课程 → Level 8 · 汉字与语音 → 课 3
Level 8 · Lesson 3 指事
Indicative characters
画不出来的意思，就加一个符号指出来：上、下、本、末、刃。
A mark added to point at an abstract idea — and why 本 means both a tree root and an origin.
你已经会了 · You already know this
第三级你学过 上 和 下：书在桌子上面，猫在椅子下面。你也说过 一本书、两本书。上、下、本 这三个字有一个共同点——它们画不出来。没有人见过一个叫 上 的东西，也没有人能给 本来 画一张图。可是这三个字就在你手里，写得又快又熟。
You met 上 and 下 back in level 3 — the book on the table, the cat under the chair — and you have been counting 一本书, 两本书 ever since. Those three characters share something: not one of them can be drawn. Nobody has ever seen an object called 'above', and nobody can sketch 'originally'. Yet you write all three quickly and without thinking. This lesson is how that was managed.
规则 · The rules
象形是画东西，指事是指意思。两者的分别在于：象形字拿走符号还是一个东西的样子，指事字拿走符号就什么都不剩了。所以许慎说 视而可识——一看就认出来；察而见意——再看一下，意思才出来。
A pictograph draws a thing; an indicative character points at an idea. The test is simple: take the mark away from a pictograph and you still have the outline of something, but take the mark away from an indicative character and nothing is left. That is exactly Xu Shen's two clauses — you recognise it at a glance, and then, looking again, you see what it means.
这一对字最能说明什么叫指事。它们没有画任何东西，只有一条线和一个短画；意思全在位置上。也正因为这样，上 和 下 是一对，写法互相反着来，一看就明白。
This pair shows the method at its purest. Nothing whatever is drawn — there is a line and a short stroke, and the meaning lives entirely in where the stroke sits. That is also why the two are a matched pair: each is the other turned over, and you read them instantly.
这三个字用的是同一个办法：先有一个看得见的东西，再用符号指出它的一部分。本 的本义是树根，所以引申出 根本、本来；末 的本义是树梢，所以有 末尾、周末；刃 的本义是刀口，今天说 刀刃。指事字在六书里数量最少，可是 一、二、三、上、下、本 都在里面。
All three work the same way: start from something visible, then use a mark to single out one part of it. 本 is the root, which is why it extends to 根本 'basis' and 本来 'originally'. 末 is the treetop, which gives 末尾 'the end' and 周末 'weekend'. 刃 is the cutting edge, still alive in 刀刃. Indicative characters are the smallest of the six classes — and yet 一, 二, 三, 上, 下 and 本 are all in it, which is to say you use the smallest class every day.
一步一步 · Step by step
- 木 — the pictograph: a whole tree, branches above and roots below
- 木 加下面一画 — a short stroke low on the trunk — you cannot draw 'the root part'
- 本 — 本义 běnyì: the root; then 根本 gēnběn, 本来 běnlái
- 木 加上面一画 — the same trick with the mark moved to the top
- 末 — the tip; then 末尾 mòwěi, 周末 zhōumò — the end of the week
- 刀 — a pictograph: a knife with its handle
- 刀 加一点 — a dot on the cutting side — sharpness cannot be drawn
- 刃 — the blade edge; 刀刃 dāorèn is the edge of a knife