Thinking through ‘wén ’(文) and ‘zì ’(字): The Possibility and Potentiality of Chinese Characters

HA YOUNG SAM

doi:10.16874/jslckc.2013..32.001

This paper is an attempt to show the possibility and potentiality of Chinese Characters by tracing the process of their creation by the ancients before the foundation of classical learning and the elaboration of the technology of power in China. According to Xu Shen’s(許愼) Shuōwén Jiězì(說文解字), the oldest and one of the most important character dictionaries of ancient China, Chinese did not consider their writing system as a secondary sign system serving the sole purpose of representing vocal speech. Xu Shen draws a basic distinction between two types of characters, wén(文) and zì(字). Wén is those composed of a single graphic element and zì those containing more than one such element. Both terms are combined to the word, wénzì(文字) meaning Chinese character. Relying on the distinction, I would like to develop new ideas and concepts on Chinese writing in this paper. Firstly, ‘wén’(文) represents the great intellect of such a saint who does not have any interest in secular profit and interest, as Cang Jie(倉頡) who is known as a creator of Chinese characters. Chinese character invention was such a great event that could changes the rules of the situation. As he made the insensible sensible and the invisible visible in the process of creating Chinese characters, it is said the millet fell down like rain from heaven, and ghost cried during the night. In addition to the detailed interpretation of the myth, I try to investigate the singular sense of the word as a truth event, analyzing the etymological sense ‘wén’ in Oracle bone inscriptions more specifically. On the other hand, through compound characters called ‘zì’, I try to expose non-hierarchical and democratic properties of writing. Finally, I attempt to suggest a way of looking at the world through wénzì which is meant to be both destabilising and, at the same time, productive of new ideas.

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