The Duality Code

[michaelS]

一(one) who 弋(shoots with bow) is number 弌(one)

 

Isn't this quite a forced interpretation though? In Chinese, 'one' is not used as a subject like it is in European languages. The structure 'one who + verb' seems quite unlikely. Couldn't it equally mean 'one shot with a bow' or 'shoot once with a bow' (or anything similar)

[WKC]

michaelIS,

 

I suggest we firstly accept two basic propositions.

1.  Confucian doctrine is recorded in Chinese characters (Qian Xuantong).

2.  Sinologists do not understand classical Chinese (David Moser).

If we accept these two propositions, then there must be a way to understand classical Chinese in order to read Confucian doctrine.  My book provides a hypothesis for this.

 

漢字 is a logographic script.  Just as English uses a phonetic script where every letter of the alphabet has one or more sounds attached to it, every logograph in a logographic script has a meaning attached to it.  We must be able to understand how two or more logographs combine to create the meaning represented by the compound logograph.

 

Chinese characters are extremely ancient; they pre-date the earliest English writing system (Anglo-Saxon Runes c.5th century CE) by units of time measured in millennium.  Some of these characters date to the ancient China’s Bronze Age over three thousand years ago, and there are others that may date to the preceding Stone Age.  Due to their antiquity, the associative compound sentences within Chinese characters are not sentences in the Queen’s English.  They must, instead, be viewed as sentences in a very primal language equivalent to an extremely basic Pidgin English. 

 

Mathematics uses symbols to represent mathematical ideas and mathematical proofs are very precise.  漢字 uses symbols to represent semantic ideas and the proofs are less precise.  You are correct to say that 一弋弌 may be interpreted in different ways and I encourage you to do so.  When you start reading more and more characters, you will see that the ideas contain within 漢字 characters start to become increasingly defined. 

 

I suggest that you start reading the Shuowen & Kangxi dictionaries.  Please be very careful about digital editions (as opposed to facsimile editions placed online) of the Kangxi Dictionary, which may have inaccuracies.

 

For the character 戲 (trick, drama, play, show), Shuowen and Kangxi say 一曰兵也.  I suggest the dictionaries are telling you that 一 is a soldier.  I suggest that it is the ancient soldier that shoots with a bow and is called Hou Yi.  When you have read sufficiently, you will begin to see the logic of 漢字.

 

From my first post in this thread to introduce The Duality Code, I was immediately attacked and those attacks have culminated in a thinly veiled death threat.  This would never have occurred if my hypothesis were false.  

[Shelley]

thinly veiled death threat. 

 

What???

[Lumbering Ox]

Paranoia over non existent death threats.

Saving every message in a thread.

 

Nope this thread hasn't taken a turn for the creepy. That or the Trollish.

 

 

See people. Klingon. We should all stick to Klingon. Then we wouldn't have these issues.

[WKC]

Shelly,

 

Please refer to my post #179.   “There’s definitely a message in English there.”  I view the message as a veiled threat.  You are, of course, at liberty to disagree.

 

You said in #64 that you would not be buying my book and I’m quite happy about that.  Nevertheless, you keep reading the thread and making comments.  I recognize that it is your role in life to present your views.  I suspect that you and I will never agree on my book so lets agree to disagree.

 

In imperial China, Confucianism was the state religion since the Han dynasty 2,000 years ago.  This was the religion of the 文士 who oppressed the common people.  The historian Shih-shan Henry Tsai describes aspects of slavery during the Ming dynasty:

“When wealthy families purchased slaves, they put in the bond such words of euphemism as adopted sons or adopted daughters or simply called them employed servants [Tsai’s emphasis].  As economic and social dislocations worsened and hard-pressed peasants had to sell their children to whomever could provide for them, slaves became abundant and cheap.  One writer reported that in a single country the number of slaves amounted to 20 to 30 percent of the whole population.  It was indeed a buyer’s market.”  [Shih-shan Henry Tsai, The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, p. 28.]

