|
Etymology of Chinese characters
I have decided to undertake a mammoth task of explaining the etymology of Chinese characters of the 常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ, i.e. 2136 kanji in common, everyday, use). Below is a link to my first post. Would love to hear opinons, sugestons, rants and thoughts.
I will go with the Japanese grade kanji order, so I do not lose the track, and if I went according to one of my dictionaries, I may not be finished till my late 90's. :D I will be also explaining the differences between 活字 (かつじ, i.e. printed/computer font) and hand-written form. This should not only benefit those who want to learn how to write properly with a pen or pencil, but perhaps it will also save some unwanted tattoo enthusiasts from a nasty shock. First one is kanji 一 (いち, i.e. one). Kanji: 一 | Beyond Calligraphy Cheers. p.s. the text was not loked at by our editor yet (he is alseep lol), so I hope you will not mind my Polinglish. |
That's quite a monumental task you set for yourself indeed. There is already a website, kanjinetworks.com , which explains the etymology of more than just the jouyou kanji as used in Japan, but comparing this with your approach, the explanations there are much more concise, you are writing small articles on each kanji together with examples &c, which is what makes your project something that hasn't been done already. I wish you good and hope that you won't lose interest, because I know I sure would.
|
Thanks Blutorange. I really appreciate your comment. I will check the kanjinetworks.com and see what information they are using. There are many publications / sites that utilise incorrect etymology or sugest misleading mnemonics, which instead of being helpful with studying / understanding Chinese characters, are in fact damaging.
My articles are based on several calligraphy dicionaries, including two 篆書大字典 (one of them received the Imperial Cultural Reward), and 書道大辞典 published either by 角川, 二玄社 or similar houses specialising in calligraphy books, as well as my personal knowledge gathered during 10 years of studies of calligraphy under one of the most renowend masters in Kantou area. The most valuable source of information in my posssession, however, are fantastic and insanely detailed woks of 白川 静 who is possibly the most famous Japanese authority in the field of the etymology of Chinese characters. He spent his entire life on doing nothing but that, and lived 96 years. I hope that the time required for the research of each character will not prevent me from posting at least 2 or 3 articles a week. Taking into consideration that this is one of many activities that I am currently involved in, it seems that I will be rather busy for next few years. :) I doubt I will lose interest. Calligraphy is my passion job and obsesson, and so are the kanji. If die, I plan on reincarnating as a calligraphy dictionary :D |
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Below is a link to my new article on kanji etymology subject. This time I discuss the origins of the character 月 (moon). The article is linked not only to the information on the main page (Beyond Calligraphy, Traditional and modern Japanese and Chinese art) as it was done before in all my previous articles, but also to our new project - a calligraphy terms online encyclopedia: Shodopedia - The Calligraphy Wiki Main/Home Page
So far I have written about 300 short articles on various terms related to Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, its history and traditions. The dictionary has no pictures as of yet (work in progress), and only 50% of the terms have been uploaded so far. Currently we are working on getting the rest of the text up. It is of a size of a small novel (35,000 words), so it may take few more days. We plan to link all the information together (we estimate approximately 1000 links to be created) which should assist with better understanding of calligraphic terms. Kanji: 月 | Beyond Calligraphy |
|
|
|
Now that I think about it, wouldn't it be easier to make the encyclopedia "open" to any english speaker calligrapher ( such as in a wiki, so anyone could contribute and therefore speeding up the creation of content?).
This method tends to work, because if someone makes a mistake, some else fixes it... |
Quote:
|
This is by far the most complex article on the subject of Chinese characters etymology that I have written o far. It took me over 20h worth of research and writing, including multiple consultations with the editors of Beyond Calligraphy.
Kanji: 左 | Beyond Calligraphy |
| All times are GMT. The time now is 04:22 AM. |