Chinese - Language of God?
Few days ago, reader Cindy emailed me about World Bible School in Cedar Park, Texas, and its claim about Chinese language.
http://www.wbschool.org/chinesecharacters.htm
(Several readers have pointed out that the background used in World Bible School's presentation on Chinese is indeed a distinctively Japanese woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎, an Edo period Japanese artist, painter, wood engraver and ukiyo-e maker.)
According to its website, the Chinese believed in God and knew about all the stories in the bible. Matters of fact, many Chinese characters, if not all, were derived from actual events and stories in the Holy Bible.
I have seen some of World Bible School’s broadcasts on Christian Broadcasting Network before, and personally I don’t believe their claims.
The examples they presented on their website are too vague and could be interpreted in different ways, perhaps the Chinese characters they have picked were just lucky coincidences.
Following the same logic demonstrated in some of the examples shown in World Bible School’s site, the best example I can think of is the Chinese character, 呆.
呆 could be broken down into three parts.
The top part 口 is “mouth”, and it could also be interpreted as “speaking” or “talking”, perhaps even “praying”.
Below 口 is 十, which clearly it is a cross. The cross has a very strong significance in Christian religion, since Jesus Christ was crucified on it.
On top of the cross is 人, it is one of the very basic Chinese characters that represents “person”.
According to Christian Bible, the last thing Jesus Christ did when he was nailed to the wooden cross was asking for forgiveness of all mankind.
Clearly, the character 呆 represents the situation of a 人 (person) on a 十 (the cross) and 口 (praying).
Who else would it be none other than Jesus Christ?
If Chinese was truly “Language of God”, then why does 呆 mean “stupid” and “dull-minded”?
World Bible School may have good intentions, but their practice lacks solid evidences to prove Chinese as “Language of God”. Perhaps, what they have done was just another gimmick to get more church membership.
On a related note, there was an article in Los Angeles Times about a month ago titled “Bedrock of a Faith Is Jolted” (100 KB pdf file), which DNA tests contradict Mormon scripture. Critics want the church to admit its mistake and apologize to millions of Native Americans it converted.
Update 1: March 10, 2006 - I have emailed World Bible School about this, so far I have not received any response from them.
Update 2: March 11, 2006 - Out of curiosity, I have entered World Bible School’s site about Chinese characters into Secure Computing’s SmartFilter URL Checker. To my surprise, World Bible School is classified as “phishing” and “criminal skills”.
"Phishing" is a form of criminal activity using social engineering techniques, characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message.
Update 3: March 11, 2006 - Amida has an interesting story (35 KB pdf file) from Kentucky Herald-Leader, where a former missionary had a problem with the Japanese language:
Gulick said that Francis Xavier, the famous 16th-century Catholic missionary, "said that the Japanese language was a particular invention of the devil to prevent the understanding of the gospel, and that is true." In Japanese, "there is no definite future, so you say, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you might be saved (instead of shall be saved.) It's a problem." (more)
The verdict:
Chinese = Language of God
Japanese = Language of Satan
But Japanese language was heavily influenced by Chinese, does that mean Satan wasn't so bad until God's influence?
Damn the peer pressure!
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
http://www.wbschool.org/chinesecharacters.htm
(Several readers have pointed out that the background used in World Bible School's presentation on Chinese is indeed a distinctively Japanese woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎, an Edo period Japanese artist, painter, wood engraver and ukiyo-e maker.)
According to its website, the Chinese believed in God and knew about all the stories in the bible. Matters of fact, many Chinese characters, if not all, were derived from actual events and stories in the Holy Bible.
I have seen some of World Bible School’s broadcasts on Christian Broadcasting Network before, and personally I don’t believe their claims.
The examples they presented on their website are too vague and could be interpreted in different ways, perhaps the Chinese characters they have picked were just lucky coincidences.
Following the same logic demonstrated in some of the examples shown in World Bible School’s site, the best example I can think of is the Chinese character, 呆.
呆 could be broken down into three parts.
The top part 口 is “mouth”, and it could also be interpreted as “speaking” or “talking”, perhaps even “praying”.
Below 口 is 十, which clearly it is a cross. The cross has a very strong significance in Christian religion, since Jesus Christ was crucified on it.