 

Tsai also says that at one time during the Ming dynasty, the emperor alone had 100,000 eunuchs. [shih-shan Henry Tsai, The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, p. 34].  One of the early foreigners to write about China was the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) who said:

“... the whole country is virtually filled with slaves; not such as are captured in war or brought in from abroad, but slaves born in the country even in the same city or village in which they live ... The only ameliorating feature in this traffic of children is the fact that it lessens the great multitude of the extremely poor who have to labor incessantly in the sweat of their brow to eke out a miserable living.” [Louis J. Gallagher (tr.), China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci, 1583–1610, New York, Random House, 1953, p. 86.]

 

The anthropologist James L. Watson, who researched slavery, said:

“Until the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949 China had one of the largest and most comprehensive markets for the exchange of human beings in the world.  In many parts of China, notably in the south, nearly every peasant household was directly or indirectly affected by the sale of people.  A unique feature of the Chinese market was its concentration on children, especially those under the age of ten.” [Watson, James L. (ed.), Asian and African Systems of Slavery, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1980, p. 224.]

 

Another expert in slavery, Martin A. Klein, said:

“In 1909, China abolished slavery, but the Ch’ing [Qing] dynasty was in its last days.  The period after the end of the dynasty in 1912 saw disunity, natural disasters, poverty, and misery.  Poor families often sold their daughters who became servants or prostitutes, and sometimes their sons.  Only with the triumph of the Chinese communists in 1949 was slavery effectively destroyed.”  [Klein, Martin A., Historical Dictionary of Slavery and Abolition, 2nd Edn., Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, p. 161.]

 

The historian, Sucheta Mazumdar, provides insights on imperial China:

“Peasant revolts in China were of course nothing new; they had been a common phenomenon since the founding of the imperial state system in 221 B.C. ... But the revolts at the end of the Ming were distinguished by the particularly clear efforts of the organized peasant struggles to curtail bonded labour and other forms of bonded existence.” [Mazumdar, Sucheta,  Sugar and Society in China:  Peasants, Technology and the World Market, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1998, p. 202.]

 

 

The bonded labour mention by Mazumdar may also be described as debt slavery.  Lu Xun and Qian Xuantong were fighting against Confucianism which was oppressing the Chinese people throughout imperial Chinese history.  It was oppression of the 文士(literati) against the illiterate common man and slaves.  When the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, slavery was abolished and Confucianism became politically incorrect.

 

There has been a counter revolution in China and the Confucians have regained the upper hand.  In 2004, the PRC marked the birth of Confucius with a state-sponsored ceremony at the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, and this annual celebration has been broadcast on China’s state television since 2005.  In 2014, Time magazine noted China’s President Xi Jinping’s enthusiasm for Confucius and benevolent rule:

“Earlier in the year he [President Xi] extolled the wonders of benevolent rule in an address to party cadres ... Last year, Xi, like so many Emperors of old, visited Qufu, Confucius’ hometown.  During his tour, he pledged to read Confucian texts and praised the continuing value of Chinese traditional culture.” [Michael Schuman, ‘The Chinese President’s Love Affair With Confucius Could Backfire on Him’, Time, 30 October 2014.]

 

In order to have a level playing field, everyone in China must have equal access to classical Chinese.  In a world where HK booksellers find themselves having unplanned holidays in China, it is perhaps pointless to publish in Chinese.  Publication of my book outside China ensures that it is available.  When the west understands classical Chinese, that knowledge will filter back into China.

 

I fully expect that China will run a spin campaign against my book.  I fully expect that Shelly and I will never agree about my book.

 

Edit:

 

I find it most interesting that a simple hypothesis about a method for reading elicits attacks from people who have not read the book and not interest in buying the book.

[Shelley]

Hmm makes me think of Hesieg gone mad, in the larger scheme of things it matters not what I think of your book, but it is a weirdly interesting thread.

