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Usages of Chinese Writing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
Extract
For three centuries Europe has been holding forth on the advantages and disadvantages of the Chinese system of writing.
At first, judgments were positive. The abundant correspondence “à la Chine” of the missionaries inspired a number of commentaries in the early years of the 17th century and even roused the admiration of Leibnitz for a system which he considered, briefly, completely rational. At that time, the Chinese Empire was one of the most important in the world, and the number of techniques coming from the East was not negligible. But while in Europe modern science was being confirmed, China's evolution proceeded very slowly.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © 1977 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1 A recent analysis conducted in Japan shows 250 basic components of Chinese characters. Cf. Tashiyuki Sakai, Makoto Nagao, and Hidekozu Terai, "A Description of Chinese Characters Using Sub-patterns," in Information Processing in Japan, 1970, X.
2 Eight million in 1965, and there were more editions after a revised and slightly larger version appeared in June, 1971.
3 Youguang Zhou, Hanzi gaige gailun (Notes on the Reform of Chinese Writing), Peking, 1961. Second ed. 1964, p. 328 ff.
4 Jack Goody, "Implications of Literacy in Traditional China and India," in Literacy in Traditional Societies, Cambridge University Press, 1968.
5 In Tso Tchouan (Tchao, 6th year). Cf. Tch'ouen ts'iou et Tcho Tchouan, Chinese text with translation in French by S. Couvreur, S. J., Paris, 1914, III, p. 116 ff.
6 Quoted by K. Gough, op. cit., from Needham.
7 Canonical books of Confucianism.
8 Marco Polo, La Description du Monde, French translation by L. Hambis, Paris, 1955.
9 The population of the towns is estimated at around 20 percent of the total population.
10 Cf. Yves Hervouet, "L'autobiographie dans la Chine traditionelle," in Etudes d'histoire et de littérature chinoises offertes au Professeur Jaroslaw Prusek, Paris, 1976.
11 Lei Feng riji, "The Journal of Lei Feng," published for the first time in 1963. By June, 1965 more than 2,600,000 copies had been printed. New editions have recently appeared.
12 According to Xu Shen, the author of Shuo wen, an etymological dictionary published at the beginning of the second century of our era. The work he cites is lost.
13 After the model of the Sanzijing, "Classic in Three Characters," of Con fucian inspiration and which is no longer used.
14 Cf. Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, Cambridge Uni versity Press, 5 Vol., 1954-1976.
15 Cf. A. C. Mattar, "The Arabic Language and Present Conditions and Prospects for the Future of the Arabic-Speaking World," Diogenes No. 83 (Fall 1973).
16 Cf. V. and J.-Cl. Alleton, Terminologie de la chimie en chinois moderne, Paris-The Hague, Mouton, 1966.
17 Cf. T. F. Carter, The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward, New York, Columbia University Press, 1925; Peking, 1941.
18 See note 19.
19 This is essentially what Granet had in mind in his fine chapter on "La Pensée Chinoise" (Marcel Granet, La Pensée chinoise, Paris, 1950; 1968) which he devoted to Chinese writing: when he is cited this fact is too often omitted, as though time did not exist in China.