The Key to Chinese Civilization

The Explication and Exploration of Chinese Characters
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-93-5280-674-4
Verlag: SAGE Publications

Buch, Englisch, 428 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 612 g

Reihe: SAGE China Studies

The Key to Chinese Civilization: The Explication and Exploration of Chinese Characters is a fascinating guide to the history of the Chinese civilization, which has been recorded not just by means of the Chinese characters but also in the characters themselves. It studies the long history of Chinese characters, the laws of their construction and development, and what their correct interpretation can mean for contemporary communication. The Chinese writing system, vastly different from phonetic alphabet systems and the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world, is dynamic and its evolution reveals much about the historical and sociocultural development of China.

The book shows how the interpretation of the cultural connotation of Chinese characters is necessary, even crucial, though it is a daunting task. It proposes a scientific method for this kind of interpretation and gives elaborate examples. Authored by an expert in philology and palaeography, the book is written in simple language and will be of great help to Chinese language enthusiasts.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Huang, Dekuan

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Acknowledgements
Part 1: Formation and Evolution
The Formation and Evolution of Chinese Characters
The Main Body of Chinese Characters: The Pictophonetic Structure
Part 2: Textual Analysis and Interpretation
Method and Practice: The Explication of Ancient Chinese Characters
The Cultural Interpretation of Chinese Characters
Part 3: Norm and Research
The Normalization of Chinese Characters and Philological Life
The Research of Chinese Characters: Past and Future

Über Autor(innen)

Huang, Dekuan
Dekuan Huang is Professor, School of Humanities, Tsinghua University. He is a former president of Anhui University and the Chairman of the Chinese Writing Society. He completed his PhD in Chinese paleography from Jilin University, China, and has been engaged in the study of Chinese language and characters for around three decades. He is also Deputy Director of Unearthed Research and Protection Centre, Tsinghua University. By unearthing and explicating many important documents, he has made a major contribution to the study of the Chinese civilization.

He has many publications to his credit, for example, A History of Chinese Philology, Annotated Genealogy of Ancient Chinese Characters, Collected Papers on the Theory of Chinese Characters, Chinese Characters Interpretation and Cultural Tradition, Development of Ancient Chinese characters, and so on. Professor Huang has been a member of the Committee of Chinese Education and the Committee of Social Science of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China.