[Gharial]

I often edit my posts to get them just so (in this case hopefully more humorous), and don't see the harm, especially when the forum's a bit quiet. The previous version of that post (and even that wasn't the very first version) clearly wasn't a thinly-veiled or even a thickly-veiled death threat (for that I'd've had to say something like 'My hamster really likes sunflower seeds'), and that "waving goodbye" emoticon (which is a colon plus nono straight after it in the forum's posting parlance) is rather wagging a finger in a disapproving tut-tutting manner, the meaning thus being 'How dare anyone use even English to try to communicate, as there are bound to be people who will misread and misinterpret it, and claim one meant something else entirely' ("glad" to see I wasn't proved wrong ). The very least you need WKC is a new pair of glasses!

 

And with that I'm outta here. I have better things to do than point out apparently endless non sequiturs etc to somebody who's obviously not listening to anything other than the sound of their own voice.

[WKC]

Shelly,

 

You said, “Hmm makes me think of Hesieg gone mad, ...”  I do not recognise the reference to “Hesieg” and can only assume that you ment “Heisig”.  See https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Traditional-Hanzi-Meaning-Characters/dp/0824833244/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474858870&sr=1-5&keywords=heisig

 

It has been a few years since I looked as his work so I cannot remember all of it.  There are fundamental differences between Heisig’s approach and my approach.  For one thing, he looks at the most common characters, whereas I look at the most basic characters (the 8 single stroke characters identified in the Eight Principles of Yong).  Secondly, I do not recall Heisig referring to Chinese dictionaries, whereas I continually refer to the Shuowen and Kangxi dictionaries to ascertain meanings for 漢字 characters.  This forum does not support display of all the eight single stroke characters, I believe the ones that can be displayed in this forum are 一(one), 丨(imperial robes), and 丶(master).  To me, it is easier to understand how simple characters generate meaning and one should start with the most basic characters before proceeding to more complex characters. 

 

For example,  one should understand 一(one) 丶(master) 亠(head), before proceeding to  乂(govern, control, manage; nurture) 亠(head) 文(literature, culture, writing).  一(one) 乂(govern, control, manage; nurture) 又(again) is also interesting.  (For the meaning of乂, see http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en&char=%E4%B9%82)  This raises the question of how the two stroke character 乂 generates meaning.  These two single stroke characters must have meaning but what are they?  My book derives the meaning for the single stroke characters in order to make sense of the compound characters such as 乂(govern, control, manage; nurture). 

 

As a second example, one can understand丶(master) 丨(imperial robes) 卜(prophesy).  This leads to 卜(prophesy) 扌(hand) 扑(strike, attack), and 卜(prophesy) 言(words, speak, say) 訃(obituary, give notice of death).  Is Confucian doctrine recorded in  漢字 as is asserted by Qian Xuantong?  I believe they are.

 

Chinese characters are polysemes with hidden classical Chinese meanings that have to be derived.  Let us examine the character 一(one).  In the gloss for the character 戲 (trick, drama, play, show), the dictionaries say, 一(one) 曰(say)兵(soldier) 也(also).  To me, the dictionaries are saying that there is a戲 (trick, drama, play, show), and that the character 一(one) can mean 一(soldier).  We now read一(soldier) 弋(shoot with bow) 弌(one).  In ancient China, the soldier who shoots with bow is an archer, and in Chinese culture, the greatest archer is 后羿(Hou Yi).  It leads to the deduction that in the 戲 (trick, drama, play, show) that is classical Chinese, 一(one, soldier) is 一(Hou Yi).

 

Let us take another example, the character L(secret).  (See隱, which has the 古文L http://ctext.org/library.pl?if=en&file=77415&page=1362#15)  I use the Latin capital L because this website does not support the Chinese character.  The character says 一(one) 丨(imperial robes) L(secret).  To me, this means that there are secrets in the characters 一(one) and丨(imperial robes).  The task then is to uncover the secrets and derive their classical Chinese meaning.  In fact, there are a number of characters that mean secret, a small selection which can be displayed on this forum includes 厶, 乚, 隱, and 陰.  There are, of course, others that cannot be displayed on this forum.  Perhaps people would be interested in looking for these themselves.

