글 (契, Kŭl), 글자 (契字, Kŭl-cha) may sound unfamiliar to many ears. For temporary expediency, we may call it 漢字 (한자, Hanja), 漢文 (한문, Hanmun).
Many people, so many people, whether in academia or not, call 漢文 “written ‘Chinese’ language”, and 漢字 “(traditional) ‘Chinese’ characters” or “‘Chinese’ script”, with the term ‘Chinese’ pronounced as /tʃʌɪˈniːz/.
But this is NOT right, and should be corrected.
The very pronunciation /tʃʌɪˈniːz/, or /ˈtʃʌɪnə/ (for ‘China’) for that matter, itself is historically NOT correct, but this is another huge story that concerns the foundational identity of the so-called ‘China’ as a modern state and will be discussed in another post later.
In this post, we will discuss why 呼吸, 出入/出納, 射, 西, 內外 are examples of characters written in 한자 (漢字), ideograms that constitute any writings that may be called 한문 (漢文), and should NOT be designated as ‘Chinese’ characters, in the sense that the writing system (漢文) is something of which ‘Chinese’ people, citizens of the People’s Republic of ‘China’ (or those of the Republic of ‘China’ (Taiwan)), can somehow claim their proprietorship.
The current PRC or Taiwanese populations and their ancestors CANNOT be the proprietors of the characters 漢字 (한자) and the writing system 漢文 (한문). (Here, “their ancestors” refer to those from whom they inherited the pronunciations of 漢字 and the way to read the writings, 漢文.)
How so?
Let us first look at what 鄭麟趾 (정린지), one of the scholar-officials who, under the initiative of King Sejong (世宗, 세종), participated in creating an alphabet of 28 letters (正音二十八字, 정음이십팔자) for the people of Chosŏn (朝鮮) [訓民正音, 훈민정음, Hun-min-jeong-eum, literally meaning “Correct (正, 정) Sounds (音, 음) for the Instruction (訓, 훈) of the People (民, 민)”], which was invented in the twelfth lunar month of 1443, wrote in the preface of 訓民正音 解例. The preface starts with the following phrases:
有天地自然之聲 則必有天地自然之文 所以古人因聲制字 以通萬物之情 以載三才之道 而後世不能易也…[1]
“If there are natural sounds of heaven and earth, there must be natural script of heaven and earth. This is why the ancients made script based on sound to communicate the feelings of all things and to carry the way of the three bases [天地人三才], which cannot be changed in future generations.”
Here 因聲制字以通萬物之情 means that the phonograms ((訓民)正音) that carry the sounds of heaven and earth (天地自然之聲) have been created such that the sound of each character correctly corresponds to the meaning of it.
Just a couple of examples, as above, should suffice.
In 呼吸, 呼, 호 (ho) in 正音, is the character to mean “exhale” (breathe out), and 吸, 흡 (hŭp) in 正音, means “inhale” (breathe in). So, for the Chosŏn people, and for all the Corean people, of both north and south and those residing overseas, and for all others who can pronounce the sounds of the characters according to the Correct Sounds 正音, breathing out and breathing in perfectly correspond to 호 (呼) and 흡 (吸). When Coreans pronounce 호흡, each character matches mouth opening to give forth and mouth closing to draw in air, respectively.
In contrast, following the PRC pronunciation, 呼吸 becomes “hū-xī”, with both sounds giving forth air, and thus the meaning (breathing in) and sound (mouth opening to give forth) do not match for 吸. It does not comply with the principle of 因聲制字 (script based on sound, or sound based on meaning).
Same for 出入/出納. For Corean 正音, the character 出 (출, ch’ul), which means “come out”, gives forth air when pronounced while 入 (입, ip), meaning “enter”, or 納 (납, nap), meaning “let in”, draws air in with a closed mouth, same as 吸. In ‘Chinese’ pronunciation, 出入 is “chū-rù”, 出納 “chū-nà”. For 入 and 納, it does not lead to a closed mouth, against the meaning of either character.
Someone might say that it is because the modern ‘Chinese’ spoken language, except some regional dialects, does not have 入聲, syllables that end with consonants “[p̚], [t̚], [k̚]”.
What, then, about 射 (사, sa)? When shooting an arrow, the corresponding sound of the character to describe it should be of going forward. But “shè” in ‘Chinese’ sound does not quite match such a meaning. 東 (동, dong) should sound like when the sun comes out over the horizon, whereas 西 (서, sŏ) should have a feeling of the sun going down or in, but “xī” does not sound like the sun disappearing below the horizon. Similarly, 內 (내, nae) and 外 (외, oe), should sound like going in and coming out, respectively. Pronuncations of “nèi” and “wài” do not naturally convey such feelings.
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Now, we should ask whether 漢字, 漢文 are the proper appellations for the characters and the writing system. This is an important question to be re-examined.
The ancients used to call it 契, 契字. 契, originally 㓞, refers to characters that constituted the inscriptions on the oracle bones (甲骨文) of more than three thousand years ago. The character 㓞 itself means inscribing with a sharpened edge. According to 反切 (반절), a set of methods to indicate the pronunciation of a 契字 (漢字) by using pronunciations of two other 契字 (漢字), 㓞 (契) is pronounced as 글: 契 欺訖切 (기흘절).[2] 欺訖切 (기흘절) means ㄱ (of 欺 (기)) + ㅡㄹ (of 訖 (흘)) = 글. The current ‘Chinese’ pronunciation of 契, qì, cannot correspond to 反切, and neither does Japanese pronunciation of it.
Only following the Correct Sounds, 正音, which the Corean people have inherited, can 契 be pronounced correctly as 글. No other language on earth calls the whole set of ideograms of more than three thousand years ago 契, 契字. No other language on earth has the whole set of phonograms, 正音, that almost perfectly fits the written language in their sounds. No other language on earth has this combination of 契字 (글자) and 正音 (정음). Just like the ancients who inscribed the characters on oracle bones, Coreans today call the characters of their writing system 글 (契, Kŭl), 글자 (契字, Kŭl-cha). Many Coreans do not seem to realize that 글자 (契字) is the prototype of 漢字, not the phonetic letters they use now. Nonetheless, they still call their script “글”. When they realize that they have two kinds of scripts, more specifically, two different yet perfectly complementing writing systems of 契字 (글자) and 正音 (정음), all things will start to make sense.
契字 had become more and more systematized to be later called 漢字. The term 漢字 or 漢文 can be unnecessarily confusing because of the character 漢, whose meaning is not inherently related to the characters. 契字 should be the better appellation than 漢字, which in turn has been incorrectly called “/tʃʌɪˈniːz/ characters.” (Article 3 of the 1876 agreement between Li Dynasty Chosŏn (李氏朝鮮) and Japan [修好條規] calls the writing system 眞文, not 漢文.)
As shown above with the examples and 契 欺訖切, the proprietors of 契字 (漢字) should be those who use 正音, which in its pure form perfectly serves as the correct pronunciation system for 契, 契字.
It is not /tʃʌɪˈniːz/.
It is 글 (契), 글자 (契字).
[1] 訓民正音 解例 鄭麟趾 序
[2] 康熙字典, 大部, 六