Die Bildung abstrakter Begriffe in archaischen chinesischen Schriften: Humboldt’sche Perspektiven
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Tze-wan Kwan
Abstract
This essay attempts to show that the thesis of the absolute primacy of language over writing cannot be taken for granted in the Chinese context. Mainstream linguistics gives absolute priority to spoken language over written language. One of Humboldt’s key observations about the Chinese language is that, compared to Indo-European languages, its phonological system is relatively weak. To compensate for this “phonic poverty,” he noted that the Chinese language has developed the feature of “analogy of script” over millennia, using visual components in the “combination” and “derivation” of meaning. As a result, the Chinese script is not merely a “script of words” (Schrift der Worte) but also a “script of thoughts” (Gedankenschrift). Humboldt emphasizes this uniqueness by suggesting that the Chinese script has “embraced philosophical work within itself,” and that Chinese writing has evolved into an “inherent component” of the language. To understand Humboldt’s perspective, this paper first discusses the “Lishu-transformation” (隸變), a crucial phase in the evolution of Chinese writing from its archaic styles to lishu (隸書), the classical forms we may easily recognize today. During this transformational process, many cognitive components of the original scripts have become blurred and distorted. Consequently, modern script forms often lack the clarity needed for accurate etymological analysis. This explains why, in our attempt to recover the cognitive content of the characters, we should not rely solely on the so-called “radicals” (部首), which result from the Lishu-transformation, but should supplement these “radicals” with “components” (部件), which reflect the original structure of the script. With this in mind, this paper examines a series of Chinese characters that are “abstract” to varying degrees, to see how they acquire their abstract meanings, which arguably consummate the richness of the Chinese world of meaning.
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial Preface
- Preface
- I. Teaching Daoist Philosophy
- Experiences of Learning, Teaching, and Investigating Chinese Philosophy in Europe
- Zhuangzi as Educator: Spectatorial Engagement and Transcultural Understanding for Global Citizenship
- Teaching Chinese Philosophy Outside the Philosophy Classroom: Reflections on Contents, Methods, and Prospects
- From “Being and Time” to “Dao and Time”
- II. Teaching Confucian Philosophy
- How to Interpret Chinese Philosophy to the West—My Experience of Teaching Chinese Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin
- Teaching through Sublation: Political and Philosophical Confucianism
- Engaging with Li 禮 in the European Philosophy Classroom
- A Few Reflections from Central Europe on Teaching Chinese Philosophy
- Teaching Chinese Philosophy: From a “Skill-Based” to a “Thinking Through Early Chinese Philosophy” Approach
- The Teaching of “Chinese Philosophy” in Sinology Studies
- Look Back in Anger? Chinese Philosophy at Ruhr University Bochum
- III. Teaching Chinese Buddhist Philosophy
- Buddhism as Philosophy: Exercise in Observing Observation: The Nonduality of Paradoxical and Representational Thinking in Chinese Buddhism
- Ideas, Labels, and Boxes – The Three Teachings in Cheng Xuanying’s Early Tang Commentary to the Laozi and Some Reflections on our Scholarly Explorations of the Three Teachings
- IV. Miscellaneous
- Die Bildung abstrakter Begriffe in archaischen chinesischen Schriften: Humboldt’sche Perspektiven
- Chinesische Sprache und Schrift in philosophischer und kulturübergreifender Sicht—ein Vorlesungsplan
- Bio-Bibliography
- Name Index
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial Preface
- Preface
- I. Teaching Daoist Philosophy
- Experiences of Learning, Teaching, and Investigating Chinese Philosophy in Europe
- Zhuangzi as Educator: Spectatorial Engagement and Transcultural Understanding for Global Citizenship
- Teaching Chinese Philosophy Outside the Philosophy Classroom: Reflections on Contents, Methods, and Prospects
- From “Being and Time” to “Dao and Time”
- II. Teaching Confucian Philosophy
- How to Interpret Chinese Philosophy to the West—My Experience of Teaching Chinese Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin
- Teaching through Sublation: Political and Philosophical Confucianism
- Engaging with Li 禮 in the European Philosophy Classroom
- A Few Reflections from Central Europe on Teaching Chinese Philosophy
- Teaching Chinese Philosophy: From a “Skill-Based” to a “Thinking Through Early Chinese Philosophy” Approach
- The Teaching of “Chinese Philosophy” in Sinology Studies
- Look Back in Anger? Chinese Philosophy at Ruhr University Bochum
- III. Teaching Chinese Buddhist Philosophy
- Buddhism as Philosophy: Exercise in Observing Observation: The Nonduality of Paradoxical and Representational Thinking in Chinese Buddhism
- Ideas, Labels, and Boxes – The Three Teachings in Cheng Xuanying’s Early Tang Commentary to the Laozi and Some Reflections on our Scholarly Explorations of the Three Teachings
- IV. Miscellaneous
- Die Bildung abstrakter Begriffe in archaischen chinesischen Schriften: Humboldt’sche Perspektiven
- Chinesische Sprache und Schrift in philosophischer und kulturübergreifender Sicht—ein Vorlesungsplan
- Bio-Bibliography
- Name Index
