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Linguistic issues -> 說文解字 － 六書
| 2016-09-30 02:57:59說文解字 － 六書 |
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| Posted by: wkchoy | In the postface of the 說文解字 , Xu Shen refers to the 六書 and provides example characters for each category. They are as follows:
一. 指事 –上, 下
二. 象形 – 日, 月
三. 形聲 – 江, 河
四. 會意 –武, 信
五. 轉注 –考, 老
六. 假借 – 令, 長
Classical cryptology uses transposition ciphers and substitution ciphers. [See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_cipher] Xu Shen has used two encryption techniques to encrypt a hidden message in the example characters that he has provided. The first is a transposition cipher. Making adjustments for the transposition cipher and reading the example characters from last to first, we obtain the following message:
長(leader) 令(commands) 老(old) 考(test),
信(trust; letter) 武(military) 河(river) 江(large river),
月(moon) 日(day) 下(inferior; bring down; below) 上(superior; go up; above).
The second cipher is a substitution cipher that is encrypted with a method called 假借. This is decrypted by removal of the false borrowing element. The residual elements form the substitutions. In the case of 假借, removal of the false borrowing element 亻 reveals the intended substitutions 叚昔, which is an encrypted explanation of 假借. Adjusting for 假借, Xu Shen』s encrypted becomes:
長(leader) 令(commands) 老(old) 考(test),
信(trust; letter) 武(military) 可(possible) 工(worker),
月(moon) 日(day) 下(inferior; bring down; below) 上(superior; go up; above).
The final adjustment required is to ascertain the classical Chinese meaning for the character 工. In the 說文解字, the gloss for the character工 says, 與巫同意. This provides us with the decrypted message:
長(leader) 令(commands) 老(old) 考(test),
信(trust; letter) 武(military) 可(possible) 工(wizard, sorcerer, shaman [巫]),
月(moon) 日(day) 下(inferior; bring down; below) 上(superior; go up; above).
A wizard, sorcerer, or shaman may be conceived of as an oracle. Ancient Chinese oracles devised Oracle Bone Script, which is the foundation for written Chinese. Xu Shen』s encrypted message was to aspiring oracles who wish to learn the secrets of Chinese characters.
There is an online discussion about the fascinating subject of classical Chinese. Please read the discussion to the last post and be advised that the discussion is punctuated by comments from state sponsored spin doctors who try their utmost to colour the discussion. You are therefore requested to read the discussion to its conclusion. That discussion can be found through the link provided below.
www.chinese-forums.com/index.p...
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| 2016-09-30 14:05:58說文解字 － 六書 |
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| Posted by: wkchoy | In English, there are different words to represent the meaning of 'borrow' and 'lend'. However, this is not the case in Chinese. The character 借 is a polyseme that means 借(borrow; lend). Therefore, it is possible to read 假借 as 假借(false lending).
假借(false lending) is an encryption device to generate ciphertext. The intended substitution cipher is revealed by removal of the component that creates the false lending. In the case of the bigram 假借(false lending), the component that creates the false lending is 亻. Removal of 亻 from 假借 reveals the intended substitution cipher 叚昔, which says 叚(false) 昔(formerly). This is an encrypted explanation of 假借(false lending). |
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