Thomas Hosuck Kang, Ph. D.
University of Maryland
1. Introduction
The history of the relations between Korea and China had been so close that they seemed to be one and the same. On the contrary, the writing systems between the two nations lately have been a zigzagger. All other relations are still very close but as far as their writing systems are concerned, majority of the Koreans want to be Chinese-blind[漢盲] independent from China. As a result, at the First International Conference on East Asian Calligraphy Education, the exhibit of the Korean calligraphic works in the pure Hangul without Chinese characters gave an impression of an orphan in the Square Writing Civilization[四角字文明].
This paper is intended to stress the importance to develop a new calligraphic style as a communication tool by integrating Korean and Chinese writings, in order to unite all the nations in the Square Writing Civilization, and contribute to the world peace. The history shows Korea have been trying to be a part of the Square Writing Civilization especially in the writing system as the communicational ties between the two nations. In order to improve that relations between them, it is in order to trace the historical background of the development of the integration of the both writing systems. Korea began to search to bridge the two cultures between Korea and China since the 7th century devising various writings until the 15th century when the Hangul was finally created, which was the most scientific device to let the Korean syllables in the very heart of the Chinese square writing. The Square Writing Civilization of all the nations requires not only the integration of the Korean and Chinese writings but also that of the Japanese and Chinese writings. This integration of writings between two nations a solution of the globalization of communication in the whole world. In the middle of clashes between the Christian and Islamic civilizations for 14 hundred years without a bright prospect, the Square Writing Civilization may offer through the calligraphic media a global communication toward the world peace and its survival.
II. Cultural Communication to Prevent the Clash of Civilizations
A. Communication through languages among Civilizations
Samuel P. Huntington in his masterpiece, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, analyzing in detail the three world civilizations, Western Christian, Middle East Islamic, Sinic(Confucian), warned that in the emerging era, clashes of civilizations are the greatest threat to the world peace, and international order based on civilizations is the surest safeguard against world war.[Huntington, p.321] Pope John Paul II appealed to the world to reconcile among different religions, also stressed the interfaith through his apology for the mistakes made 1000 years ago. However, Mr. Bush started a war beginning with crusade against jihad and changing to terrorism and confessed it is not easy to win but declared to fight until winning without showing bright prospect in near future. Here is a good suggestion by Lester Pearson, saying, it is the time that different civilizations have to learn to live side by side in peaceful interchange, learning from each other, studying each other’s history and ideas and art and culture, mutually enriching each others’ lives.[Pearson, p. 83-84] It may be easy to say in abstract but difficult in reality
In other words, the surest safeguard is the communication among civilizations. In order to achieve it, we need to give a new definition to the term of the civilization in a concrete form not in a abstract one. The civilizations can be a described in their languages and recorded in the writing systems. Three major language writing systems involved here can be described as the European languages in R-rectangle writing from left to right horizontally, the Arabic languages in L-rectangle writing from right to left horizontally, and the Sinitic language writing in a square shape. In order to discover the peaceful communication among these civilizations it is important to analyze and understand the contents of the records of the civilizations for that purpose. The best model can be demonstrated by the Sinic civilization.
. III. Globalization of the Communication for the World Peace
Since this aspect is very important problem from the point of Sinic
First of all, Confucius expressed in a word, Hongdao[弘道] meaning that he wanted to go overseas to propagate his Dao wherever it was not prevailed yet. This term does not mean in a small scale to go to teach his way of life in the neighborhood, but somewhere in a global scale. We can image that he wanted to go overseas by a raft. In order to realize his global scale of his mission, he perfectly set up the three uniform principles [San tong, 三同] in the most comprehensive and scientific way. What were the three uniform principles? They were the universal transportation[Tong gui, 同軌], a common language[Tong wen, 同文] and the intimate human relationships[Tong lun, 同倫].They can be explained in detail in the following.
A. The uniform transportation: Society should have uniform transportation system, like roads, tracks, messengers, birds, arrow, fire, trails, rivers, seas, [now, rails, airplane, wire, wireless, etc.] . Any of these means has to be uniform from one place to another and continues endlessly throughout the states, to the end of the world.