On top of the cross is 人, it is one of the very basic Chinese characters that represents “person”.
According to Christian Bible, the last thing Jesus Christ did when he was nailed to the wooden cross was asking for forgiveness of all mankind.
Clearly, the character 呆 represents the situation of a 人 (person) on a 十 (the cross) and 口 (praying).
Who else would it be none other than Jesus Christ?
If Chinese was truly “Language of God”, then why does 呆 mean “stupid” and “dull-minded”?
World Bible School may have good intentions, but their practice lacks solid evidences to prove Chinese as “Language of God”. Perhaps, what they have done was just another gimmick to get more church membership.
On a related note, there was an article in Los Angeles Times about a month ago titled “Bedrock of a Faith Is Jolted” (100 KB pdf file), which DNA tests contradict Mormon scripture. Critics want the church to admit its mistake and apologize to millions of Native Americans it converted.
Update 1: March 10, 2006 - I have emailed World Bible School about this, so far I have not received any response from them.
Update 2: March 11, 2006 - Out of curiosity, I have entered World Bible School’s site about Chinese characters into Secure Computing’s SmartFilter URL Checker. To my surprise, World Bible School is classified as “phishing” and “criminal skills”.
"Phishing" is a form of criminal activity using social engineering techniques, characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message.
Update 3: March 11, 2006 - Amida has an interesting story (35 KB pdf file) from Kentucky Herald-Leader, where a former missionary had a problem with the Japanese language:
Gulick said that Francis Xavier, the famous 16th-century Catholic missionary, "said that the Japanese language was a particular invention of the devil to prevent the understanding of the gospel, and that is true." In Japanese, "there is no definite future, so you say, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you might be saved (instead of shall be saved.) It's a problem." (more)
The verdict:
Chinese = Language of God
Japanese = Language of Satan
But Japanese language was heavily influenced by Chinese, does that mean Satan wasn't so bad until God's influence?
Damn the peer pressure!
T-shirts Giveaway sponsored by Hanzismatter and Jlist.com
posted by tian at
10:42 PM
39 Comments:
I notice that the site likes to use 口 (or at least the same simple square shape) for everything from 'talk' to 'man' to 'enclosed garden'...
I can't really buy that :P
These missionary-types are just looking for a conveniant way to justify imposing their religion onto people who already have a religion (and a socity built upon that religion) by claiming "common ancestry" in any way they can. Compared to the alternative, "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO HELL IF YOU DON'T DO THIS!!1!!11"-attitude, I'd take the pseudo-philosophy any day of the week. At my mother's Korean church, they have a similar but less-far fetched reason as to why Allmighty God inexplicably ignored the majority of the world's population by saying that Buddhist teachings and Christian laws are the same or similar or something like that -- and thus they were all Christians all along, but didn't know it.
Whatever makes you feel good . . . I guess.
I think your logic was a lot more well-founded than the site was, Tian. "Person" on a "cross"? That's actually brilliant! I can't believe they didn't come up with that already... too bad it means "stupid" :)
"Before Buddha, the Chinese people worshipped the same God described in the Bible! The proof is in the ancient Chinese characters!"
...actually the proof is in the background of your animation...look carefully...isn't that the famous (and distinctly JAPANESE) woodblock print by Hokusai???
And I'm gonna believe THESE people about the origins of ancient Chinese characters?
I think the message is meant for the white people, not the Chinese, as most of them living in the Bible Belt don't know anything outside the English-speaking world.
I didn't know that character is composed of 口 人 and 十. I thought it should be 口 and 木, can you explain this?
If 呆 is broken down into 口 and 木, and then it can also be interpreted as “[someone] is praying on a wooden structure.”
Take a wild guess.
Ding ding ding, it is Jesus Christ.
That's the first thing I noticed, actually, was that their background on China was the "In the well of the great wave" print by Japanese artist Hokusai. Just cements their knowledge of China, doesn't it.
I like how you can take any subject and turn it into an argument to prove your religion. How about those Japanese people in some country town who believe that Jesus escaped across Asia and died in Japan?
Thank god I'm an atheist.
