苍颉造字传说的源流考辨及其真相推测

我们剥除有关苍颉造字传说的层累堆积,论证《荀子》记述之苍颉造字不可能早于尧舜时代。我们认为,“刑名从商”是指象形字及形声字等必须遵从商文字,否定将其释为刑法之名从商;苍颉文字不是原始社会漫长而分散的符号创作的累积,而是一个或几个天才人物为殷朝政治需要而独创的一个文字系统;苍颉文字就是殷商文字,故也就是汉字的始祖。我们考证“苍颉”为殷始祖契的别名,“契”与“颉”本为同音异写,“苍颉”亦即“商契”。我们否定胡适等对《荀子》文字的“约定俗成”的误解。其实书契的本义就是王者制定之国法大约。

On Cangjie and the origin of Chinese characters

This article illustrates five important things. First, it tries to prove that it is impossible for Chinese characters to be invented, by Cangjie as told in Xunzi, as early as the era of Yao and Shun. Second, it interprets the true meaning of ‘Xing ming cong shang’, which means that Chinese characters must model after the characters of the Shang dynasty, denying the misunderstanding of ‘Xing ming cong shang’ as “the laws of that time must base themselves on the Shang dynastic laws.” Third, it shows that ‘Cangjie’ characters are not gradually invented by peoples in primitive societies, but is invented by some talents in order to deal with the political affairs of the Shang Dynasty. In view of this, ‘Canjie’ characters are also Shang characters which are the ancestors of Chinese characters. Fourth, it states that the Jie in ‘Cangjie’ is the other form of ‘Qi’ who is the forefather of Shang. ‘Qi’ and ‘Jie’ share the same pronunciation though written in different characters. Fifth, it pins up the original meaning of ‘Shuqi’, which means the constitutional law established by the kings, denying the misunderstanding of “yue ding su cheng” in Xunzi by Hushi and other experts.