说齐

On the Qi

《说文解字》将“齐”字本义释为禾麦上平貌,但验诸古文字字形,此说并不能成立。目前所见最早的“齐”字出现于帝辛时期的甲骨卜辞中,为商王征人方时所经地名。结合今山东北部商末考古发现及关于帝辛征人方的青铜器铭文可推知,商王征人方所经齐地当即位于今山东临淄一带。齐地得名当源自临淄南郊的天齐渊,天齐渊一带则因是祭祀天穹北极附近太一星之处,故被视为天之中央在地面的投射。像多个泉眼之形的“齐”字则因此而具有了中央的意义,复由中央之意引申表示腹脐。后因多假借“齐”字表示整齐划一,故在“齐”字上加“肉”字作为意符,分化出了“脐”字表示腹脐这一本义的引申义。

The original meaning ofQi(齐)in the Shuowenjiezi(说文解字),was the wheat being neat,but this meaning didn't accord with the ancient character font.The earliest Qi(齐)character appeared in the oracle of Shang Dynasty.In the oracle,Qi(齐)was a place name that the king of the Shang Dynasty had went through during the battle between Shang and Ren state(人方).According to the archaeological findings of the late Shang Dynasty in the Northern Shandong and the bronze inscriptions about the battle between Shang and Ren state(人方),the Qi(齐)was located in the Linzi,Shandong province.The Qi(齐)originated from Tianqi Spring which was located in the southem suburb of Linzi.The area of Tianqi Spring was the sacrifice site for Taiyi(太一)star,which was located at the center of the universe in ancient China.So the Tianqi Spring was also considered as the center.Therefore,the Qi(齐)which symbolized some spring holes acquired the meaning of center,and it also extended in meaning of abdominal umbilicus.Because borrowing the Qi(齐)to express the meaning of uniformity,ancestor made up the Qi(脐)by adding Rou(肉)as a ideograph on theQi(齐)to express the meaning of abdominal umbilicus.