(This obviously gave rise to numerous homonymous cases of which we will later explain the implications). and which indicates that the complex character 'companion' is also pronounced pan.伴 which is a complex character, It is formed by a 'key', the 'man' 'key' 亻, and of another simple character 半 which is pronounced pan.Let us cite, for instance, the word 'companion' But the common example of a complex character is that of the type 'radical + phonetic sign', that is, a radical made of a simple character (equally named 'key', because it is the radical which determines the category to which belongs the word being the compound of all Chinese words subdivided into two hundred and fourteen types, that two hundred and fourteen 'keys': the 'water' 'key', the 'wood' 'key', the 'man' 'key', etc.) and of another section equally made by a simple character which acts as a phonetic sign: this one by its own pronunciation, gives the pronunciation to the word (that is, the simple character acting as a phonetic sign and the complex character which is also its constituent have the same pronunciation). A complex character is a compound of two simple characters thus the word 'clarity'明 is formed by the 'sun' and the 'moon'. From a limited number of simple characters later arose the complex characters: those are the ones which constitute most of the Chinese ideograms which are currently in use. It is true that in its oldest known configuration, it is possible to pick out an important number of pictograms such as the 'sun' (⊙, then stylized as 日), the 'moon' (, then stylized in 月), and 'man'/'homo' (, then stylized in 人) but also next to them are represented characters more abstract which can already be qualified as ideograms, such as 'king' (王: that which connects the 'sky', the 'earth' and 'mankind'), 'centre' (中: a space crossed by a line at the centre), and 'to return' (, stylized in 反: a hand describing a turning gesture towards oneself). Those who are ignorant of this writing easily take it as an aggregate of 'small squiggles'. It is usual when speaking of Chinese characters to evoke their imagistic representations. First of all to define the reality of these signs, the Chinese ideograms, their specific nature, their connections with other significant practices (such are the intentions of this article) it is essential to explain certain facets of Chinese poetry. Through these signs, complying with a primordial rhythm, a word has exploded and expanded beyond and from everywhere its signifier's act. All T'ang poetry is a written melody as well musical writing. ![]() One the elements which determined the origin of these metamorphoses was exactly this writing which has developed into an extremely original poetical language. 2 This melody that, at its inception, was intimately connected with sacred dance and with agrarian field work regulated by seasonal rhythms, came to eventually suffer considerable metamorphoses. Thanks to this writing, in effect since slightly longer than three-thousand years ago, an uninterrupted melody was passed on to us. What cannot be denied is that it was a most extraordinary adventure, thus enabling it to be said that through their writing the Chinese accepted a challenge, a unique challenge, which came to be the great benefice of the poets. Can it be said that this is 'crazy defiance' from the Chinese to maintain as such this 'contradiction', for about forty centuries? Ever since its origin it has stood up to this contradictory and dialectical relationship between the pronounced sounds and the physical presence, with a tendency towards gestures, between the exigency of linearity and the desire of a spatial evasion. So, since its origins, it has been a writing that refuses to be a mere support of oral language: its development has been a long struggle aimed at achieving autonomy as well freedom of arrangement. ![]() Regardless of its utterance, constituting a unity by itself, each sign has the potential to remain sovereign, and thus to become everlasting. ![]() 1 Divinatory or utilitarian, they manifest themselves as traceries, emblems, immovable manners, visualized rhythms. Signs which sacred vases and bronze utensils carry on their flanks. Signs engraved in tortoise bones and buffalo's scapulae.
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