 

In terms of 六書(Six Writings, Six Principles of Character Composition), what sort of character is  厶(private, secret)?  Is it a semantic –phonetic compound?  The character厶 comprises two classical characters and the entire character says, “master’s forearm secret”.  The character for forearm is found as a 古文(classical character) for 肱(forearm).  See http://ctext.org/library.pl?if=en&file=77415&page=976#08  This raises the question of  how the two stroke classical character for forearm generates meaning? 

 

I have gone through the deductive process to ascertain the meanings of all eight single stroke characters identified in the Eight Principles of Yong and I have examined 古文(classical characters).  I say that I can understand classical Chinese.  You are at liberty to either believe me, or doubt me.  That is your prerogative.

 

To me classical Chinese is a fascinating exercise in deductive logic that leads to understanding more complex characters such as 中.  This character is a polyseme 中[1. zhōng: middle  2. zhòng: attain].  The character 中is also often used as an abbreviation for 中(Middle Kingdom, China) as in 中文(Chinese language).  Therefore, the meaning can be中[1. zhōng: middle; China  2. zhòng: attain].  I look at the component characters and see 丨(imperial robes) 口(mouth; entrance) 中(middle; China; attain) which is quite interesting when the classical character for 口 (http://ctext.org/library.pl?if=en&file=77415&page=135#01)  says, “Hou Yi receptacle mouth entrance”.  By starting from the basic building blocks identified by the Eight Principles of Yong and examining 古文(classical characters), one gains a different perspective of 漢字.

 

I think it is quite logical to look at 古文(classical characters) if one wants to understand classical Chinese.  By looking at the composition of classical characters, one begins to access and comprehend classical Chinese.  I do not believe that Heisig looks at either basic or classical characters.  At any rate, he is introducing an approach to learning vernacular Chinese.  I am making a hypothesis in relation to reading classical Chinese – the language of oppression used by Confucian scholars.  The language of oppression that caused Quan Xuantong to propose replacing the Chinese spoken and written languages with Esperanto.  The language of oppression that caused Lu Xun to say, ‘If Chinese characters are not eradicated, China will perish’ (汉字不灭，中国必亡).

 

I am glad, however, to note that we seem to have found common ground.  As you say, in the larger scheme of things, it matters not what you think of my book.  This is especially true when you have not read it, and have not intention of purchasing it.

 

I am also glad that you find this discussion interesting.  For anyone else who finds this discussion interesting, the book is even more interesting.  I think the manner in which classical Chinese generates meaning in characters is absolutely astounding.  I am quite certain that people of Confucian persuasion will be quite unhappy with my book.

 

China has reverted to Confucianism.  I fully expect that Confucian spin doctors will be employed to attack my book.  I also fully expect spin doctors to impart spin on evertthing – including denials when necessary.  Is there any doubt that HK book publishers have enjoyed state sponsored hospitality during unplanned holidays?  See http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/16/asia/china-hong-kong-booksellers/

 

Thanking you for referencing Heisig and providing me with the opportunity to contrast my work with his.

 

Edit:

Note that there will be slight differences in display of Chinese characters based on the fonts that are set up on each individual's computer.

[Shelley]

Ah yes spelling mistake.Sorry

[WKC]

Brian P,

 

Please accept my apologies for not having responded to your post #184 earlier.  Whilst it is a great pleasure chatting with everyone on this thread, I do have other matters that also demand my attention.

 

In this post, I will respond to your comments about Klingon.  I think that, in some respects, Klingon is an apt descriptor for classical Chinese.  Classical Chinese was developed by the Confucian 文士(literati) who originated as the 士 that were the original warriors of China.  Therefore, the language of the warlike Klingons is an apt descriptor in the sense that they both originate from warlike people.  Klingon is an alien language, and an alien language is also an apt descriptor for classical Chinese.  To the average Chinese, classical Chinese is very much an alien language.  “Alien” means “foreign”, therefore the Americans talk about “resident aliens” and “non-resident aliens” when they talk about foreigners.  Therefore, an alien language may be described as a foreign language.  Those who know classical Chinese may already understand what I am leading to.