B. The uniform language: Society needs the uniform language, e. g. symbols like yin[-, 0] and yang[+, 1] first introduced in the Book of Changes, and an international language like the English today. The Yijing symbols, yin and yang were brought by a mystical tortoise along the Huang River in the ancient China. It might be intended to find God’s mind, to know his intention and to communicate with him. Confucius was the first one to pay attention for its importance. When the principles of the Book of Changes was reported to Europe at the end of 16th century, Leibnitz was deeply impressed by the scientific thinking of the ancient Chinese, and he immediately applied it to the binary mathematics and produced the numbers from 0 to 7, which are now the computer language. It is difficult to decide the exact period when the Sinic civilization began to be recorded in the Chinese writing system. The first Chinese writing , so-called Shang[or Yin] writing was discovered incised on the plastrons or under-shells of tortoises, the scapulae or shoulder bones of cattle, and other flattish bones. In the Anyang sites, 2000 characters among 17,800 on the oracle bones have been found. Anyway in China, the origin of the Chinese writings had been magical, religious, and mysterious values. Uniqueness of this Chinese writing is that each character has three elements; image, meaning, and sound condensed in an unseparable single mass.
Among many records in this Chinese writing system the earliest and most
comprehensive collection of the thought of one school is the Confucian Classics. : The Four Books is in 56,611 Chinese characters and The Five Canons, in 183,623, and all of them contains 240,234 characters in total. Many terms we are using in our daily life today come mostly from them. For reference, it can be quoted from the most comprehensive Chinese –Japanese dictionary [大漢和辭典] which contains 1,800.000 Chinese words[single Chinese characters 600,000 and 1,200,000 compound words.] It is unbelievable to compare with 450,000 words in single and compound contained in Webster’s Third New Dictionary.
C. The uniform human behavior in the relationships
Finally, this is the most important among the three uniform principles of
communication, According to Confucius, human beings who are mutually related by nature can not live alone, but live in some organizations like home, community, society ,etc. He stressed especially the horizontal and mutual relationships as propriety [shu. 恕] but not vertical or hierarchical relationships. Thus he wanted to moralize the politics against the ruling the people by the people. He invented the globalization of the communication and pronounced his mission to disseminate Dao across overseas by a raft. It is his missionary principle of the Hongdao[弘道], by which he wanted to globalize his ‘teaching’ of believing system [tian, 天] and behaving system [li, 禮] throughout the world. He by himself declared that he was a prophet, saying, ”At fifty I got Heaven’s Mission, or Mandate.” [Lun-yu, II:4] Thus whenever he faced the crises of life and death, he referred Heaven without exception. However, nobody listened him. Being disappointed, he finally declared, saying, ”I am not going to talk from now.” Than he said, as if he was a god, “Does Heaven speak? The four seasons pursue their courses, and all things are continually being produced, but does Heaven say anything?” [L,XVII:19]
After his death, when a few of his disciples compiled the Lun –yu, they quoted in the very beginning of the book their Master’s words as saying, “Is it not present to learn and practice sharing with others?” Confucius taught them too many things to learn during his life time. However, nobody knew what he meant in this special teaching. It was a mystery. Of course. Everybody can easily presume the essence of their Master’s teaching. It is “The humanity or love [ren, 仁] is the root of all the virtues.” [Lun-yu, I:6] He differentiated the inside and the outside of the house. The filial piety to parents is limited to the inside of the house. Society outside the house is open wide so that all are related with brothers and sisters. In his ideal society all the houses are open without doors. We can also find his specific ‘Teaching’ in the Zhong-Yong, as saying, “What Heaven has ordained is called the Heavenly Nature. The union with the Heavenly Nature is called Dao. The cultivation of Dao is called the ‘TEACHING’[It may be called religion.” Why the greatest scientific idea of the ‘globalization of communication’ was wiped out from the Chinese history? If Confucius’s this answer to ‘what teaching to learn’[I:6] was brought out immediately after [I:l] in the very beginning of the Lun-yu, this world perhaps have been entirely different from today.
D. China misguided by Confucius’s followers :
It was unfortunate that Confucius’s disciples who compiled the Lun-yu
misinterpreted his TEACHING and completely reversed the Master’s intention, and took an opposite direction for 2,500 years in the name of the Rujiao[儒敎].
