Chinese characters and way of thinking (汉字与思维)

 Chinese characters and way of thinking (汉字与思维) Chinese language and culture: negative tendency (中国语言的负面倾向) 

Does this look like a greenhouse with a few steps? The actual meaning of this Chinese character is almost completely contrary to what a Westerner might imagine. The character is 寒 (hán), which means ‘cold.’ We can catch a glimpse of the Chinese way of thinking when creating characters by analyzing how the meaning of this character is formed. The bottom two horizontal strokes mean ‘ice’ (冫 or 仌). The outside portion of the upper part is 宀, which means ‘house.’ The four (almost) identical cross-like parts stand for 茻, which means grass (hay) clusters, and the remaining part, among the grass (茻), is a curling man. Now the formation of this character is clear: Outside of the house, it is freezing, and inside the house, a man curling up is in some grass/hay for warmth. The character 寒 therefore means ‘cold.’

Usually, the formation of the meaning of a Chinese character is no more than three-fold. In this example, this character has three elements. The first is ice vs. a house and a man, the second is the house and the man inside, and the third is the man and the grass.

From the perspective of evaluation, the Chinese language is negative overall. Among all the words with evaluative connotation, most being adjectives, there are far more negative ones than positive ones. Chinese idioms (chengyu) are considered formal and refined. However, the ratio of the number of positive idioms to negative ones is 50:1 according to the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, 2005 edition). Additionally, according to 500 Common Chinese Proverbs and Colloquial Expressions, the most common word found in the entries is ‘bù,’ which means ‘not’ or ‘don’t.’ In contrast, in the Fact on File Dictionary of Proverbs, the two most common words are ‘good’ and ‘man.’