 

Before I discuss why classical Chinese may be described as a foreign language, let me first discuss a preliminary matter.  Every language has synonyms and euphemistic descriptors, which may be viewed as substitutions.  Classical Chinese has substitutions that are unknown to those who are only semi-literate and can only understand vernacular Chinese.  These substitutions are only known to Confucian scholars who are able to read classical Chinese.  As an example, 匚(box) 也(also) 匜(basin; container for wine) tells the 文士(literati) that they can uses ‘basin’ and ‘container for wine’ as substitutes when they want to discuss 匚(Hou Yi’s secret box), which is not covered and may also be described as Hou Yi’s receptacle.   Hou Yi’s receptacle appears in the classical form of 口(mouth; entrance).  See thumbnail of a table taken from my book.  口(mouth; entrance) and 門(gate, door, entrance, opening) are substitutions that both mean ‘entrance’, therefore the 文士(literati) may talk about the門(gate, door, entrance, opening) when they want to discuss 口(Hou Yi’s receptacle entrance).

 

Lu Xun wrote an article titled “門外文談” that has been translated into English as:

1.     An Outsider’s Chats about Written Language

2.     Literary Musings of an Outsider

3.     Chats on Letters from Outside the Gate

4.     Literary Discussions Outside the Door

5.     Outdoor Chatting on Language and Literature

I believe a more appropriate translation is門(entrance) 外文(foreign language) 談(conversation).  In the article, Lu Xun refers to the門(entrance) which is central to classical Chinese, and he characterised classical Chinese as a foreign language. He said:

“They [the illiterate peasant storytellers] have all along been cut off from modern thought by the shackles of our difficult script and difficult literary style.  Therefore, if we want Chinese culture to advance as one, we must promote the language of the masses and the literature of the masses.  All the more, our writing must be Latinized.” [Victor H. Mair (tr.), http://pinyin.info/readings/lu_xun/writing.html]

 

When Lu Xun was writing in the first half of the 20^th century, most Chinese were illiterate and the illiteracy rate was 85–90%. [Ross, Heidi, ‘China Country Study’, Paper commissioned for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006, Literacy for Life, p. 3,

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001461/146108e.pdf].

 

 

Lu Xun referred to the literature of the masses which is vernacular Chinese, and what he referred to as, “our difficult script and difficult literary style” which is classical Chinese.  As he was writing for a 文士(literati) audience and he was a member of the literati, he used the terms “we” and “our”.  Lu Xun refers to classical Chinese as a foreign language, therefore in this sense, I think Klingon is an apt descriptor for classical Chinese.

 

I have not finished my response to your post, but I have other matters to attend to.  I will continue my response later.

[WKC]

Thank you all for your patience.  I am now able to say a few more words about Klingon.

 

Klingon is a foreign language, and Lu Xun has described classical Chinese as a foreign language.  Classical Chinese is very much a language that is foreign to the common Chinese people, therefore Klingon is indeed quite apt.

 

Classical Chinese has many secrets such as L(one imperial robes secret) and 厶(master’s forearm secret).  Discovering these secrets gives the 文士(literati) their common frames of reference.  These frames of reference are unknown to those who are only educated in vernacular Chinese and are semi-literate.  Knowledge of this foreign language enables the 文士(literati) to identify each other, and allows them to oppress the semi-literate.  The Confucian文士(literati) have oppressed the common people of China for millennia, and they have regained the upper hand in China where Confucianism has made a revival.

 

Let me give an example of a frame of reference that is unknown to those who are only literate in vernacular Chinese.  The character 囗 has a 古文(classical) meaning of 圍(encircle). [http://ctext.org/library.pl?if=en&file=77415&page=216#14]  Those who are able to read classical Chinese can read 兀(to cut off the feet) 囗(encircle) 西(west). 