1. Cengzi [Ceng San], disciple of Confucius, forget the Xiojing and misquoted Confucius words, saying, “The filial piety is the root of all virtue. Our bodies, to every hair and bit of skin, are received by us from our parents, and we must not presume to injure or wound them. This is the beginning of filial piety. When we have established our character by the practice of the filial course, so as to make our name famous in future ages, and thereby glorify our parents. This is the end of filial piety…Even think of your ancestor, cultivating your virtue.”….
2. Youzi, another disciple of Confucius, provided the first clear-cut answer directely to his teacher’s ambiguous expression: ‘What teaching to learn’, saying “They are few who, being filial and fraternal, are fond of offending against their superiors. There have been none who, not liking to offend against their superiors, have been fond of stirring up confusion. The superior man bends his attention to what is radical. That being established, all practical courses naturally grow up. Filial piety and fraternal submission! – are they not the root of all benevolent actions?” [I:2] This means, “Filial :piety to parent is the root of all the virtues”. This was also contradict to his Master’s teaching, “The ren, humanity and love is ‘root of all virtue,’” in the open society, all are brothers and sisters in horizontal relations ruled by the propriety [shu, 恕]. Youzi’s quotation formulated the contents of the Rujio in the opposite direction to his Master.. First, the house is closed and not opened to outside. Second, the ancestors and parents in the house are the rulers of its members. Third, the relations elder-younger brothers are vertically up-down. In the words, it is a family oriented religious society.
3. Cengzi, when he was seriously ill, once more demonstrated the model behavior of the filial sons to his disciples, saying,” Uncover my feet, uncover my hands. It is said in the Book of Poetry, ‘We should be apprehensive and cautious, as if on the brink of a deep gulf, as if treading on thin ice,’ and so have I been. Now and hereafter, I know my escape from all injury to my person. O Ye, my little children .” [VIII:3]
This tradition has been succeeded later by Zhu Xi. He was the greatest Rujia [儒家], and completed the so-called Neo-Confucianism. He compiled the Elementary Learning[小學], a kind of Catechism which molded Confucian personality behaving in the same way without a slightest variation. He enforced the civil service examinations with his commentaries of the Confucian Classics, which deprived the creative power from the brilliant young people. He also compiled the Family Rituals which guided the Rujia how to live and serve the deceased ancestors. This long tradition has built an everlasting closed family society in China. According to Lin Yutang, there are three Great Walls in China, that is, the Chinese writing system, Chinese mind, Chin Shihuangdi’s Great Wall which protected the Chinese families, and closed Chinese society to the rest of the world. In such a way, the Chinese became family-oriented individualists without nationalism as Sun Wen described the Chinese are as quicksand. Thus, twenty-five dynasties came and gone but they were careless until 1940s when the Communists rooted up the root of the Chinese families. .
IV. The Square Writing Civilization[四角字文明] in the Making
The Chinese writing system alone could not make the Square Writing
Civilization. In the preceding section, the northern tribes, so-called the barbarians consistently invaded China and tried to join the Chinese civilization by imitating the Chinese writing systems, but in the end they failed and disappeared. Consequently, there were only three neighbors which had tried to join the Chinese civilization by adopting seriously the Chinese writing system. However, Korea was failed , only Japan, and Vietnam were successful.
[Pictures]
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A. The Korean Connection with the Chinese Classics
The Chinese classics can be defined here as the classical Chinese writing
system, not spoken Chinese. That has been called ‘Hanmun’ in Korea and ‘Kanggaku, or Kangbun’ in Japan.