This clears up so much. I was in a Bible study last fall at my mom's church that had a Chinese instructor (he had left Shanghai at least 30 years ago and had been teaching Bible courses in MN ever since). When he found out that I was just back from China myself, he started going on about "biblical meanings of Chinese characters." He showed me the 我 + 羊 = 義 bit and told a long story about becoming the sheep and righteousness. He pulled in the characters in class a number of times to the delight of the wide-eyed Scandinavian-American audience. I left wondering what he'd been smoking, but clearly this is the source. I'd agree that the intended audience for this is middle Americans, not Chinese.
I'm a believer myself, but the 'Language of God' thing strikes me more as a party trick and less as any kind of proof of ancient Chinese Christianity.
I just wanted to point out this cool website I found today: http://www.thebricktestament.com/
In response to the site, actually, Cuniform is the oldest known written language. Cuniform came from ancient Mesopotamia and the fertile crescent, which is now modern day Middle East
There's a few books out with the same ideas in them. The one that I've always been recommended since I started studying Japanese has been The Discovery of Genesis by C.H. Kang and Ethel R. Nelson. Every single person who recommended the book to me was very religious and believed every word in the book, even the two or three who were studying Japanese and Chinese. Ethel R. Nelson also has a second book out on the subject, and she's not the only one with such books.
Your use of logic is flawed. The character you show means exactly a mouth on top of a tree. That doesn't mean anything for Jesus. It is not at all like the examples given. True there is doubt that they have a relationship because the script has changed over time. But your example is vauge and doesn't seem at all on par with what the book suggests. This could be a guy with a mouthful of wood, implying dull. To say that the characters don't symbolize anything is pretty uneducated. But the true comparison should be with the older characters.
To the last anon:
In World Bible School's site, they used 口 to describe "mouth", "man", and "enclosed garden".
Many of their examples are broken down into multiple parts that usually are not done in Chinese.
Therefore, why can't 呆 to be three parts of 口, 十, 人 instead of 口 and 木?
Even if 呆 is broken down into 口 and 木, then it can also be interpreted as “[someone] is praying on a wooden structure.”
Could that be Jesus Christ?
Maybe or maybe not, that really depend on what people chose to believe.
If you suggest my logic is flawed, that does not necessarily mean World Bible School's claim is corret.
It is purely based on how people would interpret them and what they choose to believe.
I, for one, do not believe the connection between Christian Bible and Chinese characters. I am sure there are many would agree with me.
Tian, you're being much too forgiving. What the hell is "12:21AM Anonymous" talking about anyway?
Forgetting the fact that the majority of Chinese characters have parts that don't symbolize anything ANYWAY, who ever said they symbolize NOTHING? If Tian's example is nothing like the site ('book'?), then it's because it's better formulated than those used in the site. The point, dear 12:21AM Anyonumous, is not that they symbolize NOTHING, but that they can symbolize ANYTHING with a little wishful thinking. But that doesn't make it historically accurate. We all know that "tree" doesn't mean Jesus and never has, but if you were to explain it to a devout Christian with no knowledge of Chinese, I'm sure he would accept it. Faith can be a powerful enemy of truth.
Andrew
The claim that Japanese cannot make an emphatic claim about future events is completely false and shows and utter lack of understanding of Japanese. You can easily state that something will definitely happen in the future as long as certain conditions are fulfilled. This is basic Japanese grammar.
Tian,
The site claims the characters were all developed before Buddha (and hence Jesus), so the bit about Jesus is irrelevant.
I think the better way to attack the site is on their entymology. They claim qian1 (to migrate) is made up of da4 (big) + fen1 (maybe they meant fen? division) + xi1 (West) + the radical for movement (sorry, I don't know the names for radicals). Checking outside sources, it seems as if the various components of the character used to be something else, and were adapted into xi, da, etc.
I'm not an expert on Chinese entymology (hell, I suck at speaking Chinese entirely), but I think that approach would be a more valid counterargument.
tian, you obviously can't use anything as deep as satire here.
but when the satire is religion, you have to anticipate that people are going to be more sensitive to whatever you put there. they shouldn't have made chinese out to be the language of God though...anyone who's studied it extensively knows that can't be true.
They got some of the meanings and characters wrong, and either way their reasoning is heavily flawed, but I do love reading this kind of stuff, it's very creative :-) And it makes for great mnemonics!
