Download Introduction to Classical Chinese - Jennifer T. Johnson

Introduction to Classical
Chinese
February 4, 2013
The Shang Dynasty 商朝 shāng
cháo
• ca. 1600 BC – ca. 1100 BC
Oracle Bone Script 甲骨文
jiǎgǔwén
• Short texts carved into ox bones and tortoise
shells
• These texts were used for divination: a question
was written into the bone with a bronze pin, the
bone was heated, and the cracks were
examined by shamans for an answer
• Questions were usually matters of state asked
on behalf of the emperor or other high ranking
officials: agriculture, hunting, warfare, weather,
days for ceremonies
• Dating these texts is difficult, estimates vary
from 1300 – 1100 BC, to 1500 – 1000 BC
Oracle Bone Script 甲骨文
jiǎgǔwén
• Around 400,000 fragments with inscriptions
have been found around Anyang 安阳 ānyáng
• Where possible, the fragments have been
reconstructed to reveal the texts they contained
(currently several thousand reconstructions)
• The reconstructed texts contain over 30,000
distinct characters, which are thought to be
variants on about 4,000 characters.
• Using context and comparative linguistic
analysis, we believe we understand the
definition of 1500-2000
• We believe that for every written character in
OBS, there are roughly two spoken words in
existence
Oracle Bone Script 甲骨文
jiǎgǔwén
• What we understand of the language has
led us to believe that it had a high degree
of linguistic sophistication, suggesting that
the artifacts we’ve found are not the first
instances of the writing
Bronze Script 金文
• The beginning of China’s “bronze age” is a
highly contested date
• We begin finding examples of bronze with
writing in the late Shang; it is standard by
the Zhou dynasty
• As with OBS, variants among the
characters were wide and dependent upon
the decorative function of what was
inscribed as well as the individual inscriber
Seal Script 篆書 zhuànshū
• Adopted in the Western Zhou dynasty
• In the Qin dynasty (225 – 206 BC), it
became the official script of all of China
Cursive Script 草書 cǎoshū
• Originates in the Han Dynasty 漢朝 (207 BC –
220 AD)
• Abbreviated form of traditional Chinese
characters
• Many simplified characters trace their roots to
early Chinese calligraphy, because the flowing of
the strokes together minimized the appearance
of the number of strokes
• This is where the contemporary term for Chinese
characters: 漢字 / 汉字 comes from
(characters of the Han)
57 AD
• First known instance of an artifact from
China appearing in Japan
• King Na gold seal given by Han emperor
Guangwu to a Yamato emissary
• Chinese coins from the first century have
been found at Yayoi period archeological
digs
Import of 漢字 into Japan
• While 漢字 appeared on items taken to
Japan from China early, cultural
interchange was insufficient to provide
reading knowledge of these characters
until the 5th century
• According to Japanese imperial histories,
the emperor dispatched a Korean scholar
called Wani王仁 was dispatched to Japan,
and is largely responsible for literacy of
Chinese characters and knowledge of
Confucianism
Import of 漢字 into Japan
• At the time, Japanese did not exist as a
written language, so 漢字 embodied the
entirety of the written language, and began
to stand for spoken Japanese
• The diacritical marks that are now known
as hiragana were introduced gradually to
accommodate the differences between the
spoken languages