Korea very next to China was perhaps the first country tried to understand the Chinese classics. It was the 7th century. The early Koreans knew only the Chinese classics, because they did not know any other languages. Therefore, first of all, they had to discover how to read the Chinese characters in the Korean syllables, However, it was impossible to write the Chinese sounds in the Korean, because there was no Korean writing system yet. Thus the only solution to it was that the Koreans developed her own writings[syllables] with the Chinese characters. Another difficulty was difference between the Chinese grammar and that of the Korean, which had an inflect. In the late seventh century, a system of using Chinese characters for phonetic purposes was developed as an aid to recording the appropriate inflectional endings necessary for rendering Chinese texts into Korean. This system was called idu and first used by a famous Confucian scholar, Sol Chong. There was another system called hyangchal which was similar but different to each other. The former is to help understand the Chinese classics better. But the latter was helpful to understand the Korean better, and used as the beginning of a Korean native writing system to transcribe Korean names and native songs, nevertheless, gradually disappeared after the Hangul was created. The idu had been used very long to understand the Chinese classics and partially it turned to kukyol to Koreanize the Chinese classics. Most of Confucian scholars became the experts of the Chinese classics. All writings and documents, official or private, in Korea were written in the Chinese classic style. They made even the prayers with the Chinese classics in the memorial services for their ancestors who did not know the Chinese classics at all.
B. The Japanese Connection to the Chinese Classics.
The Japanese connection to the Chinese classics was a little later than
the Korean. However, Japan made much faster in developing her own writing system. Because the Japanese language had only 50 syllables comparing with the Korean which had hundreds of syllables. The way of the Japanese understanding the Chinese classics was entirely different from that of the Korean. Above all, the approach of the Japanese to understand the Chinese classics was different that of the Korean. The Japanese began to start to learn the Chinese classics in the beginning of the 8th century. First of all, the Japanese scholars invented three syllabic writing systems, katakana[syllabary] which was made of parts of the printed Chinese characters, and hiragana[syllabary] which was made of the simplified cursive writings of the Chinese characters, and finally the manyogana [syllabary] which was made of the phonetics and meanings of the Chinese characters. Secondly, the Japanese understood the Chinese classics by reading them in the Japanese grammatical order. Both in reading as well as in writing the Japanese sentences of the Chinese classics ended with the inflect form. In other words, the reading of the Chinese classics were transformed into Japanese language except integrating the Chinese characters with the Japanese. In short, the Japanese wrote the Japanese integrating with the Chinese characters in their own writing as they do today. In fact, the Chinese writing system was completely Japanized
V. The Creation of the Hangul [訓民正音] by King Sejong[世宗]
The Dark Age between the fall of the Koryo and the rise of the Yi Dynasty began in 1392. General Yi Son-gye usurped the Koryo throne and inaugurated in 1392 by burning alive 72 loyalists to the Koryo who lived in a village mourned the new dynasty instead of celebrating, but suffering from the guilty complex, he escaped into a Buddhist temple to become a true Buddhist giving up the name, power and everything. When he died, his son King Taejong consulted with the Confucian officers what kind of ritual to use for the deceased King, they highly recommended to use The Manual of Rituals of Zhu Xi. The opposing Buddhists told King Taejong to reject it because it was for the commoners but not for the King. Thus Taejong was so much upset that as a retaliatory measure he propagated a strict law against Confucians who should divide the house structure into two parts, so that men live in the outer room, and women in the inner room. Specifically during three years of morning period for their dead parents, no men were allowed to sleep with their wife.
Confucians also began to retaliate against Buddhists including the royal family members. At that time, all the Koreans were totally Buddhists, who had practiced Buddhism as a monolithic national religion for several hundred years. The Confucian government forced to close almost all Buddhist temples, and no Buddhist monks were allowed to enter the capital city, especially in the palace where the royal Buddhists lived. In this Buddhist society all the people’s whole life was entirely depended on the Buddha’s mouthpieces who could read the Buddhist scripts in the Chinese and gave them sermons in the Korean vernacular.
It was the transitional period between Buddhism and Confucianism. The former had not gone away from the people’s minds, the latter did not arrive yet. It was a Dark Age. The Buddhist followers wanted to hear, but nothing to hear, wanted to see but see nothing, they wanted to talk but none to talk with. Can you imagine? Their mind was completely blank. Nobody told them where they came from and where to go. Among those people King Sejong was the only person, who had mastered Confucian benevolence through the Confucian classics and had also deeply experienced the merciful heart of Buddha. He had suffered from the people’s blind world. He wanted to find a key which could open up the door for the light to help the people. After all sorts of hardships and privations, he finally discovered the solution: to invent a new writhing system in the Korean.
