Body Movements and the Creation of Early Chinese Hieroglyphs

作者：Zhang Jie; Hu Xiaoming^*

来源：International Journal of the History of Sport, 2014, 31(6): 674-692.

DOI：10.1080/09523367.2013.878499

• anthropology of sport
• cognition
• body movements
• Naxi Dongba hieroglyphs
• case study
• hieroglyphs

This paper explores the relationship between body movements and the formation of Chinese hieroglyphs, with Dongba hieroglyphs as a case study. It finds that the characters with body and organ images as composing parts of their shapes account for a high percentage in oracle bone inscriptions and Dongba hieroglyphs, which indicates that there were lots of body movements in the lives of early people. Body movements are of utmost importance in the life of Naxi people and also in the formation of their writing. These body movements acted as the original paradigms from which the hieroglyphic characters were formed and the symbols of these characters were the expressiveness of these body movements. The empirical demonstration of the mutual comparison process from the body movements to the hieroglyphic verbs showed a whole picture of the process of how body movements were turned into writing symbols. The accomplishment of the process is a product not only of time but also of the development of human beings' cognitive abilities.

• 出版日期2014-4-13
• 单位华南师范大学