereignty and territory of the country are violated by outsiders, the people have the right and duty to defend it with their Go. The Chinese have always fought for every inch of their own land, and not a single point of other countries' territory. The simplified character "Guo" is from enclosure, from jade. "Jade" is a beautiful stone, the ancients assigned the five virtues to jade, a symbol of beauty and wealth. "囗""玉 "为 "国"，meaning: the country should be the best and most beautiful home in the minds of the people. First of all, the "enclosure" within the "jade" is intact, as a beautiful country, territorial integrity, national unity, sovereignty and independence, is the most basic prerequisite. Secondly, "jade" for the jade seal, symbolizing the sovereignty of the country, only sovereign independence, inviolable, can be considered a real country. Thirdly, "jade" is treasure. The country should be rich in resources and have a vast territory. Fourth, "jade" symbolizes wealth. "Jade" within the "enclosure" symbolizes that the people are rich and the country is strong. Fifth, "jade" is a treasure of the world. For the nation, excellent national culture is the soul of a country, "enclosure" within the "jade", implying that the country should protect traditional culture and inherit the national spirit. Sixth, "jade" is crystal clear, pure and beautiful. It implies that in order to build up a good international image, the country should firstly behave in an open and honest manner, have a high degree of transparency in its foreign policy, and not covet the interests of other countries; and secondly, it should have sovereignty and opinions, and not be manipulated by other countries or controlled by its interests. Of course, my thoughts and insights correct or not have to wait for time and readers to test.