Abstract
This section looks at the etymological implications of the Chinese pictographic character mei as beautiful. It focuses on the two main aspects: the big-goat image is beautiful with reference to flavor and taste for ancients, and the goat-man image is beautiful with reference to rituality and spirituality in antiquity. As the worship of goat-man hints upon the birth of totemism and the tradition of shamanism, it pertains to two totemic symbols, lóng, and fèng, that have a consistent impact upon Chinese sense of beauty or aesthetic awareness.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Xu Shen, Shuo wen jie zi [The First Chinese Dictionary edited in 121 A.D.] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1963), vol. 4, p. 78. “美, 甘也, 从羊从大。羊在六畜, 主给膳也。美与善同”。
- 2.
It is expressed in Chinese as yang da wei mei (羊大为美). According to the structure of the pictographic character mei (美), it is composed of two separable parts or characters known as yang (羊) and da (大). Yang (羊) as goat is placed in the upper part, and da (大) as big in the lower part. When put together, they make the character mei (美) as beauty or beautiful. As for its English translation “the big-goat image as beauty,” it means two things in the main: the etymological root of the character mei that is made up of goat and big, and the semantic implication of the character mei that is related to the beauty in the big-goat image (i.e. the image of the big goat itself or the big goat roasted for a feast).
- 3.
The formula in Chinese is 羊 + 大 = 美.
- 4.
Zong Bing, “Hua shan shui xu” [Preface to Painting Landscape]. “澄怀味象……夫以应目会心为理者, 类之成巧, 则目亦同应, 心亦俱会。应会感神, 神超理得。” “圣贤暎于绝代, 万趣融其神思。余复何为哉, 畅神而已。神之所畅, 孰有先焉。”.
- 5.
Xueqin Li, Garman Harbottle, Juzhong Zhang & Changsui Wang, “The Earliest Writing Sign Use in the Seventh Millennium BC at Jiahu, Henan Province, China,” in the Antiquity, Mar. 2015.
- 6.
Cf. Jane Ellen Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual (London: Williams & Norgate, 1913), p. 50.
- 7.
Jane Ellen Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual, p. 50.
- 8.
This conjecture is initially proposed by Xiao Bing (1933-) and shared by some others. It is expressed in Chinese as yang ren wei mei (羊人为美), which is an extended explication of the pictographic character mei qua beautiful according to the study of ancient rituals. Structurally, the character mei is composed of two separable parts or characters known as yang (羊) and da (大). Hereby da as big is perceived as the image of a man standing apart with a broad shoulder that appears like a big man (da ren大人). When put together, the character mei as beautiful arises out of the upper part yang (羊) as goat and the lower part ren (人) as man standing apart with a broad shoulder. The English translation “the goat-man image as beauty” denotes two things at large: the etymological root of the character mei that is made up of goat and man, and the semantic implication of the character mei that is pointed to the beauty in the goat-man image (i.e. the image of a big man wearing a goat head as a totemic symbol over his shoulder).
- 9.
The formula in Chinese is 羊 + 人 = 美.
- 10.
Jane E. Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual, pp. 45–46.
- 11.
Jane E. Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual, p. 42.
- 12.
Li Zehou, The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics (trans. Gong Lizeng, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 6.
- 13.
It is cited from a translated quotation from Li Zehou, The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics, p. 7.
- 14.
Ibid. Cf. Shan hai jing [Book of Mountains and Seas]. It is a collection of Chinese legendary stories and myths in antiquity.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wang, K. (2021). The Pictographic Character and Totemism. In: Beauty and Human Existence in Chinese Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1714-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1714-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-1713-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-1714-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)