King Sejong was looking at the historical records around him, but nothing
but those of China. After the fall of the greatest dynasty of the Tang, China was
disintegrated. The Khitan invaded into China, but it was conquered by Liao.
Next the Xi Xia(Tanguit) moved into northern part of China and stayed about 200
years and disappeared. The Churched (Jin, or Nuzhen) and others moved in
out one after another. They had tried one thing in common culturally. That was
was to create their own writing systems unsuccessfully. They were very similar
to the Chinese writing, but much more complicated than the Chinese characters.
These writing systems were not much helped King Sejong’s
desire, but made him disappointed. At last it was the Mongol to attract King
Sejong’s attention. It began to invade China partially in 1222 and conquered it completely in 1279. The ruler of the Mongol realized the previous invaders had failed in assimilating themselves to the Chinese culture and failed. Therefore, it was the Mongol ruler’s ambition to protect themselves from the Chinese culture. They used the bilingual system of the Uighur’s alphabet and the Chinese, then invented in 1269, a new alphabets system, ‘Phags-pa’ imitating the Tibetan alphabets which was based on Sanskrit. The reason was the the Mongols who were very nationalistic was afraid of losing their own identity among the Chinese people. However, their new writing system disappeared with the fall of the Mongol.
Through the observation of the unstable historical environment in many barbarian writings systems, King Sejong had learned many things. First, King Sejong got the definite idea of the possibility of creating a new writing system. So he decided to create a new writing system for the Korean people. Second, what kind model he could use was his next step for his creation of the Korean writing system. The Japanese nana system was out of question as mentioned before, because the Korean syllables are too many. What about to make a Korean Chinese character system? He realized that there were so many unsuccessful precedents, and the Korean also belonged to the same category.
Third, he wanted to create Korean alphabet system imitating the Chinese old seals writing, or the Mongol’s ‘Phags-pa’ system. For him the latter was much more scientific. However, he was afraid of Chinese authorities and pro-Chinese critics of Korean Confucians, so he did not make any reference to the ‘Phags-pa’ and let them forge the origin of the Hangul to be the old Chinese seals writing . Fourth, however, King Sejong could not hide his nationalistic mind for his motivation of creating the Hangul. Thus he declared his love of the Korean people saying, “Since the Korean language is different from the Chinse, the people cannot communicate each other with the Chinese characters. Therefore I feel pity for them, I create 28 letters and let the people study and use it in their daily life.” That is the Hunminjeongeum [訓民正音]. Fifth, If the Hangul as an alphabet could be written from left to right horizontally, or from the top to bottom vertically just like ‘Phags-pa’ system. Then it would be doomed to fail without a link with the Chinese writing. Sixth, here is the true gifted discovery of King Sejong. His brilliant idea hit unconsciously the shape of the Chinese characters, so that the Hangul should be matched to the shape of the Chinese writing. How? The shape of the Chinese characters were made of strokes, why those strokes could be replaced with the Korean alphabets. It was great!. It really worked. However, neither he nor others noticed the shape of the Chinese characters were of ‘square’. In other words, there was no concept of the ‘square’ in his mind. Anyway he arranged the Hangul to fit to the shape of the Chinese characters so that the Korean alphabets were fit to the Chinese syllables and also to the Korean syllables, for example, 國家[nation in the Chinese] 국가[ㄱ ㅜ ㄱ , ㄱ ㅏ, nation in the Korean]. Finally, King Se-jong had used the Chinese characters integrated with the Hangul to improve each other scientifically.
This writer have discovered, for the first time, the new concept of the “SQUARE’ in the Oriental writings. Here I can claim that I have discovered the Chinese characters are ‘square’. The Japanese syllabary are also square. Now the Hangul is also organized into square syllabary system. I could define that the Chinese writing, Korean writing, the Japanese writing, and Vietnamese writing all make “Square Writing ,” which I have named it inclusively as “The Square Writing Civilization” King Sejong was a great discoverer of the Korean Hangul to fit to the Chinese writing system and at the same time to fit to the Korean syllabary and also to fit the Square Writing Civilization. In such a way the Hangul , Korean writing was created by King Sejong.
