Egyptian Oedipus, Volume 3

CHAPTER II. 12 EGYPTIAN OEDIPUS

Anatomy of the Ancient Chinese Characters.

Examples of ancient Chinese characters.

The Ancient Chinese formed characters from all things.

We have said in the preceding pages that the first Chinese original: "Sinas" took their original characters from all things presented to the sight, and manifested the concepts of their minds only through the various order and arrangement of these assembled things. Hence, when they intended to treat a subject of a fiery nature, they used serpents, asps, and dragons, which—arranged in such and such an order—signified such and such a thing. In describing things of the air, they used the various arrangement of birds; in a subject concerning water, fish; in describing the nature of plants, they used flowers, leaves, and branches; in the stars, they used points or circles, each of which expressed individual stars. In other neutral subjects, they employed wood, spheres, and threads arranged according to a certain law.

But so that these things may appear more clearly, I have thought it necessary to set down here the original characters of the ancient Chinese, so that the curious reader may more clearly see the difference between them and the modern By "modern," Kircher refers to the 17th-century Chinese scripts, such as Clerical or Standard script, provided to him by Jesuit missionaries like Michael Boym. characters, and the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians. For the moderns no longer seem to use figurative characters of that kind, but rather certain strokes of lines; nevertheless, these strokes closely resemble the figurative letters used by the Ancients, as appears in the following figures. In these, letter A imitates the same strokes as the figurative letter B of the ancients. The same will appear in the moderns' letter C compared to the ancients' letter D, as also E to F, and G to H, and I to K. Both of these last two signify a "river" original: "flumen" based on a certain arrangement of fish, which the moderns imitate through letter I, formed from similar strokes.

A comparative illustration displaying five pairs of Chinese characters. Each pair consists of a "modern" script character on top and its supposed "ancient" pictorial origin below.
1. Label A shows a modern script character (resembling 'Seal' script), and label B shows three stylized trees/branches, further marked with the Greek letter β.
2. Label C shows a modern script character, and label D shows four undulating, serpent-like lines, further marked with the Greek letter α.
3. Label E shows a modern script character, and label F shows a celestial star/sun symbol resting on a pedestal, further marked with the Greek letter ζ.
4. Label G shows a modern script character, and label H shows a stylized vessel or tripod stand, further marked with the Greek letters γ and δ.
5. Label I shows a modern script character (representing 'river'), and label K shows several fish swimming vertically, further marked with the letter X.

Therefore, in the same way that the earliest people arranged such figurative characters from the shapes of different animals to manifest their concepts, their descendants exhibited them not with animals, but with certain strokes of lines and points. As has been said, this custom has remained until this very day, as can be seen in the figures proposed just above, A B C D E F G H I K. Where the ancients used branches, leaves, and fish arranged in a certain order, the moderns use certain strokes that are nevertheless similar and, in a way, parallel. But let us return to our purpose.