Chen Dongdong, associate professor of the School of History and Culture of Central China Normal University, was a guest at "Interview". Photo by Xiao Kaishun.
Yangtze River ** reporter Chen Jingru intern Gong Roujia.
Recently, the "2024 Spring Festival Gala" of **Radio and Television Station has attracted much attention. The theme of this Spring Festival Gala is "Dragon Travel, Xinxin Family and Country". What does the word "龘龘" mean?What's the meaning behind the literal?Chen Dongdong, associate professor of the School of History and Culture of Central China Normal University, was a guest of "Interview" to interpret the word "龘" in the literature.
Reporter: What is the record of the character "龘" in China's earliest literature?How is it documented?What does it mean?
Chen Dongdong: It is generally believed that this character is the earliest recorded in China's first regular script dictionary, the Jade Chapter of King Gu Ye of Liang in the Southern Dynasty. "Jade Chapter: Dragon Department": "Lu, the dragon travels." "Describe the way the dragon flies.
Reporter: What has evolved since then, and where has the word "龘" been used?
Chen Dongdong: Speaking of the evolution of the character 龘, in fact, this character is a variant of the character 龖, which appeared earlier, and its origin can be traced back to the ancient oracle bone inscription. China's first dictionary "Shuowen Jie Zi" included the small seal glyph of "龖", and also interpreted it as "dragon flying appearance", that is, the appearance of dragon Feiteng. Later, the Kangxi Dictionary included two forms: "龖" and "龘". The Liao Dynasty's "Dragon Shrine Hand Mirror" believes that "龖" and "龘" are all dragon flying appearances. In addition to the dragon line, there is also the meaning of the two dragons, the Northern Zhou Wei Yuansong "Yuan Ming Bao Jing Mengyang": "Earthquake, Gong Zhihe, Thunder." Su Yuanming biography: "The Hehe of the Gong, the anger of the two dragons." There is also the righteousness of shock, Ming Wei School: "The two dragons are flying, the spirit is prosperous, and those who see it are angry." ”
Reporter: Is there a difference between "龘龘" and "龘"?
Chen Dongdong: The use of two words together is actually the so-called rhetorical technique of overlapping words. In the Dream of Red Mansions, Lin Daiyu thinks that the rhetorical effect of Tao Yuanming's "Returning to the Garden and Pastoral Home" is "ambiguous and distant village, and smoke in the ruins" is "light and ready-made", and if the ambiguous and Yiyi are broken down into single words, there is obviously no such effect. Specific to the Lang, since there is a sense of momentum of Welling Shenghe, the superposition of the Lang Lang can more highlight the feeling of large number and majesty, which is not something that can be replaced by a single word.
Reporter: Is there any interesting allusion to this word?Why did it become the theme of this year's Spring Festival Gala?How to understand?
Chen Dongdong: Actually, this word is not widely used, and there are not many interesting allusions. After the "Jade Chapter", only a few classics such as Liao's "Dragon Shrine Hand Mirror" were used. The first hexagram in "Zhou Yi", the Qiangua, is related to the dragon and the flight of the dragon. In the Qiangua, the Ninety-Five Diagram is considered to be the most auspicious. "I Ching: Qiangua": "Ninety-five, the flying dragon is in the sky, and it is beneficial to see the lord." It means that the dragon flew into the sky, which means that when it is time to make great progress, it is conducive to the appearance of nobles. In ancient China, the description of the emperor as the "Ninety-Five Honor" originated here. At the same time, there is a sentence in the Qiangua of the Book of Changes, "With nine, see the dragons without a head, auspicious". It is also linked to "dragon's flight" and "auspiciousness". The use of the Spring Festival Gala mainly considers that the Chinese are the descendants of the dragon, and the image of the dragons flying lively and mighty can better set off the auspicious signs of the prosperity of the "Xinxin Family Country".
Reporter: There are also rare characters similar to "龘", such as 垚 (yáo), 壵 (zhuàng), 瞐 (mò), 馫 (xīn), 飝 (fēi), 犇 (bēn), 骉 (biāo), 鱻 (xiān), 羴 (shān), etc., why did the ancients have a "stacked arhat" style of word creation? Was it first in the Oracle period?
Chen Dongdong: This so-called stacked Arhat wording method is actually a combination of pictographs in pictographs, and they are not necessarily all rare characters. This kind of word-making method exists in the oracle bone inscription, and the common characters are forest and sen, that is, there are corresponding glyphs of the oracle bone inscription.
For example, the variant characters of the above-mentioned 龘 are found in the oracle bone inscription, the Yao character is found in the Han Dynasty's "Shuowen Jie Zi", and the word is from the Yuan Dynasty's "Tibetan Scripture Word Meaning", which appeared relatively later. In ancient China, especially during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Yuan Dynasty, variant characters were popular. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, although the society was in turmoil, various calligraphy styles developed intersectingly, and variant characters also developed; The cultural policy of the Yuan Dynasty was relatively relaxed, and the development of multiculturalism also promoted the popularity of variant characters.
Reporter: In today's society, overlapping words seem to have been given a new meaning, such as "people follow the herd......"Reflecting the large number of people, what do you think of this phenomenon?
Chen Dongdong: This reflects that in the era of the Internet, especially mobile phones, many people are accustomed to looking at the text on the screen and reading Chinese characters visually, while relatively ignoring their phonetics and grammatical norms. It can be understood, but it is difficult to understand when read, and the grammatical structure of subject-verb-object is incomplete. This practice is secretly in line with the original meaning of these combined pictographs, and some netizens like it, which is a very interesting phenomenon.
Reporter: We live in the digital age, and the cultural wave of rare characters set off by the character "龘" will inspire us to rethink the value of rare characters in Chinese characters?
Chen Dongdong: Rare characters such as "龘" do have special cultural significance in the special context of the Year of the Dragon, which can stimulate people's interest in learning rare Chinese characters. Of course, as a modern person, it is good to be able to read and write 3,000 common words. The vast majority of students majoring in literature and history may not be able to read and write all the traditional characters attached to the Xinhua Dictionary. And the rare word "龘" was originally a late word of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and it was not particularly popular in ancient times. It is okay to cultivate it as a hobby, but for ordinary people, there is no need to learn immediately and systematically, and it is good to leave it to professional workers.