Chinese Language Museum

Chinese Character Worship

○ Cherish papers bearing written or printed words
○ Rebuses and prophetic ballads
○ Huang Jun Fa Xing Brick

Writing is a symbol of humanity's transition from ignorance to civilization. For thousands of years, Chinese people have held a special reverence towards the characters they use-the worship of Chinese characters. From the creation of characters, we have pondered their origins, how they should be treated, and how they should be used. We believe that their creation was the work of gods, and this deification and reverence permeates all aspects of social life. It had given rise to practices such as respecting and cherishing papers with words written on them, avoiding word taboos, and fortuning-telling by analyzing a Chinese character using certain words to ward off evil spirits and other folk customs.

Folkloric Interpretations of Chinese Characters

Folkloric Interpretations of Chinese Characters refers to the public's arbitrary explanations of the forms or meanings of Chinese characters.

From the perspective of philology, most folk interpretations bear little significance. But, both in history and in today's society, folk interpretation is a common practice. For example, a couplet written by Ji Xiaolan, a Chinese philosopher, politician, and writer of Qing dynasty, on the gate of the Confucius Mansion in Qufu, Shandong, has the character "Fu"(wealth) missing a dot on top, and the character "Zhang" with a vertical stroke running through the character "Yue"(which is similar in shape with “ri”, meaning sun or day) in the middle, leading to the folk misinterpretation of “brimming wealth” and “great literary talent reaching the sky”.

III

Chinese Character Games

○ Yuanbao(gold or silver ingot)-shaped Pillow with Riddles ○ Polyphone Couplet ○ Palindrome in Plates ○ Word Drinking Games

Because of the unique forms of Chinese characters, literati and scholars of past and present have played with them and created a variety of intellectual games, such as riddles, couplets, fun character poems, and games of acrostics played at drinking parties. Enjoy yourself at the Puzzle area with “source of all riddles”.

Regional Folk Characters

Regional folk characters refer to common characters with local characteristics. They are widely present in folk documents such as contracts, stone inscriptions, popular novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, primers, and functional literacy.

Functional literacy, or “za zi” is a kind of literacy textbook and was widely popular in the grassroots society. Since the authors of these texts often had limited cultural literacy, and their target readers were also the culturally underprivileged lower classes, these books contain a large number of regional folk characters.

The most popular functional literacy is the “Siyan Zazi(Four-lettered Text Book),”which, according to preliminary statistics, there were at least 500 different versions being used throughout the country. The typical form of "Siyan Zazi" is similar to "Qianzi Wen(Thousand Character Classic)" and is catchy and easy to read. Beyond teaching how to read and write, these texts also impart knowledge and skills. For example, a “Mai Mai Za Zi(Trading Text Book)” and “Shang Nong Za Zi(Merchants and Farmers Text Book)” were compiled for the trading industry in the Hebei area.

Folkloric Composite Characters

Folkloric Composite Characters is a special type of Chinese folk culture. Often containing wishes and blessings, they are also referred to it as "folkloric auspicious characters".

For example, a “Blue and White Longevity Vase” from the Qing Dynasty Kangxi period is covered with “ten thousand” motifs of the character “shou”(longevity). It was a gift presented by the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory to celebrate the 60th birthday of Emperor Kangxi.

Decorative Folk Characters

○ Eaves tile ○ Twelve famille rose cups with designs of flower gods
○ King Yue's Stone Spear

During the Western Han Dynasty, decorative use of characters became popular, especially with eaves tile decorations, bronze mirrors, and brocade. People generally choose auspicious and inspirational words to complement both the aesthetics and significance of the message.

VII

Mysterious Folkloric Characters

○ Nushu, or female script ○ Daoist tomb-quelling texts inscribed on slates

Mysterious folk characters refer to special characters used by a certain industry or group on certain occasions, generally unrecognized or used by outsiders. For example, Taoist script, female script, and industry-specific secret characters, etc.

"Nushu" is the only female-exclusive script in the world and was listed as one of China's first national intangible cultural heritage in 2006. Its writing style is from right to left, top to bottom, with beautiful and dynamic handwriting.

The Daoist tomb-quelling text inscribed on slates is a complete set of five pieces, each representing one of the five cardinal directions: east, south, west, north, and central. They are hierarchically proper for the tomb structure. The brick script is Daoist “Cloud Seal Script,” also known as "true script," which helps release the souls of the deceased from purgatory and protect the living.