Far away in Moscow

Chapter 248
"Please." Professor Sergey said with a half-smile, "I hope your explanation can make me understand."

"Even if your grandson comes, he will definitely be able to understand." Hu Yi pointed at the Chinese and Russian words on the paper with the tip of his pen: "Let's analyze the thinking habits first from the way of arrangement. Russian words are one-way when arranging letters, and the positions are relative To fix is ​​to appear one by one along a straight line, and to form different words by changing the order of letters before and after. This can be thought of as a one-way, linear...well...one-dimensional way."

"Of course, I can understand this." The old professor thought for a while: "The square characters do not arrange the basic symbols one by one."

"Yes, square characters place strokes in different directions in a fixed space. They can appear up, down, left, right, and in all directions. It is a plane cross-combination method, which can be considered as a multi-directional, non-linear two-dimensional method. "

"One-way and multi-way, straight line and plane, one-dimensional and two-dimensional, starting from the writing arrangement of characters, this difference is indeed big enough." The old professor said with a smile, "You just mentioned the way of thinking, didn't you?" Do you think that the Chinese way of thinking is more comprehensive, advanced, and advanced than Russian and other alphabetic characters?"

"No, no, you misunderstood. There is no such thing as better or worse. It's just a difference in methods and habits." Hu Yi spread his hands: "It is the very different national cultures that have created this way. huge difference."

"The conclusion is obvious, but what are the specific manifestations? Please give an example."

"This is the second point I'm going to talk about, which involves the ancient value and cultural systems of the East and the West." Hu Yi paused for a while and sorted out his thoughts: "Russian words vary in length, and the space occupied by each letter Basically the same, and the pronunciation of words can directly reflect the letters and ordering; each square character in Chinese is the same size, but the length of the strokes and the frame structure will be adjusted according to the needs, and the strokes themselves have nothing to do with the pronunciation of the square characters. Therefore."

"Well, I understand. This should be a question of the relationship between the whole and the individual, and who makes changes for whom." Sergey thought for a while: "Whether the individual changes the whole, or the whole determines the individual."

"Congratulations! You will answer quickly!" Hu Yi clapped his hands three times, and continued: "So in my opinion, the way of writing can reflect the different concepts of social relations and order in the East and the West since ancient times."

"Of course, the birth and evolution of language is always closely related to social development and changes." The old professor stared at the Chinese characters on the paper thoughtfully: "But when it comes to relationship and order, square characters incorporate different numbers of multiple strokes into the same pattern. The size of the space sometimes seems too crowded, and the arrangement is a little out of order."

"It is true for people who are not familiar with Chinese, but this just reflects the huge cultural differences." Hu Yi explained casually while thinking: "The length of a word is determined by the number of letters, and the length is not restricted. Behind it is a kind of Relatively open thinking habit; the letters are adjacent but not intersecting, reflecting the relatively independent individual associations; the one-way linear arrangement shows that the way of thinking about problems is direct and simple, less worrying, and full of pioneering spirit. A way of thinking suitable for European maritime civilization."

"It makes sense. In the age of great voyages, many European explorers sailed straight in one direction, and finally circumnavigated the earth and discovered a new continent." Sergey nodded slightly: "Then what the square Chinese characters present What kind of thinking culture is it?"

"The strokes in different Chinese characters are either up or down, big or small, representing a kind of philosophy of being able to bend and stretch. But they are always within a square, which is relatively conservative and closed; some strokes are close to each other, and some Intersecting and some being far away reflect the staggered, vertical and horizontal, close and diverse social and interpersonal relationships; multi-directional arrangement in a square means that they are good at complex and meticulous overall planning and solving problems within the rules and regulations, but there are inevitably certain limitations that need to be considered. There are also many things. At the same time, they pay more attention to keeping the land and living in peace, which represents a traditional concept of mainland farming civilization."

"Oh, I think I understand it..." Professor Sergey rested his chin in one fist, and fell into a short thought: "I don't know Chinese language, but from the perspective of humanities and history, your description Most of them are more in line with common cognition, and the correlation analysis between the two is also reasonable.”

"I just made a superficial analysis." After Hu Yi finished his long speech, his brain and mouth were still in a state of excitement: "Of course there are many cultural differences reflected in language, especially ancient characters can better reflect them. Subtleties. But those contents are not suitable for discussion on this occasion today, so I don’t think there is any need to expand on them one by one!”

"Ha, you're right." The old professor was startled, and then laughed dumbfounded, as if he had just realized that the student in front of him was taking the graduation exam: "Your answer deviates from the original intention of my question, but it's okay."

He thought for a while, picked up Hu Yi's grade book and turned forward a few pages: "Well, I got a four in the freshman exam... Hey, I remembered! You are a student who is very good at changing the subject, then You also talked a lot about Chinese culture during the first exam, including the meaning of your name."

"Yes, you remember correctly." Hu Yi blushed a little: "I'm sorry, I just...integrated the knowledge you taught with what I know..."

"Speaking of which, you are indeed a very perceptive student. It would be even better if you can persist in class." Sergey sighed long, flipped through his grade book and muttered to himself: "Students like you The situation is really difficult for me.”

Hu Yi panicked, but he didn't expect his answer to satisfy the old professor, so he forced a wry smile: "Professor Sergey, the reason why my attendance rate is not ideal is because I often go to the market to work...the reason why I have to go Part-time work...because...well, anyway, I have a lot of difficulties, please give me three points and let me pass the exam, is that okay?"

"Three points? No, no, you don't need to explain that. I am your teacher, and I will only grade you according to your study and exam situation." Sergey put his grade book upright in front of his chest, and took He hesitated for a while at the beginning of writing, and wrote "excellent" in a fluttering manner.

"Five points?! Oh! Look at what you said, just based on my attendance rate, hey, this, this, this..." Hu Yixi was overjoyed, stood up and bowed to Sergey: "Really Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome. I have taught at least a few hundred Chinese students over the years, and there are quite a few who can speak eloquently, but no one has ever fully combined ancient Chinese culture to answer questions during the exam, at least no one can be as sharp as you said." The old professor closed the grade book and slowly took off his glasses: "Perhaps there are some fallacies in your words, but they are quite reasonable to me, so I will make an exception and give you a five-point mark today."

(End of this chapter)