
The Key to Chinese Civilization
The Explication and Exploration of Chinese Characters
Dekuan Huang(Author)
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 12. September 2018
Book
Hardback
428 pages
978-93-5280-674-4 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
New Delhi
India
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Weight
612 gr
ISBN-13
978-93-5280-674-4 (9789352806744)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
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.
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.
Content
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
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