Chapter 25: Six Principles of Character Creation and Conversation Frame Transfer
Today, I am still talking about words with Chunlai.
1. 【Pictographic character】.
Pictographic characters are lines that depict the appearance of an object. Simply put, a character is roughly equivalent to a painting. However, as Chinese characters became more standardized, they no longer resembled the original.
For example, the character "日" (sun) originally consisted of a circle with a dot inside, which is the image of the sun.
The moon is a crescent moon. The moon is round, but unlike the sun, which is always round, it is subject to change. Therefore, the moon is represented by the crescent moon, which represents its changing shape.
【川】, like flowing water, all rivers flow into the sea, refers to water.
[井] means a well, or [井田].
【口】is the shape of an open mouth.
【乙】, it is the appearance of buds growing underground.
【且】, genitals.
[She] is the pattern of a house.
2. [Indicative characters].
Indication is used to express an abstract concept, not a concrete object. For example, up and down, left and right, fast and slow, sweet and sour, hot and cold, long and short, big and small, light and heavy, fat and thin, beautiful and ugly, high and low. This is relatively abstract.
For example, if you're standing on the second floor, the first floor is below you. If you're standing on the third floor, the second floor is below you. If you're facing south, your left hand is east. If you're facing north, your right hand is east. It's not something concrete, fixed, or unchanging.
For example, beauty and ugliness are completely subjective. How beautiful or ugly something is is just your personal feeling.
Other such situations include: pain, misery, laughter, screaming, roaring, numbness, and guessing.
How painful it is, how miserable it is, how ridiculous it is, how loud the screams are, how strong the roars are, how numb it is, who knows. Everyone feels differently, experiences differently. It is not a physical object.
3. [Pictorial characters].
A pictophonetic character is a new character formed by combining two or more characters or radicals.
For example: Two trees make a forest. Two moons make a friend. Two fires make a blaze. Three trees make a forest. Three waters make a stream. Three golds make a brilliance. Three suns make a crystal. The sun and the moon make brightness. People's words make trust.
Characters composed of the same characters are called homophonic ideographic characters, and characters composed of different characters are called heterophonic ideographic characters.
4. [Phonetic-semantic characters].
Take half to represent the image and half to represent the pronunciation, and it becomes a phono-semantic character.
For example, anything related to water takes three drops of water: ditch, river, lake, lake, sea, stream, island, tour, stream.
All characters related to wood are written with the character for "木" (wood), such as: 枝 (branch), 桔 (orange), 桃 (peach), 柚 (pomelo), 桐 (tung), 横 (horizontal), 棋 (chess),
5. [Transliterated characters].
The same radical means the same thing. For example: dog and dog, boat and ship, ocean, hip-hop, pat, recover, and discuss.
6. [Loan characters].
If there is no accurate word to describe a word, we use its sound to express it, such as: hamburger, madou, model, and Coca-Cola.
I discussed the six principles of character creation with Chunlai. Finally, I said, "Just understand the basics; there's no need to delve into them."
Chunlai asked: "Why don't you delve into it?"
"It's not a mathematical formula, and when creating characters, there are no strict rules. Diving into it is very painful. As long as you have a general grasp of these six character creation methods, you will be fine. Moreover, this is a summary of later generations."
The two were talking when a man walked in and said, "Mr. Wan, I have a question. I'm not very good with words, and I often get into trouble. In particular, there's a colleague named Liu Cunshan who is not kind at all and often bullies me."
I smiled faintly and said, "I can tell you have a thick mouth, thick lips."
The man said: "I'm not good at talking, and my colleague Liu Cunshan takes advantage of this weakness and often provokes me. I am often speechless and suffer in silence."
I said, "People who are not good at speaking have several characteristics. They are very concerned about their reputation and are afraid of being exposed. They cannot bring themselves to say anything malicious."
The man said, "You've hit a sore spot. Liu Cunshan uses this to his advantage and often ridicules me in public."
"Give me an example."
"One day, he said in front of his boss, 'Hey, there are always so many beautiful women around you, why don't you introduce one to me?'
I'm already married, and this was a malicious remark. It implied that I wasn't working hard and was just messing around with women. I was speechless for a moment, because there are indeed some girls who like people like me.
I said, "Give them a helping hand, just like when someone reaches out to hit you, you grab their hand and pull it, making them fall flat on their face. You should answer this frankly: I won't introduce you. The people who are with me are all decent people. If I introduce you, I'll only lead them astray."
The man smiled.
I said, "Taking advantage of others' situation is a good way to hit back at them. Don't respond to them, just go along with what they are saying.
The man said: "He is a city person. Every time he sees me, he always says that the clothes I wear are too rustic. No matter what clothes I wear, he always says that I look rustic. In fact, he just can't stand me."
I laughed and said, "You pretended not to understand and asked him to repeat himself. He said it again, and you pretended not to understand and asked him to repeat himself. This way he would feel embarrassed."
"Teacher Wan, he will say it again and again, loudly, to make me look like a fool."
Chunlai was also indignant and said, "This kind of person is a real villain."
I said, "Next time he says that, I'll teach you a vicious trick: just smile and say, 'Yes, it's dirt, especially dirt, and this little dirt isn't enough to bury you.'"
Chunlai and the man laughed out loud.
I said, "I shouldn't have taught you this, but some people are too mean, and you can't be so bookish and fight back. That way he won't get too aggressive."
The man said: "What's even more abominable is that several of us accompanied the minister for a walk the day before yesterday."
"Are you a civil servant?"
"Yes. We were walking somewhere, and the minister saw a tree and said it was really beautiful. To be honest, I was really flattering him, quoting scriptures and praising the tree. But Liu Cunshan said, 'You are too eloquent. The minister doesn't like people like you who flatter.'
"After he exposed this, I wanted to dig a hole in the ground. I was speechless for a moment."
I smiled and said, “Next time you encounter a situation like this, you need to change your [interpretation framework].
What is "explanatory framework"? It means using a different framework to explain what you said.
Liu Cunshan exposed you. You have to change the [frame] to fight back.”
"How do we fight back?"
"You can yell at him. Liu Cunshan, I think you are a traitor. Can't the Minister hear that I am exaggerating?"
The minister works so hard every day, so taking a walk is just a way to relax. If I go along with his wishes and exaggerate a little, won't he feel better? Am I going to argue that this tree is not beautiful?"
The man clapped his hands and said, "Teacher Wan, you are amazing."
I said, "You're shifting Liu Cunshan's framework from 'flattering' to 'understanding'. Once you change the explanation framework, the minister will actually think you're a good person. You're not a flatterer, but you understand the true meaning of relaxing by taking a walk."
Next, I talked with the man for an hour and taught him many ways to transfer the [explanatory framework].
He left satisfied.
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