 

漢字 is full of puzzles that have to be solved.  In classical Chinese, whenever you come across a strange message such as 兀(to cut off the feet) 囗(encircle) 西(west), you have to use logic to find a rationale for the message.  The character 兀(to cut off the feet)  is referring to the 五刑(five punishments), where amputation of the feet is the third of the five punishments. The 文士(literati) will be able to make the substitution and deduce that the five punishments encircles west.   Some readers will also be aware that西(west) is the third of the Five Movements (directions). 

 

Understanding the message西(to cut off the feet encircles west) leads to what I call the conundrum.  It may be viewed as a crossword puzzle with the五刑(five punishments) encircling西(west).  I attach, as a thumbnail, the starting position of the conundrum from my book.  In order to solve the conundrum, you will have to find other five movements where one movement can be understood as a duality for one of the five punishments.

 

Solving the conundrum will provide you with the tools required for understanding classical Chinese.  It will enable you to understand the foreign language that Lu Xun refers to.  I hope that readers will have fun trying to solve the conundrum.  Please feel free to ask me questions if you wish. 

 

For those who are able to solve the conundrum, I extend a very warm welcome to The Duality Code.  It is my hope that you will spread your knowledge so that everyone can understand classical Chinese.

[WKC]

BrianP,

 

Firstly I would like to thank you for your reference to Klingon.  I hope that I have responded to that to your satisfaction.  You have also said, “Paranoia over non existent death threats. Saving every message in a thread.  Nope this thread hasn't taken a turn for the creepy. That or the Trollish.”  I will attempt a response to this now.

 

What is Confucianism?  It is the religion of the Chinese 文士(literati) who oppressed the common people of China for millennia.  Zhou Youguang, the Father of Pinyin, explains Confucianism,

“He [Confucius] was well versed in ancient precepts and founded a new school, named ru 儒.  Ru originally referred to shamanist methods of dealing with mortuary affairs and holding rites ... It must be pointed out that the concept of ru existed even before Confucius’ time, but the philosophical system of the Confucian school was not established until then.”  [Zhou Youguang, ‘To Inherit the Ancient Teachings of Confucius and Mencius and Establish Modern Confucianism’, Sino-Platonic Papers, no. 226, 2012, p. 1]

 

The classical character for 口(mouth; entrance) existed in Oracle Bone Script centuries before the Confucian era.  Classical Chinese existed before Confucius.  As Zhou Youguang asserts, 儒 “originally referred to shamanist methods of dealing with mortuary affairs...”  Shall we just say that as it deals with mortuary affairs, Yi’s secret box, or Yi’s receptacle is very much a feature?

 

漢字 is full of little puzzles that have to be solved in order to understand classical Chinese.  One example is the character 木 which is traditionally described as a pictograph of a tree.  Why then is the central meaning of the character 木(wood) instead of 樹(tree)?  To me it is an oddity that requires investigation.  It tells me that there is a classical Chinese meaning for 木 that has to be uncovered.  There is a puzzle to solve. 

 

In the Kangxi Dictionary’s gloss for the character爿, it says, 从半木。左半爲爿，右半爲片.  Therefore the left and right half of the 木 is represented by 爿and 片 respectfully.

 

The classical meaning of片 is found in a character that is probably not supported in this forum.  I have therefore attached it as a thumbnail.

 

The meaning of 爿will be know to some readers already.  It is made clear by the sinologist  J. J. M. De Groot who said,

“In many a town there is one or more streets in which most or nearly all the houses are devoted to the making and sale of coffins.  Amoy possesses a street of this kind, called the koa^u-ts‛ȃ hāng or ‘coffin lane’.  In the same town the coffin shops go by the name of pán tièm, ‘board shops’, because in the local dialect receptacles for the dead are generally called pán, ‘boards’.”  [J. J. M. De Groot, The Religious System Of China, p. 323.]

 

You now know the meaning of 爿and 片, which represent the left and right halves of the木.  The shamanistic mortuary origins of classical Chinese is reflected in the character 本.  At the end of the Kangxi Dictionary’s gloss for the character 士, the dictionary tells you how to separate the character本 into its constituent parts, which can then be read to say 一(Hou Yi’s) 木(?) 本(root, origin, source; basis). 