I've had Christian friends talk about the character for "mei3" (beauty) this way: they say that the beauty it represents is really the greatness (da4, the bottom half) of the lamb (yang2, top half). I was never clear on what this was supposed to mean: that the formation of the Chinese language, a thousand-odd years BC, was supposed to have been guided by Christian beliefs? Dunno...
UPDATE
After the checking of the site through SmartFilter URL Checker, I saw that they'd had it changed from Phishing/criminal to Politics/Religion. Good thing you've captured that. You can find it yourself by checking once again.
I find it difficult to believe that Francis Xavier said that about Japanese. He learned Japanese and thus would certainly know that you can have future tense in it, and it doesn't jibe with his published laudatory comments about the Japanese people. In a Google search, the only references to him calling Japanese a "devil language" had no sources, and one page merely said it was "attributed to Francis Xavier."
One page has a copy of one of his 1552 letters. A relevant quote: "One language is spoken throughout, not very difficult to learn." I can understand why this was a relief to Francis Xavier, after all, he had experience in India, which like China has many many dialects and languages.
As a soon-to-be Catholic convert, I can only say that the original claim of Chinese being the language of God is just as embarrasing as the schismatics of the SSPX who claim that Latin is the language of the angels.
Hi, I'm a Taiwanese, and Chinese is my native language. Seeing this article really make me laugh. As a adjective, the character 呆 in Chinese means stupid, dumb. Following their logic, does that mean Jesus is a stupid person? Or Jesus' suffering on the cross is a stupid thing? That's really funny. And of course I won't buy it.
omg
after giving these guys credit for being so creative, i need to give tian credit for being even more creative! I like how the parody you used completely butchers the word for wood/tree like the site does with some words. And then your comback for prayer on a wooden structure was classic!
anyway, i can't believe the amount of people here who don't see that tian's example was just a joke as well :p
ShakaUVM, entymology is the study of insects btw, and not word history. pretty smart of you to point out that tian's example pointing to jesus makes it irrelevant to the site's claim, but what about the fact that the site is a christian site, and that the site talks about only about stuff before jesus anyway? also, chinese characters weren't created all in one go like christians believe the world was. new characters were created over time as well. Also, consider the fact that these "theories" use modern chinese characters and not the original forms?
and then what about the fact that some chinese characters have changed in meaning over time as well? the site itself makes a flaw in that it uses the word "xi" or west, to mean west. well, it does mean west in modern chinese, but it's well known that this character was borrowed from the word for "bird's nest" to mean west. No-one knows why, but it was. Just like the word for scorpion has changed to mean myriad.
I mean the use of pie (slash) in places where it's obviously part of another character seems really dubious to me. and to make it mean life? omg!
it's so funny, i remember seeing another site by some preacher who used these ideas as well. i think they were the same characters too. and he posted some email correspondence he had with a chinese guy who protested that the "theories" were all wrong. I can't remember the preacher's replies but it was evident that he knew nothing about chinese characters himself.
Well, 呆 could also mean waiting; or to protect... perhaps we could fit it into this website after all^^
But, seriously, these claims are as old as Christian missonaries' attempts in China. Matteo Ricci tried to prove already that the Chinese believed in God (Shangdi) once, and some English gentleman of the 16th century wrote a letter to the king, if I remember rightly, arguing Chinese was invented by God himself and given to Adam:)
I was just really surprised these arguments are still around!
呆 is an old version of 子 which means child. It depicts a child wrapped in a blanket, the 口 being the head and 木 being the body (wrapped in a blanket). The character is first found on the earliest of Chinese inscriptions; the oracle bones which dates back from the Shang dynasty 1600–1100 B.C. It's seen here as a part of 保 (a child [呆] carried on the back of a person [亻]) which means to protect.
I don't know, maybe this means the bible derives from the oracle bones...
Very open minded comments left by everyone, well done! As I just returned from China, and have studied the characters, let me help you out a wee bit.
1.Perhaps World Bible did in fact mix it up, but many other scholars do make the same claims, and they hold up, even in ancient versions of Chinese characters.
2.Tian, characters can be broken down into radicals, (parts) Example? The radical in the word "good" is woman and man put together.
