The Italian journalist Edoardo Fazzioli describes them as “painted words”; in her work, the Swedish sinologist, writer and photographer Cecilia Lindqvist even calls China “a world of symbols”; and Kai Strittmatter, former Beijing correspondent of the “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, wrote in his “Manual for China,” that they would display more literal sense than a lexicon would allow, and that they grant a familiarity with the antiquity that is unimaginable to outsiders.
Of course, all three of them are right, but what exactly are the China experts so enthusiastic about? Right: they are raving about Chinese characters! And the basic idea behind their statements is also correct: the characters are the “key to Chinese civilization” – an aesthetic, artistic and often enigmatic key!
This attractiveness, the magic, that certain spell that Chinese characters emanat, was one of the main reasons why I decided to study something related to China. Very soon I learned that it would be a tedious road, this dealing with Chinese characters. But at the same time also a rewarding one: they not only open the door to Chinese civilization, to a better understanding of history, culture and of course to the local people. No, Chinese characters also build a bridge to the past. Even back to the times when the first characters were engraved in turtle shell some 3,000 years ago!
Later, bones, stones, metal, bamboo, and finally paper served as support and writing pad, but one thing remained: in or on whatever Chinese characters were immortalized, until today they still convey a system – a system of visible signs and symbols. And although the characters have been developed over the millennia – for example the different writing styles in bronzeware script, Greater Seal script, Smaller Seal script, Clerical script, Semi-Cursive script or Regular script – to this day they all radiate a certain grace and elegance.
And yet it is unclear how they once were created; generally acknowledged is only that oracle bone script is about 3,000 years old. Which leads to another fascination: although the characters were further developed over the centuries, changed or new ones were added, it is still possible – with some time and good will – to read texts that are two or almost three thousand years old! This provides an instant view into the past, into the history of China and into the development of the people and the culture in this country – and thus represents an incredible treasure!
Furthermore, Chinese characters also are a way to connect: there are various dialects in China, so that people in Southern Guangzhou, for example, find it difficult or even impossible to understand Beijing dialect. The characters though are all the same throughout mainland China: if you can read them, you will find contact and connection all around the country!
And yet Chinese characters also follow certain rules and stroke orders, some of them can also be combined. The ideograph for “woman” – “女” – together with the one for “child” – “子” – means: “good” – i.e. “好”. That is exactly what it is, what is represented by the simple combination of characters: a woman and a child point to family, to offspring, to a good life! Another example: the character “明” consists of the elements for “moon” and “sun” – and means “to shine”, “bright” or “clear”. Quite simple and obvious is also “口”; it means “mouth” or “opening” and is represented as a square, just like a hole. Or the character for “mountain”, “山”: it shows a mountain range with three protruding peaks – and consists of only three strokes!
Of course not all Chinese characters are so easy to learn and jump right from the eye into the mind and on to the tip of the tongue. There are supposed to be over 50.000 of these characters, some even say that there are up to 57.000. But about 3.000 are enough to be able to read 99 percent of texts in newspapers and regular publications. Even that sounds a lot, true, but it is doable. Above all, it requires constant repetition, a lot of will as well as time and effort.
Learning Chinese characters is therefore also a form of self-discipline, especially when starting to practice them as a non-Chinese. It can be frustrating and discouraging sometimes, but on the other hand also very rewarding, as another example shows: “美”, the character for “beautiful” or “pretty”, consists of two components: “大” stands for “big”, which also means a person who has grown up; and the second one “羊” stands for “sheep”. In China, the sheep is regarded as a peace-loving animal and therefore is revered for its mentality. So a person who has grown up and has the kindness and gentleness of a sheep is considered as “beautiful” and “desirable” – just like “美”.
First published in German on german.cri.cn
