“指事”新解

On the New Interpretation of“Self-explanatory Characters”

“指事”为许慎所列的“六书”之首,是历代学者划分汉字结构时产生问题最多的一书。通过对许慎所作的“六书”义例和汉代三家所列“六书”名目的研究,我们将“指事”的“指”字破译为“稽”字,将“指事”解读为“审察事物”的意思;并通过运用新见解说近十个典型的指事字,使“指示符号”的成说也得以彻底否定。

Xu Shen, the ancient Chinese scholar, put “self-explanatory characters” at the top of “six categories of Chinese characters”, the category of which has the most problems when scholars determinate the structure of the Chinese characters. This paper attempts to study the pattern of “six categories of Chinese characters” and the categories oudined by the three schools in the Han Dynasty. “Zhi” in “zhishi” is interpreted as “ji” and “zhishi” as “examine the matters”. Applying this new viewpoint, this paper also interprets almost 10 typical “self-explanatory characters” and thoroughly negates the theory of “signifying signs”.