漢字有意思！跟著劉墉一家趣味玩漢字(中英文對照)二版

每個字都像童話故事 劉墉

Preface：Every word is an enchanted story／Yung Liu

我女兒大學剛畢業就應聘去了北京，很多人驚訝她這個美國土生土長的女孩，有那麼好的中文程度，不但能聽能說能寫，甚至兩岸的繁簡體字和拼音、注音都會，猜我一定下了不少工夫教她。其實她小時候，我不過每週抽出一兩個小時給她上課，可能因為教法不同，所以能事半功倍。

My daughter landed her first job in Beijing straight out of college. People often remark how impressive her Chinese is, considering that she was born and raised in the US. Not only is she fluent in both speaking and writing, but she is equally comfortable with traditional and simplified characters, and knows how to use the pinyin and zhuyin systems. Many think that this must have been the result of countless hours of toil and struggle, but actually it’s been no more than one or two hours of lessons per week since she was a child.

由於我愛藝術、文學，又在美國的大學教「東亞美術概論」，所以我教漢字是從「文字學的藝術」入手。漢字由象形符號發展出來，本來就具有圖畫的性質，像是日、月、水、火、舟、車、蟲、魚，跟圖畫像極了，任何娃娃都一看就懂，何必讓孩子從起步，就認為文字是死板難學的呢？
 
Looking back, I believe the lessons are more efficient because I made character learning as fun as possible. Art and literature are my personal and professional passions, and I used to teach East Asian art studies in an American university, so I have always approached Chinese characters as an art form. Chinese Hanzi characters originated as pictographs, and still retains much of their pictorial past; words such as sun and moon, water and fire, boat and cart, insect and fish, are still just like pictures that can be readily explained to any young child. There is no reason why we should let children think these words are abstract and difficult to learn.

所以我用畫的，長長一條橫線，是地平線，加上圓圓的太陽，是太陽剛冒出地平線的「旦」；尖尖一個屋頂，裡面坐了個女生，是平平安安的「安」。媽媽帶著一個娃娃，多好啊！所以是「好」；一隻手在推，不夠！又來一隻手幫忙，是朋友的「友」……

For example, if you draw a horizontal line representing the horizon, and add a circle on top as a rising sun, what do you think it would mean? The resulting character「旦」means exactly what it looks like: dawn! Or if you draw a pointed rooftop, and add a character for woman（女）under it, the resulting character「安」means“safe”. Put a woman and a child（子）together, and you get「好」, which means“good.” One hand pushing is not enough; add a helping hand, and you get「友」, which means“friend.” Modern words echo the values of the past.

由於文字經過長久地演變，現今使用的漢字，跟甲骨文和大小篆有很多不同。為了讓孩子能看出古人怎麼從觀察自然、創造文字，一步步演進到今天的樣子，我把真實的圖畫、刻寫的「甲骨文」，鑄造銘記的「金文」，秦代統一的「小篆」，方便記錄的「隸書」、文人獨特的「行草」，結構嚴謹的「楷書」，和中國大陸目前使用的「簡體漢字」，一個個排列起來。當孩子知道其中的變化，一方面會覺得有意思，一方面即使看到現今的繁體和簡體字，都能自然想到它們「當初的樣子」，那種追索的過程甚至有偵探和尋寶的趣味。

Still, having evolved through the centuries, modern Chinese characters can be markedly different from its original form. So, each word is presented first as a picture, then in its earliest written form on oracle bone shells, then as it was carved on early bronzeware, later as ‘small seal script’ used in the Qin Dynasty, followed by ‘clerical script’ developed for (obviously) clerical work, ‘cursive script’ used by artists and literati, to the structurally balanced and complex ‘regular script’ and the ‘simplified script’ used in modern China. Arranged in sequence, it allows one to see how ancient Chinese people observed nature, created the words, and how it evolved through time. One can feel like an archeologist or a cryptographer, and knowing how the characters once looked thousands of years ago can certainly add to the appreciation of reading them today.

舉個例子，「采」這個字，上面是「手」，下面是「木」，手在樹上采，意思很明確，形象也簡單，只是後人在左邊又加了「一隻手」，成為後來的「採」。又譬如「本」字，中間直直一根樹幹，上面左右伸出兩根樹枝，下面伸出兩條樹根，在樹根的地方加一小劃，表示「根本」的道理。
 
As another example, the character 采 is a drawing of a hand on a plant, and later another “hand” was added on the left as a radical, forming the character 採, which means “to pick&rdquo