A Research On Characters Of The Radical Of Cao Of ShuoWenJieZi

ShuoWenJieZi(Hereinafter referred to as ShuoWen)is the first Chinese character dictionary to systematically analyze the Chinese character glyph and its original meaning.The dictionary is the foundation work of scientific etymology and literature of linguistics,and it occupies an important position in the history of Chinese linguistics and social linguistics.The radical of Cao of ShuoWen contains 476 words of official seal character and variant character,which is the second largest radical of ShuoWen.This paper takes the characters of radical of Cao of ShuoWen as the research object,making a comprehensive and in-depth study on the characters of this radical by using the method of literature,statistical induction and the connection of Chinese characters of same phonetic symbols.The paper further enriches the relevant content of the research on the radicals of Shuowen,offering my pygmy effort for subsequent study of radicals of Shuowen.The paper is mainly divided into the following parts:The first part is preface,which elaborates the research significance of this topic,summarizes the main research results and the research status concerning the characters of the radical of Cao,and clarifies the research objects and methods.The second part is the fractal structure of characters of the radical of Cao of ShuoWen,and this part mainly includes two aspects.Firstly,the author analyzes the official seal character of the radical of Cao,glyph analysis of ideographic character and pictophonetic character are involved.This part emphasizes the function of cueing meaning of semantic symbol,phonetic symbols in pronunciation and the function of phonetic symbols in displaying source-indicating sememe of words recorded by pictophonetic characters.The most important character-formation of characters of the radical of Cao is pictophonetic character,which is composed of phonetic symbols and semantic symbols.Phonetic symbols and semantic symbols occupy their respective positions and perform their respective functions.Semantic symbols have the functions of cueing meaning and different ways of expression.Semantic symbols with the same or similar meanings can exchange writing words.Phonetic symbols can indicate the pronunciation of pictophonetic characters,and some phonetic symbols have source–indicating function.Secondly,the author analyzes the variant character of the radical of Cao,its type and formation mode are involved.The types and forms of variant character of the radical of Cao are diversity,among which the proportion of HuoTi is the largest.The variant character is mainly formed by changing the phonetic symbols,the semantic symbols or both of them.To some extent,the types and forms of the variant character reproduce the use of the Han Dynasty’s characters and people’s understanding of paleography and ZhouWen.The third part is about the meaning of the characters of the radical of Cao of ShuoWen,including the meaning category and interpretation mode of the characters of the radical of Cao.Firstly,on the basis of Xu Shen’s interpretation and the relevant literature,the meaning recorded by the characters of the radical of Cao is divided into five categories: the names of herbaceous plants,the part names of herbaceous plants,the processing products of herbaceous plants,the appearance of grass,the grass-related behavior.Each category is divided into different sub-categories according to relevant standards,trying to present the meaning system of the characters of the radical of Cao more systematically.Secondly,the author analyses four main interpretation modes and their characteristics,they are respectively direct interpretation,description,explanation by definition,contrast and illustration with similar things.XuShen’s comprehensive and rigorous interpretation of the meaning on characters of the radical of Cao is the representative of the practice and achievement of Han exegesis.The fourth part is the cultural implication of the characters of the radical of Cao of ShuoWen.In this part,the character of the radical of Cao is the core with related literature.This part lays emphasis on expounding the culture of clothing,picking and planting,food and beverage,Chinese herbal medicine,architecture,animal husbandry,sacrifice and divination,funeral and taboo in the Han Dynasty and before.The cultural connotation embodied in characters of the radical of Cao and XuShen’s interpretation not only shows the colorful life of the ancients,but also reflects the accumulation of human wisdom and the improvement of productivity in the Han Dynasty.It is also an important part of China’s precious cultural heritage.The fifth part is the conclusion,concluding the full text and point out the shortcomings of this paper.