Vol III: 鱼

Hi, everyone, welcome to my passion blog. For the third episode, let’s take a look at a great example of how Chinese characters change from super graphic symbol to modern simplified character.

Today’s character is

鱼 yú

The meaning is simple – fish!

Even though the character here is quite different from the ancient oracle bone script, I guess you can still trace some graphic hint from it.

So, let’s know start the journey

Oracle bone script, isn’t this is just a vivid fish with head, fin and tail? You can even tell the fish scale from the character, or we should call it symbol, more accurately.

Bronze inscriptions（金文）not a lot change from oracle bone script to bronze inscription, but you can see the character start to standardize a little bit. Notice there are two versions of bronze inscriptions, the head and tail changes significantly

(For the sake of time, I will not include history content in this episode, but check out later episode for details for these different scripts.)

Seal script（篆文）Huge change happens here, the rudiment of character appears, more systematized and easier to copy.

Clerical script（隶书）Here you can see the square shape of modern Chinese Character finally appears. Fish scale simplified to the “田” and all fins with tail change to the four dots.

Regular script（楷书）This is the character being used widely nowadays. four dots are replaced by a horizontal line, which is just made for easier writing and mass copy.

I found the change of hieroglyphic character, or so-called pictograph really interesting. It is all from the heuristic thinking process. Ancient people try to depict the world they see, and translate into these symbols can be passed on for thousands of years. notice how the culture and knowledge are all origin from the natural itself and evolve to become more civilized. History are hidden in there.

Hope you enjoy this episode, I’ll see you next time!

End-notes: during my research, there are actually more than one way of oracle bone script; another one looks like a giant fish opening its mouth full of teeth. That specific symbol does not passed on till today. But it reminds the Allegory of the Cave by Plato. People see the world has various form, but they narrow it down to a simple prototype for easier expression and communication. It does not relate to the original theme of the allegory, but isn't the way people create characters, or even culture, just like projecting the actual objects onto the wall, discarding the variability. More interestingly, as time pass by, mankind started to realize that the prototype they created might be too simplex. Then they began to add more elements to diversify the characters and culture!

References:

http://www.vividict.com/WordInfo.aspx?id=2992