“指事”新说

A New Understanding of "Zhishi"(one of the six categories of Chinese characters)

"指事"定义"视而可识,察而见意"中的"识"历来被理解为"认识",造成定义语义重复,分野不明确,分类也颇多分歧。"识"当作"分别、分辨"讲,"视而可识"是说可以从形体上将一组关系字分别开来,"察而见意"是说仔细观察就可以看出字的意义指向。这样理解,指事字的范围和分类都比较明确。

The concept of ＂zhishi ＂（指事,one of the six categories of Chinese characters） was defined as ＂shierkeshi,chaerjianyi＂（视而可识,察而见意）,referring to distinguish and know the meaning by observing the Chinese characters.Here,＂shi＂（识）has been understood as ＂to know＂,causing semantic repetition and divergence.In fact,＂shi＂（识） should be interpreted as ＂distinguish＂;＂shierkeshi＂（视而可识） refers that we can distinguish a set of related characters from their forms,and＂chaerjianyi＂（察而见意） refers that we can know the meanings by observing the Chinese characters carefully.If we can understand these,both the scope and the classification of the self-explanatory characters will be more definite.