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Chinese Calligraphy

From Pictograph to Ideogram: The History of 214 Essential Chinese/Japanese Characters

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By Edoardo Fazzioli

Abbeville Press

Copyright © 2005 Edoardo Fazzioli
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7892-0870-5

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SHI: Family. The pictograph resembles a plant bobbing up and down on the water: one that grows and multiplies like the countless water lilies found in China. These start with a floating seed and grow surprisingly fast once they have found somewhere to put down roots. They bring to mind those nomadic groups that wander across the land trying to find a suitable place in which to settle, thus giving rise to the clan or family. In modern usage this character has lost its original meaning and acquired the role of a patronymic, as has happened with many other radicals. In classical language it was also used in the sense of development or multiplication.

LI: Village. A small group of houses, each of which-- in accordance with ancient law--occupied an eighth of the land, as it indicated in the upper part of the radical, albeit in reduced form. At the center was the common land occupied by the well. Apart from the meaning "village," this radical also signifies a measure of length, the li, equivalent to about 500 meters (c. 540 yards). The Great Wall in Chinese is the "Long Wall of the 10,000 li." Today it means "internal." In this sense of "internal," this character, joined to the one for "sea," means "Caspian Sea," the lake bounded by Russia and Iran. It also forms part of the Chinese word for the Italian unit of currency, the lira, but only as a phonetic transliteration, with no logical significance. A more precise and inspired derivation occurs in the word formed by this radical, in its sense of "internal," joined to the one for "spine": "fillet," the cut of meat that lies within the lumbar muscles next to the spine. Written next to the character for "hand," it indicates the part of the road to the left of a person driving a left-hand-drive vehicle: i.e. the middle of the road.
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Excerpted from Chinese Calligraphy by Edoardo Fazzioli. Copyright © 2005 Edoardo Fazzioli. Excerpted by permission of Abbeville Press.
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