≪說文解字≫ 心部 수록자의 의미 분류와 감정 표현 한자 연구

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to classify the meanings of the 263 characters compiled under the radical xin 心 (Heart) of Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字; 大徐本) and extract from them the characters expressing “emotion” from the semantic categorial perspective. The analysis of the annotation (訓釋) for radical 心, the nine characters arranged in the very beginning, including the radical and character xin 心 (Heart), correspond to the conceptual terms related with “heart” based on Confucian ideology. The other characters included are semantically classified into four categories: emotion, personality, cognition, and virtue. The remaining five characters are not classifiable into any of these four. There are 125 characters, or 47%, that express ‘emotion’ in the radical xin 心 (Heart), Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字). These are classified semantically into: worry, sorrow, fear, anger, resentment, joy, love, peace, shame, surprise, and touching. The findings of the study may be summarized as follows: First, according to existing studies, the list of emotion words in contemporary English, Korean and Japanese number about 400 entries, while those in radical xin 心 (Heart) of Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字) number 125. Considering that Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字) contains high frequency Chinese characters in Pre-Qin Period, it seems that in ancient Chinese society the vocabulary for human emotions had a broader spectrum. Second, emotions are generally divided into positive and negative. The order of arrangement of words contained in each radical of Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字) follow the semantic categories, with positive words arranged in the beginning and negative words in the end. In radical xin 心 (Heart), the words for positive emotions (joy, peace and love) are arranged in the beginning, while those for negative emotions (sorrow, worry, fear, and resentment) are concentrated in the end, evidencing that the general rule of arranging characters of Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字) is applied. Third, the Eastern and Western classification of basic emotions are classified into six categories of emotion: joy, sorrow, surprise, fear, aversion and anger. Besides these six, radical xin 心 (Heart) of Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字) can classify five more: “peace, love, shame, worry, and touching.” This semantic classification is reflective of ancient Chinese emotions found in the literature from the Pre-Qin Period.