CHAPTER II. OF THE EGYPTIAN OEDIPUS

however, they do not use accent marks of this kind, but grow accustomed to these pronunciations from childhood, as nearly all nations do; nevertheless, their scholars know and teach how any character should be pronounced with its due accent, not only in practice but also in theory Kircher uses the Scholastic terms 'in actu exercito' (in the act itself) and 'in actu signato' (as a formal concept or sign).. They marvel, moreover, that Europeans are able to write their spoken words using Latin letters and represent them so authentically. Since, as we have said, they lack both their own and our alphabet, any of their characters can serve as a first, middle, or last "letter," as each one signifies a specific sound and an entire word. These words indeed have a great variety of meanings; for example, this word y has at least thirty different meanings depending on the diversity of characters and pronunciation. Furthermore, a primary character such as Chùn is pronounced one way in the Mandarin language, another in Japan, and another in different kingdoms, although it always signifies the same thing. Thus, whoever sees this character Archaic Chinese character for "respect" (zun 尊) forms the concept çún, which is the same as "to revere"; and so it is with others. It is for this reason that I said that he who knows one of their languages along with the characters will be able to travel not only through the whole Kingdom of China, but through many others by means of writing. But having proposed these things, it is now time for us to examine the characters of the ancient Chinese.

An explanation of the most ancient Chinese characters.

The ancient Chinese, in the manner of the Egyptians, used various figures of natural things for writing.

The first Emperor of the Chinese invented characters from the figures of serpents.

The primitive Chinese, as I have said, followed the Egyptians from whom they were descended, and conducted their writing not by the composition of letters, but by figures composed of various natural things; to these, as many different signs corresponded as there were concepts of things. The first Emperor of the Chinese, Fohì Fu Xi, a legendary culture hero in Chinese mythology, invented a certain type of character made from serpents and dragons, the use of which is recorded in the Chinese Annals. From this, the book he wrote on Mathematical and Astrological matters is called the "Book of Dragons." We place the form of the characters here, and they are marked with the letters A, B, C, D, and E. These are explained by the modern Chinese characters marked with the number 3: Fohì xìlùm xù, <note original: "Fohì xìlùm xù">伏羲氏龍書 (Fu Xi Shi Long Shu) that is, "The Dragon Book of Fu Xi." You see here serpents wonderfully intertwined and transformed into various shapes according to the diversity of things they signified; although there are few among the Chinese today who have knowledge of them, as they have been lost through extreme antiquity.

A rectangular illustration containing several examples of archaic Chinese script.

Top-left (D) and Top-right (A): Figures composed of winding, serpentine forms resembling dragons.
Middle-left (E) and Middle-right (B): Complex calligraphic forms with serpentine and floral elements.
Bottom-right (C): A large character shaped like a stylized dragon or mythical bird.
Bottom-left (3): A panel containing modern Chinese characters arranged in a grid: 伏羲氏龍書 (Fu Xi Shi Long Shu), which the text translates as "Fu Xi's Dragon Book."

Chinese characters derived from agricultural matters.

The second form of ancient letters is derived and arranged from agricultural matters, which the ancient King of the Chinese named xìm Nûm Shennong, the "Divine Farmer," a mythological ruler of China used in describing matters pertaining to agriculture. The Chinese names marked with the number 4 indicate this clearly: Chum xu xìm Nûm çò, <note original: "Chum xu xìm Nûm çò">神農造穡書 (Shennong zao se shu) that is, "King Shennong made the letters of agriculture"; meaning he used such forms of writing. The form of the characters is...