10 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 
“To look” was light streaming from the eye, thus, ea (now written §1) based 
upon a peculiar notion still held by the Chinese that when blind “no light comes 
out of the eyes” (AR A Ht #). “Large” was a man on another’s shoulders —a 
man above another — (> @>q>X, the last being the modern form). The popular 
idea that £ (“large”) is a “man” (A) above the “average height” (shown by the 
horizontal line) is hardly sustained by the oldest forms. 
Elaborately wrought pictograms were attempted ata very early date, of which 
two examples will suffice as illustrations : 
ey] “pao” (now, #) denotes “valuable,” “precious,” ideas suggested by a 
“house” ( containing “jade beads” or ¥), “shell” and an 
Be) tT); 7 
€$3 
ORR) “earthern jar” Nepertvalog altaya ouay dare nan eine cane! 
pe a a jar : (@), articles of value to Eee man. 
Pie Bs “To cook” was perhaps the most complicated of all the ancient 
Complex 
symbol for 
cooking- original idiogram. It is now pronounced fs’wan and signifies “stove,” 
stove. 
; : HELGE cay 5 : : 
symbols. It is now written 5x" which retains all the elements of the 
R 
and is obsolete, a simpler symbol having taken its place. ‘The analysis 
is as follows: €) from gy and & “ millet-bowl” and “jar”; ( “oven-mouth” ; 
““wood-wood,” 7. é., fuel; €3 “twohands” ; JA “ fire,”’—all the essentials of cooking. 
EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN SYMBOLS. 
From comparison of the earlier and later forms of Chinese ideograms we ascer- 
tain four ways in which the modern style was evolved. 
1. Contraction of early complex forms. 
2. Expansion of early simple forms. 
3. Artificial alteration, to conform to the inflexible system of radicals and 
phonetics. 
4. Mechanical invention of new symbols, along conventional lines, by combin- 
ing existing forms. 
1. Contraction of Karly Complex Forms. 
This process is common to all languages, whether ideographic or alphabetic. 
It grows out of the impatience of writers with unnecessarily complicated signs. 
3% (old form @) nai “also,” “but,” has dwindled to 75. The change was per- 
haps thus, 1 > a> J > db ofa>7s. 
14 This symbol appears with many variations in old inscriptions, sometimes ornately distorted, as Ag, A, gs. 
15 Complex as this symbol is, it is placed among the five hundred and forty primitives in the Shuo Wén and must 
be of great antiquity. 
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