象形、象意与表意——论汉字审美符号的存在方式

Natural Association between Image and Meaning:The Mechanism of Chinese Characters as Aesthetic Signs

唐兰先生在"六书说"的基础上,提出"象形、象意、形声"的"三书说",裘锡圭先生对唐说提出质疑,提出了"表意、假借、形声"的"新三书说"。"旧新三书说"把"意"变成了低一层次的概念,在一定程度上消解了汉字"象"的因素,其主要缺陷是对汉字这种审美符号的存在方式缺乏一种特异性的自觉和同情。而汉字中或凝练或抽象的形象,往往是事物精华的浓缩和概括,透过汉字的形象,可以看到中国人的观念的凝聚。中国精神与中国知识,以仍然鲜活的形式,体现在文字的创造中。"象"与"意"作为一种特殊的统一体,在汉字的发展史中,起着深刻的作用。汉字构形中的"抽象",表现了汉字写"意"的特点,唤醒了我们对中国艺术"写意"的传统意识。象形、象意,包含着"象"与"意"两大传统的交融,并通过"象外之象"、"意外之意",开辟辽阔浩渺的审美空间。因此,我们对汉字的认识必须超越认识层面,进入美学探索的境界。

On the basis of Xushen＇s theory of liu-shu六书（six types of character formation）,Tang Lan proposed his theory of san-shu三书（three types of character formation）,i. e. xiang-xing象形（picto-graph）,xiang-yi象意（ideograph）,and xing-sheng形声（phone-semantic compound）. Later,Qiu Xigui put forward his neo-sanshu theory which identifies the following three types of character formation in written Chinese language：biao-yi表意（ideogram）,jia-jie假借（phonetic loan character）and xing-sheng形声（phone-semantic compound）. However,both types of san-shu theory reduce“meaning”to a lower-level concept and undervalue the element of“image”in Chinese characters. The major cause for this defect lies in the fact that both of them lack adequate awareness of and empathy for the dimension of Chinese characters as aesthetic signs. Chinese characters are characterized by their embodiment of rich and abstract images,which are the fruits of abstractions and generalizations of specific real life activities and entities and thus mirror the wisdom and spirit of Chinese people. That is,Chinese spirit and way of understanding the world are still alive in the form of Chinese characters. The image and meaning,form-ing an organic whole in Chinese characters,play a fundamental role in their evolution. The abstraction involved in the formation of Chinese characters shows how they capture and convey meanings,and is a-ble to awaken us to the great Chinese tradition of expressing meaning through freehand impressionistic images. Xiang-xing and xiang-yi,two results of the great tradition of integrating image and meaning, create a vast aesthetic space through two mechanisms of“image beyond image”and“meaning beyond meaning”. Therefore,we have to rise above the epistemological level and enter the realm of aesthetics if we want to develop a due understanding of Chinese characters.