VI. The Gungche[宮體] Independent of the Chinese Writing.
The use of the Hangul gradually integrated with the Chinese characters in the Korean writing as King Se-jong intended in spite of the opposition of the Korean scholars of the Chinese classics. The forms or the writing styles of the integration of the Hangul and the Chinese characters varied from person to person, nevertheless, they were very close to the original style of the Hungminjeongeum. We can name them simply as the ‘Korean-Chinese writing’[國漢文].
A. The Origin of the Gungche.
After 1622, when the Qing [Manchu] occupied China, a new writing style of the Hangul began to appear, which was not only pure in the Korean without the Chinese characters, but also the writing style was entirely different from that of the Hunminjeongeum . It has been called the ‘Gungche [宮體]’, or ‘Palace Style’. First, its first example was the Prince Pongnim’s letters to his family in the Royal Palace in Seoul, Korea, whom the Qing government had held as a hostage in Shenyang, China for 8 years long[1627-35]. The Qing used the diplomatic documents to the Korean government in three languages, Chinese, Mongolian, and Manchu side by side. The Prince knew very well the Chinese writing, but never used it in his letters to his family in Seoul. His writing style of the Hangul in his letters was very similar to the Mongolian and Machu. One of the best authority, Yi Sung-nyeong, professor of the Seoul University insisted its origin as the ‘Chinese old seal style’ [Yi Sung-nyeong]. However, this writer rejected his theory and have proved it as the Mongol and Manchu writings origin, which definitely had influenced on the Prince’s Hangul writing.[Kang] and also from his 8 years long life among the Qing officials.
B, The Korean Documents to the Qing copied by Women.
In the Korean court all the diplomatic documents to the Qing in the Mongol and Manchu writings were copied by court women, while those in Chinese parts were by court men. So it was natural to say that the form of the Hangul writing was gradually influenced by them while copying and imitating the Mogol/and Manchu writings. Thus the Gungche[宮體], the new Hangul form without the Chinese characters rapidly spread among all the court women and became a creative art by palace women. And it spread among the women in Confucian families and also among general women in Korean society. The Gungche writing was very pretty and artistic, but did not have strict grammatical rules. The women wrote with the brush in black ink from the top to the bottom vertically just as they spoke without any punctuations.
C. Integration of the Korean and Chinese under Japanese Rule.
Under the Japanese rule, the Koreans restored the Hangul-Chinese writing system in general use throughout their daily life. In education from the elementary to higher education the students learned the Korean-Chinese writing and the Japanese-Chinese writing as well. During World War II, the Japanese prohibited the use of Korean language and forced Korean students to use the Japanese language with the Japanese-Chinese writing. Thus the young Koreans began to lose their mother tongue. In such a fall of Korean culture, who cared about the Gungche, and only a few curious Korean calligraphers remembered it as a traditional calligraphic art. .
D. The Cultural Crisis in Korea in 1945.
On August 15, 1945, Korea was emancipated from Japan and became independent. The Koreans hated the Japanese militaristic strict rules. They went back their original cultural pattern: Everybody wanted act at own pleasure. The worst problem was the shortage of the teachers who knew Korean languages. The government began to train teachers for the elementary to higher education. The most active organization was the Korean LanguageAssociation which recruited the young people to teach them the basic Korean Hangul.. Those teachers were able to read the Chinese characters in the Japanese not in the Korean. They complained too busy to teach the Chinese characters which is too difficult to teach.
Those young students after a short training started to work in the offices in the government and private companies but could not handle the official documents which were all in the Chinese. The first government by President Rhee in 1948 proclaimed all the official documents in the Hangul without the Chinese characters. Thus no students in the school made efforts to learn the Chinese characters and became the ‘Chinese-Blind’. During 1970s President Pak was anxious to unite the two Koreas. In order to achieve the unification goal, both Koreas have to use a common Hangul without the Chinese characters. He was pressed to adopt the law for the sole Hangul use. Everybody was comfortable with the pure Hangul in every aspect of daily life
E. The Korean Calligraphy in the Global Civilization:
It was in 1998 when the Korean calligraphers joined to globalize the Koran calligraphy in the First Chinese Calligraphy International Conference at the University of Maryland which was initiated by Professor Chin Tsung for the first time in the history. Many calligraphers participated from China, Japan, Korea and many throughout the world. The exhibition was divided into three parts, Chinese, Japanese, and Korea. The Chinese and Japanese parts were attracted by many different viewers, eastern and western, but the Korean part was only Korean viewers. I was disappointed and realized that in order to globalize, it must include the Chinese characters other people understand. It is impossible to globalize thing which are not universal value. I have decided to develop a new form of the Korean calligraphy of the Hangul and the Chinese and Japanese characters.