 

I am a book publisher, and people in my profession enjoy unexpected state sponsored holidays. (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/17/china-behaving-like-gangster-state-with-bookseller-kidnap-say-hong-kong-politicians)  Given this sad state of affairs and Confucianism’s origins in mortuary affairs, it is perhaps wise to take precautions.  You may view this a paranoia if you wish, and you may claim non existent death threats if you wish.  It does not matter.  People will soon be able to read classical Chinese and will be able to make their own conclusions.

[Demonic_Duck]

Klingon in Chinese is 克林貢.

 

The first character, 克, is made up of 十 plus 兄. Ten brothers. Ten brothers "is a Chinese legend known to be written around the time of the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644)." The Chinese for legend is 傳說. 說 is the first character of 說文解字. This is, once again, one of the many references to the definitiveness of the Shuowen which are encoded in the Duality Code.

 

林 is composed of two trees. Two trees from which one might hang a swing. The Chinese for swing is 鞦韆, or in simplified characters 秋千. Some sinologists believe that the simplified form is in fact the original form, but as we all know, sinologists are all idiots who don't know what they're talking about (unlike logicians). The Chinese for logician is 邏輯學家. 家 is where the heart is. The Chinese for heart is 心. This means that the 說文解字 is at the heart of everything.

 

Finally, we come to 貢. It is made up of 工 (work) and 貝 (money). This one is relatively simple. It is, of course, a reference to two classic songs: Work, Work, Work, Work, Work, by Rihanna, and Get Money by Junior M.A.F.I.A. featuring the Notorious B.I.G. Naturally, the common theme here is Hip Hop and R&B. B is often used as a euphemism for 屄 (vagina) in Chinese. This means that, just as the vagina is the origin of life, so the 說文解字 is the origin of the universe.

 

Pretty profound, huh?

[li3wei1]

Thank you, Demonic Duck. Now I, too, can understand Classical Chinese. I'm free from the chains of Confucianism! And I thought I was going to have to plough through a bunch of boring books about grammar and vocabulary.

[Lumbering Ox]

Someone actually took my Klingon comments seriously.

 

Wow.

[Shelley]

Someone actually took my Klingon comments seriously.

 

Almost nothing about this topic surprises me.

[WKC]

Demonic_Duck,

 

Interesting that you should mention 林.  I think you Confucian grounding in mortuary affairs is showing.

 

When will you Confucians stop oppressing people?

 

 

For everyone else,

 

I showed you how to obtain the classical Chinese meaning of 木 in post #192.  I’ve attached a thumb nail to show you how to read 木 as an associative compound.

 

Multiple 木 is represented in 林.  The classical Chinese meaning of 林 is used in 孔林.

 

What does 林 mean?  What was Demonic_Duck’s message to me?  Shall we just say that Demonic_Duck was whispering sweet nothings in my ear?  Otherwise I will be accused of paranoia over non-existent death threats.

[WKC]

Demonic_Duck,

 

Interesting that you should mention 林.  I think your Confucian grounding in mortuary affairs is showing.

 

When will you Confucians stop oppressing people?

 

 

For everyone else,

 

I showed you how to obtain the classical Chinese meaning of 木 in post #192.  I’ve attached a thumb nail to show you how to read 木 as an associative compound.

 

Multiple 木 is represented in 林.  The classical Chinese meaning of 林 is used in 孔林.

 

What does 林 mean?  What was Demonic_Duck’s message to me?  Shall we just say that Demonic_Duck was whispering sweet nothings in my ear?  Otherwise I will be accused of paranoia over non-existent death threats.

[WKC]

Thumbnails promised in previous post are attached here.

[WKC]

li3wei1,

 

Welcome to the world of the Duality Code.  I hope your exploration of dualities is interesting.  The conundrum is a fascinating and amazing puzzle.

 

Help educate your friends.  Let everyone become fully literate.