Chapter 32 Section 8: Splitting Characters and Political Struggles

Now that we know that most Chinese characters are combined characters composed of different parts, it is not difficult to understand the opposite aspect of the matter: that is, Chinese characters are decomposable, and the parts decomposed are often single characters with meaning .Chinese people are very good at using this feature of Chinese characters. For example, Chinese characters have many homonyms, and the same is true for surnames. When Chinese people ask about their surnames, they often use the decomposition method of Chinese characters.For example, those surnamed Zhang often call themselves "Gong Chang Zhang" or "Li Zao Zhang"; those surnamed Xu or Xu often call themselves "Shuang Ren Xu" or "Yan Wu Xu", because the pronunciation of these two characters is too close.

The decomposability of Chinese characters has caused some special social phenomena with a mysterious atmosphere in Chinese history, and these phenomena are often associated with political struggles at the top.For example, at the beginning of the 1st century AD, Wang Mang of the Western Han Dynasty usurped the power of the emperor surnamed Liu and established a "new" dynasty. Fearing political instability, he said that the word "Liu (Liu)" was "Maojindao", which consisted of three characters. , So he forbade the common people to use "Gangmao" (a kind of ornament made of gold jade or peach wood to ward off evil spirits), and he was not allowed to continue to circulate a currency called "Golden Knife".Of course, this ridiculously superstitious behavior didn't save him from his swift failure.At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the 2nd century AD, Emperor Xian Liu Xie came to the throne. It is said that a nursery rhyme began to spread in Luoyang, Kyoto: "Thousand li grass, He Qingqing; ten days divination, no birth." " is the wording of the word "grass" when it is used as the upper part of the character), and "Ten Ri Bu" together is "Zhuo".It seems that the political public opinion at that time had already determined that Dong Zhuo, the great warlord who supported Liu Xie to power, would die of cruelty.According to the description of the classical novel popular in China, Dong Zhuo was later killed by his godson Lu Bu, and because of his obesity, the angry people set fire to his navel and burned him for several days after his death.There were often some similar political prophecies in subsequent dynasties. For example, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty was surnamed Li, and there was a saying that "eighteen sons rule the world".Most of these are word games pre-prepared by politicians or shamans, using the decomposability of Chinese characters.

The decomposability of Chinese characters has even led to the emergence of a specialized profession in China - Kaizi, which belongs to the category of divination.People who engage in this kind of occupation are called "Mr. Kaizi".Their method is usually to ask the person who seeks divination to write a character at will, and then decompose the character (it can also be combined with other characters) to tell a reason to predict the future of the person who seeks divination.For example, the imperial examination is a major event in the life of Chinese intellectuals after the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Before the examination, they were ordinary people. If they pass the examination, they are called "middle", and they have the possibility of becoming an official.Therefore, many people inevitably go to divination before taking the exam.There is a story that two scholars went to divination together.One of them first wrote a character "Chuan" and showed it to Mr. Caizi. Mr. Caizi thought that "Chuan" can be decomposed into two characters "Zhong". levels and stages, and sometimes there can be more than one level exam in a year).At this time, another scholar also wanted to get a few compliments, and wrote the same word "string".Unexpectedly, Mr. Kaizi raised his face and said: "Not only will you not be able to go to high school, but you will also be in danger." He hurriedly asked the reason and replied: "The gentleman just wrote the word 'string' by accident, and you wrote it on purpose. , which means 'heart'. 'Chuan' has 'heart' under it, and it becomes the word for 'suffering', which means disaster will happen." It seems that Mr. Caizi's prediction of good and bad luck can also be combined with psychological factors.

Even the imperial palace believed in this kind of splitting.According to the book "Gu Jin Tan Gai" written by Feng Menglong in the Ming Dynasty, in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty in the 12th century, there was a Mr. Xie Shizi Runfu, a man named Xie Shizi Runfu, who came to the capital Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) from his hometown of Chengdu, Sichuan, because he was a representative of the royal family and the court. The minister tested the word several times and it was very effective, which is quite famous.But unfortunately, he gradually got involved in the political struggle of the upper class. At that time, the prime minister was Qin Hui, who had killed the national hero Yue Fei.One year at the beginning of spring, someone from the royal family asked this Mr. Xie to test a character for "spring". He said, "Qin's head is too heavy, and the sun is dark." Both have "(chun character goes to day)", so the head of "chun" is also the head of "Qin" character, which is pressed on the "day", and "day" is the sun, which refers to the emperor in ancient China.Xie Runfu was dissatisfied with Qin Hui's good governance, and thought that the emperor's power had been left behind, so he made an excuse.This matter was immediately discovered by Qin Hui's subordinates, and Xie was framed to death soon after.

my country has been under feudal autocracy for a long time, and "literary inquisition" often occurred in the past dynasties.The so-called literary inquisition refers to political cases caused by the use of language and characters for writing, and some of them are triggered by the decomposability of Chinese characters.The most famous one is the Cha Si (si 4) court case during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty (1723-1735 A.D.).Zha Siting was originally an examiner in Jiangxi Province, and once asked candidates to write a stereotyped essay on a test question called "Wei Min Zhi Zhi".The test question is an ancient poem from "Book of Songs Shang Song Xuan Niao".It is one of the "Four Books and Five Classics" in the feudal era, and it should be very safe to get the test questions from there.Unexpectedly, someone reported that "Wei and Zhi" had lost their heads to "Yongzheng".So Emperor Yongzheng was furious and arrested Zha Siting and imprisoned him on the charge of "rebellion and immorality", and his wife and children were sent to the army as slaves.Zha Siting died tragically in prison, and was slaughtered after his death.Because he was from Zhejiang, Emperor Yongzheng also ordered to suspend the imperial examinations in the province for several years, and even the scholars in his hometown were unlucky.