1、,Unit 6 Chinese Characters: Poetic Symbols,Lead-in,Text study,Exercises,Content,Lead-in,Lead-in,Introduction,Symbols of Sentiment,Graceful Olympic Symbols,Text study,Introduction,Additional Info,According to legend, Chinese characters were invented by Cangjie (仓颉), a bureaucrat under the legendary Y
2、ellow Emperor.,The earliest surviving examples of writing in China are inscriptions on so-called “oracle bones”, tortoiseshells and ox scapulae (肩胛骨) used for divination (占卜), dating from around 1200 BC in the late Shang dynasty.,Additional Info,甲骨文 An oracle bone unearthed in Anyang, Henan Province
3、,Introduction,Unification,Additional Info,Seal script, which had evolved slowly in the state of Qin during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, became standardized and adopted as the formal script for all of China in the Qin Dynasty.,Introduction,Simplification,Additional Info,Although most often associated wi
4、th the Peoples Republic of China, character simplification predates the 1949 communist victory. Examples: 愛爱 鄉乡 義义 導导 親亲,Introduction,The number of Chinese language learners across the world has been on the rise in recent years.,Some learners may experience the gratification of discovering historica
5、l and cultural elements in the process.,Introduction,Some pictographic (象形文字的) symbols of Chinese characters express peoples keen observation and experience of the world. Some European poets have found Chinese characters inspiring to their imagination. Ezra Pound (1885-1972), for example, was well k
6、nown for his admiration of Chinese characters. When he saw the character 旦 in the dictionary, he was reminded of the morning sun.,Symbols of Sentiment,Note: Ezra Pound: 埃兹拉庞德。美国诗人、翻译家、评论家、意象派诗歌代表人物，曾帮助TSEliot，Joyce和Hemingway 手发表早期作品，对英美现代文学发展作出重要贡献。,Pounds poetic allusions (影射) are not without basis
7、. A number of characters containing a as an element all relate to the rising or setting of the sun. For example:,Symbols of Sentiment,Fudan (复旦) means “The sun and moon rise day after day”, it is to encourage students to acquire new knowledge every day.,Symbols of Sentiment,東,Symbols of Sentiment,Sy
8、mbols of Sentiment,暮was originally written as 莫:,Symbols of Sentiment,明 depicts a scene of the moon shining through the window.,Symbols of Sentiment,The complex character for “beauty” (丽) is written as麗. It resembles two deer running side by side on a mountain.,Symbols of Sentiment,Graceful Olympic
9、Symbols,Graceful Olympic Symbols,The 2008 Olympics Games adopted a set of symbols to represent the beauty of Chinese calligraphy.,By combining certain features of different traditional forms of Chinese characters, the symbols appear both lively and highly representative of the sports they stand for.
10、,The calligraphy symbols for Beijing Olympics were designed to represent the “Beauty of Seal Character”.,Changes of Chinese characters,Graceful Olympic Symbols,Additional Info,甲骨文【商】金文【周】(大篆) 【秦】小篆【秦】 隶书【汉】 草书【唐】、 楷书【唐】、 行书【唐】,At its beginning, Chinese included language pictures, which became fewer
11、and fewer during the period of the oracle-bone (甲骨) inscriptions (铭文).A “seal character” is a type of Chinese calligraphy often carved on seals.,Graceful Olympic Symbols,The seal characters feature smoother and rhythmic lines, and thus have a more appealing appearance.There are two types of seal cha
12、racters: the dazhuan, or greater seal, and the xiaozhuan, or lesser seal.,Graceful Olympic Symbols,The greater seal is also known as bronze inscription, because it was often used for carving inscriptions on bronzeware in ancient times.,The lesser seal was the script the First Emperor of Qin (r. 246-
13、210 BC) adopted for the whole country, when he united China in 221 BC.,Graceful Olympic Symbols,Look at the picture, can you find any difference between greater seal and lesser seal in the following picture? Whats it?,Compared to greater seal, lesser seal is more simplified.,Graceful Olympic Symbols
14、,Examples of Olympic symbols,The upper part is a symbol for “person”, while the lower part is a symbol for “water”. The swimmer strokes the water with vigor, imparting a strong sense of motion. If we take a look at the seal character for “walk”, we make out a clear connection between the Olympic sym
15、bol and the character: the upper part for “swinging arms” and the lower part for “walking legs”. The gentle and flowing lines in the lower part of the Olympic symbol are similar to the seal character for “water”.,走,水,Graceful Olympic Symbols,This symbol is aptly taken from the seal character for “da
16、nce”. The dancer slightly tilts (使倾侧) his head to one side, leans his body forward, swings his arms back and forth, and lifts his legs in a running fashion.The symbol, athletic yet graceful, has also been adopted for the “triathlon (铁人三项)” and “football”.,夭,Graceful Olympic Symbols,Exercises,Compreh
17、ension,Communication,Application,Comprehension,l. Skimming and Scanning Go through the passage quickly and judge whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) according to the passage.,_1) Every Chinese character has a pictographic symbol to show its meaning(s).,_2) The character旦 is me
18、ntioned to show that Chinese characters are easy to recognize, and even foreigners can understand them through their pictographic symbols.,F,F,_3) In Paragraph 4, several characters containing El as an element are given as examples to illustrate that such characters relate to the rising or setting o
19、f the sun.,_4) The 2008 0lympic symbols were adopted mainly to make it easier for the foreigners to understand their meanings.,_5) The 2008 0lympic symbols were designed to represent the beauty of seal characters .,T,F,T,Comprehension,II. Careful Reading,1. Read the passage carefully and choose the
20、best answer to each of the following questions.,Which of the following is irrelevant to the pictographic symbols of Chinese characters? _ Aspiration. Imagination. Creativity. Allusion.,A,Comprehension,2) Which of the following statements is true of the name of Fudan University? _ The characters both
21、 stand for “the sun rising on the horizon“. The name is taken from a Chinese classical poem. The name encourages the students to get up early in the morning. The characters are intended to tell the students to make progress day by day.,D,Comprehension,3) Which of the following languages mostly consi
22、sts of language pictures? _ Mandarin Chinese. Hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Oracle-bone inscription. Seal characters.4) The symbol for “swimming” is closest to _. oracle-bone inscription Mandarin Chinese seal characters none of the above,C,Comprehension,B,The symbol for “athletics” contains the ingr
23、edients of _. dancing and running running and swinging dancing and swinging triathlon and football,A,Comprehension,2. Find from the passage the English interpretations of the following characters containing 日 as an element.,the sun rising on the horizon,the morning sun rising and shining over the fl
24、owing river,the sun setting into a forest,the moon shining through the window,Comprehension,The following are three groups of Chinese characters belonging to different word formations. Study them carefully and explain briefly how they are formed.,Communication,Group 1,Group 2 林，明，安，品，孬，酒，鸣，炎，男,Group
25、 3 沐，河，湖，樱，固，病，园，晴，唱,Application,With the introduction and spreading of Western culture in recent decades, some people thought that Chinese characters were a drag on the development of China, advocating annulling (废除) them. And with the development of computer technology, some people complained about the inconvenience Chinese characters caused. The language authority declared a public comment period on August 13th, 2009 for feedback from the public about further simplification of Chinese characters, which aroused a wide controversy. What is your opinion about it?,Thank You!,