퍄ㅑVII. Conclusion: Prospect
In this conclusion, it can bring out two positive prospects for the Square Writing Civilization which can contribute the world peace though its globalization of communication. First, in the rapidly changing prospect of the future of the languages in the world Writing Civilizations, the Chinese writing and speaking is no longer considered strange. Second, the misconception of the Square writing, especially the Chinese writing is too difficult to promote to one of international languages to learn. Quite the contrary, the Chinese writing and speaking among others, the easy one to learn. In these aspects, the Chinese themselves have to change their traditional closed mind and open wide to the world and advocate these prospects.
A. New Prospect of the Chinese language: There are some new observations made by David Graddol, a British linguist appearing in the recent journal Science. [Graddol, 2329]. He said the “world’s language system has reached a point of crisis and is now rapidly restructuring.” Chinese has today the largest number of native speakers with 1.1 billion native speakers, while English is second with 374 million. He speculated that English may be still the essential language for the world in the 21st century. However, the population of the native languages will be drastically changed. The percentage of the world’s population of English as the native tongue will decline steeply over the next 50 years in 2050, Chinese will drastically lead the list of the native languages of the world. So Graddol advises that a baby born today anywhere in the world should learn English. However, for a baby born of English-speaking parents to learn another language, Chinese would be a good choice. This advice should not limit to the Chinese language, but apply to all languages in the Square Writing Civilization including the Japanese and Korean.
B. The Chinese Attitude toward Their Own Language.
The Chinese should change their obsolete attitude toward their own culture and open the door to advocate the Chinese to be the international language to replace the English in the future. Among the three civilizations of writing systems; some easy and scientific aspects of Chinese Square writing and language can be numerated as follows:
[1] Once you learn it, it is easier to recognize it like a picture[its shape, meaning, and sound at once, very scientific, and fast reading]. [2] No variation in the pronunciation, except the difficulty in tones [this can be devised better]. [3] The story of many words with magical values from the ancient time.. [4] No strict grammar, e.g. the word order in the sentences. [5] No conjugations : one single word can be used as noun, verb, adjective, and adverb without change. [6] No strict concept of the genders. [7] No completed definite and indefinite articles in Western languages which are meaningless. [8] No strict and single and plural numbers. [9] No complicated tenses.[….s, …ing, ..ed, had …ed, will, shall]. [10] With plenty number of the Chinese characters(60,000) it is not easy to create new words, that is, compounds of words [now about 1,200,000 not including the modern new terms]. [11] Easy creation of short terms by condensing long terms into short. [12] Plenty of calligraphical, artistic values in the Chinese alone, also in the integration of Chinese Korean, and Chinese and Korean. [13] The combination of the drawings and writings in the wen-huan drawings [This form is not in any other languages]..
C. The Korean writing should be integrated with the Square Writing Civilization. First, the Chinese-blinds who should learn again the Chinese characters, because it has been proved in the following that it is the most scientific, convenient and useful once they are mastered. Second, the Koreans should join
the globalization of calligraphy movement by creating a new art form of calligraphy in the integration of the Korean and the Chinese writings like the Japanese. .
Finally, the Chinese have never globalized their culture much by
themselves. While the Chinese had been living in a dream surrounded by many visible and invisible, physical and spiritual Great Walls, the Squarer Writing Civilization was globalized by the Westerners; First, Confucianism by Europeans in the 17th century, and second, the Calligraphic Art by Americans in the University of Maryland in 1998. It is the time for China to wake up for their own great Square Writing Civilization to encourage the world to understand that the Chinese Square Writing and language is not strange and difficult to learn in the 21st century.
Bibliography