Riding the wind of rebirth

Mr. Gu also feels that this direction is very valuable, as it can continue to explore forward on the basis of predecessors, and has the effect of clearing up the source. Therefore, he encourages Zhou Zhi to continue to advance in research.

The two of them had discussed a model before, which was to write a book following the style of "Shuowen Jiezi", but it went one step further than "Shuowen Jiezi" and listed the origins of characters starting from oracle bone inscriptions, so that their circulation could be The changes are described very clearly.

Zhou Zhi thinks this book can be called "Explanation of Oracle Bones".

"This won't work." Mr. Gu said, "How about I put an extra burden on you? I'll apply for an elective course from the department and you'll be the one to take care of it?"

"Ah? Me, giving a lecture?" Zhou Zhi was really stupid this time.

"I know you used to go singing with Tingting in the evening, right?" Mr. Gu is not an old scholar who is completely indifferent to worldly affairs: "Now that Tingting is so famous, is it inappropriate to go to those places again? She Even if you don’t go, won’t you go too? If you don’t go, will you free up some time in the evening?”

"Uh...that's true, but..."

"No, it's settled." Mr. Gu said: "In one class a week, you will teach the students a few oracle bones. Just follow the caliber we discussed before, explain the words clearly, and then record the lecture notes. , wouldn’t it be possible to add up to a small amount?”

"Didn't you tell "Guan Ju" to your classmates last semester? I'd like to say that your lecture was very good and it was very popular with the classmates!"

"Ah? How did Senior Brother know?"

"He was supposed to be covering that class, but when he walked to the door of the classroom, he heard that you were already giving the lecture. When he came back, he told me that even if he were to give the lecture, he wouldn't be able to teach it better than you. The key is that you are quite insightful. It was lively and interesting, and the students liked it very much.”

"By the way, regarding the 'Ling' theory, I called Peking University. They recognized your discovery, thought your inference was valuable, and asked you to write a paper and publish it in "Literature and History"."

"Is this matter worthy of being included in "Literature and History"?" Zhou Zhi was a little surprised. At that time, he just said it casually.

There are two glyphs for "Ling" in oracle bone inscriptions. One is a human shape with two legs, one long and one short. The short leg has several short horizontal lines on the calf.

This is a familiar word, which means that a person is amputated and one foot is cut off. This is a cruel punishment method in ancient times, called mausoleum punishment.

Based on this meaning, later the usages of "bullying the upper mausoleum", "ling mausoleum", "ling mausoleum" and so on in Chinese were derived. Later, bullying, humiliation, and overriding were also derived from the corruption of this word.

However, there is another glyph, which is also a person, with two legs, one long and one short, but next to it there is an additional silhouette shape representing a hill, the mountain of Gaobu.

The root of this character is actually "霜", which represents the stone pedal on the edge of the cliff. In later generations, it also evolved into Zuobaoerbian.

Therefore, many of the characters around the left ear are also related to its instructions, such as step, steep, descend, etc.

Going back to the word "Ling" in oracle bone inscriptions, this word is like a person climbing a ladder. As a verb, it means to ascend, climb, and transcend, such as Lingyun, Lingxiao, which later evolved into Lingyun, Lingxiao, Lingmai and other usages.

As a noun, it means high places, big mountains, etc., such as mountains and mausoleums.Through analysis, Zhou Zhi believed that "Ling" was originally two characters during the Oracle period, one representing criminal law and the other the shape of climbing.

The character in the shape of climbing is a phonetic character. Adding stone pedals to the side of the Criminal Law Mausoleum turns it into the mausoleum of a mountain mausoleum.

Of course, this explanation is not necessarily correct, because the shape of climbing is drawn as a figure, and the legs are always bent when climbing a ladder, so it may be purely intentional.

Regardless of the type, by the Bronze Inscriptions period, the single character "夌" had basically disappeared, and Ling was widely used as a fixed character.

When Xu Shen wrote "Shuowen Jiezi", the word "ling" also included "lingzhe", and the meaning of "lingsao" was unknown. So he first explained that "ling" was the original meaning of a large mound, and then It is believed that this word extended the meaning of "above and suppressed", so the meaning of "oppression" came into being, and eventually words like "lingzhe" and "lingzhao" were developed.

It's obvious that Xu Shen didn't know that the original character "Ling" in the oracle bone inscriptions also meant punishment, so he forcibly interpreted it.

The reason why Zhou Zhi's discovery is important is that he provided an additional understanding of the origin of Chinese characters. There are many completely different meanings of a word in modern Chinese characters, and there may be hidden meanings underlying thousands of years of changes in language habits. deeper reason.

The valuable thing about Xu Shen is that he established the research method of Chinese characters, and his idea is also very correct, which is to "find the roots" from the original meaning of the glyphs.

However, limited by his knowledge at the time, Xu Shen's research could not reach as deep as he could. There was no reasonable explanation for the "corruption", "combined use", "division and subtraction" of countless Chinese characters that have disappeared in history. explain.

Zhou Zhi's insights about the word "Ling" dug out from oracle bone inscriptions have almost wiped away a little of the fog of history, allowing everyone to understand why the word "Ling" has so many meanings, and why there are so many meanings in one word. There are two completely different meanings of "mountain mausoleum" and "ling mausoleum".

It turns out there is a reason.

"Any work that is helpful in deciphering oracle bone inscriptions, especially the kind that inspires thinking, is worthy of being included in "Literature and History."" Mr. Gu said with a smile.

Zhou Zhi’s insights are actually a further development of Xu Shen’s theory, and also a further development of exegesis that has almost reached a dead end for thousands of years. It is of course a very valuable methodology, so it is worthy of being published in "Literary History". Zhou Zhi reads Just because he doesn't see the value of his own opinions doesn't mean that Mr. Gu can't see it.

"What article is this for you?"

"Literature and History" is the highest-level liberal arts academic journal in China, similar to the foreign "Nature". If an article is published in it, you can almost be called an "expert".

"If this can be published, there will be seven or eight articles." Zhou Zhi said, "Then I will sort it out."

"Seven or eight articles are not even in the same category, are they?" Mr. Gu was a little speechless at Zhou Zhi's divergent thinking and the vast scope of his coverage. He counted them in detail with his fingers: "Start from the "Compendium of Exegesis of Jiachuan Dialects", right? After that, there is "A Textual Research on Xuantou in the Two Song Dynasties" which explains the official documents of the Privy Council; another is "Ouyang's Poems and the Political Relation of the Three Dynasties"; another one is "A Comprehensive Examination of the Dragon Tibetan Sutra Editions" which analyzes the differences between the Qianlong edition and the Guangxu editions; and "A Brief Discussion on the Paper Used in Official Books of the Past Dynasties"; later it was "Shuowen Jiezi Interpretation"; there are also several articles related to character databases, such as "Thoughts on the Classification of Character Roots in the Hanwen Large Character Database" and "Advocates of Chinese Characters in the Information Age" Wait, by the way, there is another article in the middle that corrects Qiu Xigui."

""<<<<Shenwu Fu> Preliminary Study> Later Press" cannot be counted. That is because Professor Qiu did not care about me and forwarded the letter I wrote to him to the editorial department for publication."

"Not bad, not bad." Mr. Gu smiled like a child who got toffee: "I don't know if I don't count them. If I count them down, there are more than ten articles, which is equivalent to a doctor's level."