3.Its not an invention for white bible belters, who are sitting around wide eyed, clutching their shotguns and raising their children to hate anyone else. Many Chinese understand the idea that their characters are based off of ancient things, God, the flood, etc.
And last, but not least...
4. The fact that the background is Japanese, and not Chinese can be a simple error, and not necessarily grounds for ridicule. Heaven forbid you ever make a slide that had a picture of a river in Canada when you were talking about the US. Quite honestly, if that is your biggest problem with WBS, it shows how weak your argument truly is. So how about instead, you investigate the claims, rather than all gather together to mock Christianity. Here's hoping some valid sleuthing takes place... Cheers!
And one more thing... can an atheist thank God, or use His name as a swear word? I mean, why not Buddha, or Joseph Smith, or Allah? Mmm...
Well, obviously somebody hasn't been reading the Bible enough. ;-)
Of course 呆 is Jesus. As Paul said, "but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles" (I Corinthians 1:23). You being Gentiles (that is, non-Christian and non-Jew), Christ crucified (which is what you say it portrays) is a folly (or "foolish", as per the definition @ http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=5446). He he.
Of course, I'm not swallowing whole the idea that Chinese might be God's script of choice, but I wouldn't exactly discard the possibility either. :-)
I checked out the site you mentioned for URL filtering, and WBS does not come up as "criminal" or "phishing," but as religion/politics/ideology. Perhaps it was changed in response to your post.
Here's something else to chew on: http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/magazines/tj/docs/tjv13n1chinese_lamb.pdf
This site is awesome. I'd just like to comment on this post because it cracks me up.
A few years ago, we were actually forced to do an assignment on this website at my (religious) school. The sad part was, it wasn't even for our Religious Education subject...it was for Chinese. Our Chinese teacher is, of course, religious as well. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to really dissect any of the "meanings", just reaffirm what the site had said or we failed the assignment. Of course, at that stage I wasn't as knowledgeable at Chinese and so couldn't see the flaws. Thanks, I'm showing this site to that teacher first chance I get :-)
Comments for Jen and Shaka UVM.
--To shakaUVM (6:45pm)
As Nereus pointed out, entymology is the study of insects. Bugger!*ETYMOLOGY*--minus the "N" is the study of origings of words.
--To Jen (5:48pm)who has "just returned from China and studied the characters," a "wee bit of help" back to you in referrence to your comments:
1. Jen said, "many other scholars do make the same claims, and they hold up, even in ancient versions of Chinese characters."--
They "hold up"? That's a bit vague. How do they hold up? What evidence are these scholars proposing? I think the whole point many commenters are making here is that interpreting characters is very subjective--it's like a Rorsach (sp?)test...you know the ink-blot psychological evaluations? you can make alot of things "hold up," in the absence of more historical evidence. What's the evidence? some sources?
2. Jen said, "The radical in the word "good" is woman and man put together."
--i think you mean "woman" and "child"...
3. Jen said, "Its not an invention for white bible belters, who are sitting around wide eyed, clutching their shotguns and raising their children to hate anyone else."
--ummm, mmmmkay?
4a. Jen said, "So how about instead, you investigate the claims, rather than all gather together to mock Christianity. Here's hoping some valid sleuthing takes place."
--I'm not sure that people are mocking "Christianity" per se, but rather, they are mocking the idiotic Christians that make sweeping unfounded generalizations for recruitment purposes/validation of their religion.
4b. "And one more thing... can an atheist thank God, or use His name as a swear word? I mean, why not Buddha, or Joseph Smith, or Allah? Mmm... "
--ummmm...wha?
TTM, Well said!
I just have a few things to say.
1) I am a Chinese. I know my roots. I am also a Christian who enjoys being loved by Jesus. ;)
2) I agree with many of you here that we should not made sweeping statements about Chinese language being the language of God. Personally, I feel Hebrew is the original Language with its pictorial representations and meanings which is similar to how Chinese characters are. Then again, this is my opinion and I am entitled to it.
3) All these talks about whether the whatever a particular christian site is accurate or otherwise, to me, is good but serve no purpose.
As believers or not, we should not go to any other source like a website or even the chinese language, for this matter, to look for the truth.
For Christians who want to find truth and meaning in their life, return to the Bible, the living Word. We read our Word to know more about our beloved Jesus.
