Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-03-12
ROMANCE OF AN ALPHABET.
The Development of the kilograms of the
Chinese

Naturally the objects of nature first ex-
erclsed the ingenuity Of the Chinese de-
plctors of ideas. The heavenly bodies
were always before them, and the hero
glyphlcs representing them were among
their first efforts But the slime came
when they were called upon to express on
paper, by means of compound characters.
the various phases of the sun and moon
for example. The drawing of 1.-The sun
above straight line was sufficient to in
dlcate the early dawn, and as it rose high
er above the horizon and shone through
the trees, 1t sug gested an ideogram repro
duclng the scene (the sun shine throughsa
tree) to represent the east. The sun"
and Ito reign" compounded together was
sufficiently descriptive of tine sun bright
ening into full day." The darkness be-
fore dawn was the sun i not vet" As
1t sank toward the west it was shielded
sun, and evening was an escaped sun"
For description of brightness" in the
abstract the services of the moon were
called into play, and the two luminaries
placed side by side, represented very effect
lively the idea
But what about the stars? Their rela-
tive size supported the notion of their
being the offspring of the sun, and so
they were named Born of the Sum-"
Descending to earth, we find that man and
his concerns largely exercised the in
ventlve powers of the eaborators of
kilograms. "a man" and 1.-TWO" stood
for humanity and regard for one another.
"A man S words, were truthful, sincere,
and ''half a man. was a companion, an
idea of fellowship which seems to indi-
cate that, according to Chinese ideas,
perfect man, like happiness, was born a
twin. Etiquette or decorum was 1.-The
righteousness of man." A white man"
was nobleman or chief probably refer
ring to time when the Chinese were
brought into contact with the darker
skinned aboriginal tribes of China,
and valley man" was ule of the COM
mon herd.
"A man s fault was dissipation, as it
often is here as we'll as in China and a
woman's hesitation and uncertainty;
while extravaganza GAS represented by a
symbol slgnifying "a mans excess" and
wantonness ''woman's 1t has to be
admitted that the characters drawn of
women In the kilograms are by no means
always complimentary, which, of course,
must be attributed to complete ignorance
OF the sex ON the part of inventors of
writing. How else can we explain the
facts that compound of 1.-TWO women"
represents strife, and of "three" intrigues?
Or, again, that to respect, to dislike,
should find expression in a character COM
posed of "a woman" plus together
with or that saucy, pert should be rep
resented by a moreover woman" 1t is
curious to note that an ideogram formed
of "a wave" and "a woman" stands for
virago, just as a wave-man, or Ronin, in
Japanese means lawless adventurer.
The idea of beauty among the Chinese
differs as widely from ours as do their
written characters from our a BIC. Not
long since a member of the Chinese Lee
CATION was looking at a Photographic
group of decidedly pretty young English
ladies, and being asked whether he adj
mired them, replied "No, they are diff
cult to look at, difficult to look at. As to
figure, a willow-ike waist, and bending,
yielding form are the objects of the high
est admiration in China, and so a char
acter formed of ports signifying "a
woman" and curved is used to denote
beautiful, lovely, comely. Many meanings
connected with women are associated with
characters which prima facie bear no re-
latlOn to them whatever.