Level 8 · Lesson 2

象形
Pictographs

象形字是画出来的：日、月、山、木、水、火、人、口。

Drawings simplified into strokes — and how to trace each one back to its early form.

你已经会了 · You already know this

你早就在写象形字了。第一级的人，第二级的水，第三级的鱼、车、门——这几个字都不是别人规定的符号，而是三千多年前的一幅画，被后人一笔一笔地写直了。你写门的时候，写的是两扇门；写鱼的时候，写的是一条鱼。

You have been writing pictographs since your first week. 人 from level 1, 水 from level 2, and 鱼, 车, 门 from level 3 are not arbitrary signs somebody agreed on — each is a picture three thousand years old that later hands straightened, stroke by stroke, into something you can write with a brush. When you write 门 you are drawing two door-leaves; when you write 鱼 you are drawing a fish.

规则 · The rules

象形字是把东西的样子画下来，再简化成笔画。

规则 1

《说文解字·叙》：象形者，画成其物，随体诘诎，日月是也。

Xu Shen: 'A pictograph draws the thing itself, the line bending to follow its shape — 日 and 月 are the examples.'

所以象形字只能写看得见的东西：日、月、山、木、水、火、人、口。这八个字，你现在就可以在纸上试一试：先画那个东西，再把弯的线拉直、把圆的地方拉方，最后数一数有几笔。图形就这样变成了字。

A pictograph can only ever record something visible: sun, moon, mountain, tree, water, fire, person, mouth. Try the eight yourself on paper — draw the thing, pull the curves straight, square off the round parts, then count the strokes. That is the whole journey from 图形 túxíng, a picture, to 字 zì, a character.

最早的汉字刻在龟甲兽骨上，叫甲骨文；铸在青铜器上的，叫金文。

规则 2

甲骨文是商朝的文字，距今三千多年；金文通行于商周。

Oracle-bone script, from the Shang dynasty over three thousand years ago, was cut into turtle shell and ox bone; bronze script was cast into ritual vessels in Shang and Zhou times.

两种材料，两种样子。刀刻在硬骨头上，线又细又直，所以甲骨文瘦；金文是先做模子再铸的，笔画可以又粗又圆，图形也保留得多。今天的字形离画最远，可是路是从这里走过来的。

Two materials, two looks. A knife on hard bone gives thin straight lines, so oracle-bone characters are lean and angular. Bronze script was cast from a mould, so its strokes can be thick and rounded and it keeps more of the picture. Today's printed shapes are the furthest of all from drawing — but this is the road they travelled.

象形字数量不多，可是它们常常做别的字的部首。

规则 3

日在明、早、晴里；木在林、树、桥里；水写成三点水，在河、海、洗里。

日 sits inside 明, 早, 晴; 木 inside 林, 树, 桥; 水 narrows to the three-drop form and turns up in 河, 海, 洗.

这就是象形字最重要的地方：它们自己不多，可是几乎每一个都成了部首，后来的字就在它们身上盖起来。学会八个象形字，等于拿到了几千个字的钥匙。

This is what makes the small class so important. Pictographs are few, but nearly every one became a radical, and later characters were built on top of them. Learning eight pictographs is not learning eight characters — it is picking up the key to several thousand.

一步一步 · Step by step

日：从图形到笔画

一个圆，中间一点 — 甲骨文 jiǎgǔwén — the sun, with a mark inside so it is not mistaken for a plain circle
圆拉成方 — a knife cuts straight lines more easily than curves
中间一点拉成一横 — the dot flattens into a horizontal stroke
日 — four strokes: 竖 shù, 横折 héngzhé, 横 héng, 横 héng

山：三个山峰

三个山峰 — the early form: three peaks rising from one base line
中间的峰最高 — the middle peak stays tallest in every later shape
山 — three strokes: 竖 shù, 竖折 shùzhé, 竖 shù

练习 · Practice

下面哪个字是象形字？ Which of these is a pictograph?

甲骨文刻在什么上面？ What was oracle-bone script cut into?

铸在青铜器上的古文字叫 ______。 Name the script cast into bronze vessels.

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'Oracle-bone script is the earliest Chinese writing.'

每个象形字画的是什么？ Match each pictograph to what it draws.