As you read, you will realise that the Chinese characters, usually the ancient words and original meanings do tell the story of the coming sacrificial lamb Jesus (just like the old testament which tells us all about the fall of man, God's redemption plan for us all cos He loves us, the sacrificial lamb Jesus and the abundant life Jesus has given to us at the Cross- basically about Jesus).
Without reading your own Word, how are you able to know about the living God who came to die for you so that you have an abundant life in Him?
So don't read the Chinese Characters or otherwise to find Jesus to try to get others to see Jesus there.
It serves an interesting discussion among believers but it will serve no purpose or edification if a Chinese who does not know the bible and yet go about finding Jesus or some scriptural truths in the Chinese characters.
I see Jesus in my Chinese language in a beautiful way which serves to edify me and not as a means to evangelise to others who may not be interested. As you read your Word, the Holy Spirit will, at times, drops gems in your spirit by giving you revelation of the scriptures illuminated by the Chinese Character.
Shalom to all.
Tian, it is certainly free for you to use one word to disprove the wbs website but Chinese characters or nitpick what they said. I think they are polite enough to put question mark at their claims. But if you know chinese, you do know a lot of chinese characters do follow some patterns. e.g. most the God's related words has the same left hand side(sorry I did not know how to type here in chinese). That is the same as the 'instruction' they show under the two tree in ancient form. Now I am not sure how can you interpret it in anything. How can 'instruction' below 'two tree' mean 'forbidden' or a 'woman' under 'two tree' mean 'greedy'. Or have you check the 'woman' in Oracle bone looks just like an eye looks at a standing woman.
I am not to say chinese characters as language of God. But as a Christian myself, I did not look at it blindly. Just a Jen said, you can look at one word to disapprove it but I would rather look at so many 'coincidences' can mean God's general revelation. The word 'elder brother' vs 'murder' that have exact same pronunciation in manderin(some dialects may sound only similar) and with a 'X' certainly is very interesting to me.
Also not just chinese characters, if you look at the earliest chinese history, there were some stuff that I were never undertood clearly until I read the OT. Like the earliest kings they hand over power not to son but to noble, the king 'Da U' spend 13 years to cure the flood. the 'red pepper' on the side of the door to hide from the beast.
My point is some words may not make sense to you in the presentation but use 'one' word to disaprove the whole 'coincidences' is more flaw then the website. Also again chinese character certainly formed by observation of the image or composition of the multiple characters. As you observed, some may not make total sense now but there are still a lot did make sense.
Couldn't stop laughing after I read your example of Jesus on the cross! Its flawed though of course because that character was created BEFORE Jesus died on the cross, but still funny as hell and shows their logic put to use!
BUT, a few people here don't understand Chinese enough to comment on whats going on.
For example, the word for mouth (kou), is also used to symbolise man, and 'talk' in ancient and modern China. The enlosure symbol simply means enclosure/enclosed, NOT enclosed garden (unless it has the garden part inside it). But yes, that character can and is used for all those things.
Also, ancient egyptian was around BEFORE ancient chinese writing. Both are pictorial/hyroglyphic writing. Moses who wrote a lot of the bible was adopted by the king of egypt AFTER chinese language had developed. China HAS pyramids, and mummified kings just like egypt. China uses characters/pictures in their writing just like egypt, some of the characters are actually the SAME in both languages (sun/moon/month/day/mountain, etc) I think that around the time the first ('step') pyramid was built (~5000 years ago), some egyptians migrated to china, bringing all sorts of twisted stories with them. Those stories were passed down and influenced the characters. Those stories were passed down in parallel with the egyptians and out comes moses who writes them all down.
I think this kind of material (dare I say, propaganda?) is meant to reassure the faithful rather than argue a point to others. This argument most certainly will not win convince at *least* 1/6th of the world's population.
I looked over some of his arguments and feel that it was really created to satisfy middle america and the bible belt. Many of the associations are interesting but not solid enough to convince me, such as the ones about "east" and "want."
They also use "er" as "man" though I feel it should mean "son."
Maybe I'm wrong about some of the interpretations but I don't think "ko" can be used as the word "garden"
he also does not take into account the changes that hanzi has gone through since its inception as jiaguwen.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home