한자에 반영된 인생여정: 출생, 결혼, 자녀교육과 죽음

Abstract

In order to understand the cycle of life and its cultural significance as manifested in Chinese characters, the study appearing in this article was undertaken and structured as follows, Chapter 1: in the “Introduction” I explained the purpose of this study and introduced domestic and international study trends, backgrounds, contents, and methods. Chapter 2: in “Birth” I interpreted the Chinese characters related to pregnancy, child delivery, and effortless delivery and studied their cultural meanings. For example, 孕 (pregnancy, conception) in the Oracle bone character represents the fetus in the womb of the mother. Childbirth was very risky, so, people watched (witnessed) the birth process with lot of care and attention. It is presumed that people at that epoch anticipated the approximate period of pregnancy, taking into consideration the fortunetelling outcome of the baby’s birth in the Oracle bone character. In addition, 毓(raising a child) represents the safe circumstances of the child’s birth, the appearance of the mother safely giving birth to a baby whose head was positioned downward, and the condition of the blood and certain other liquids escaping during the delivery. Therefore, in this chapter, I have interpreted Chinese characters related to giving birth and studied their cultural meanings, based on the Oracle bone character and ancient character documents. Chapter 3: In “Marriage and addressing relatives and spouses” I studied the establishment of marriage conventions through Chinese characters and their legends (folklore) and the manner of addressing relatives and spouses recognized by the marriage relation. According to “Gushikao”, “Fuxi established a marriage (convention) contract using deer fur, for the purpose of performing the ceremony celebrating the union between a man and a woman”. In “Fengsutongyi”, it is mentioned that “people respected Nuwa because he had played the role of matchmaker. As a result, the marriage convention was institutionalized.” They called the generation coming before you, “father” or “mother”, your parents’ previous generation “grandfather” or “grandmother”, the same generation “older brother” or “younger brother”, and the male child of the next generation “son”. In this chapter, I have interpreted these Chinese characters literally and analyzed their cultural significance. Chapter 4: In “Education of Children”, I studied Chinese characters concerning the rearing and education of children. For example, 保(protection) in the Oracle bone character signified a child being carried on an adult’s back and later took on a meaning suggestive of all kinds of protection. In addition, the character of “teach” and “learn” in the Oracle bone character complies with 爻 character. Later on, this character evolved and assumed the meaning of卦爻. As a result, some scholars thought that this character take on the form of crossed tree branches for counting numbers. Chapter5: In “Death” I have interpreted Chinese characters related to death and burial customs and studied their cultural significance. For example, 死(death) in the Oracle bone character signifies a person who is kneeling down beside a decaying corpse and hangs his head down in sorrow. Another interpretation of this character indicates a corpse inside a coffin. 微 represents the beating of an old man, who has long hair, with a stick in someone else’ hand. Because the original concept represented the beating of an old man to death, this character evolved to take on the meaning of “being fragile”, “being weak”. Since beating an old man to death was considered very rude, this act had to be done in secret or away from public view. Therefore, this character also has the meaning of “secrecy” “being clandestine”. Chapter 6: In conclusion, I have made an induction based on the cycle of human life as reflected in Chinese characters by integrating the results of various studies on the subject.