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國文論 |
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Published on Oct 10, 2012
The purpose of making this video is twofold:
1. To question the commonly-held idea that the vertical text direction of the Chinese script is the result of writing on bamboo strips (竹簡). The reasoning is pretty simple: bamboo strips are human artifacts. Bamboo strips do not exist in nature, although bamboo trees do. To turn bamboo trees into treated strips suitable for writing on and preserving, it was probably a labour-intensive process. The early people in China must first have the intention to write vertically, before they chose to use bamboo as the medium. And bamboo was only one of the several media for Chinese characters. Also, the earliest samples of bamboo strip texts found so far dated only in the Warring States period (5th-3rd century BCE). We make shoes to fit our feet. Our feet have not evolved into their present shape because there are shoes in nature. This is very simple logic, isn't it?
2. To uphold the sustainability of vertical Chinese, right to left. And to ask this question: 中華文化，如何發揚？
From the Gardener, April 2013 |