As Alex Schuessler (2009, 34–39) has articulated, it is difficult to know the real reason for the choice of a particular graphic element within a composite graph. This is often due to “mental or cultural associations” that tend to interfere with the choice. Even with a simple graph it is not easy to discern what we call “graphic design” that must have guided the original scribes to create the graphs to express words. These are important issues in Chinese paleography. We will use terms like “pure phonetic”, “quasi-phonetic”, “quasi-phonosignific”, “etymonic”, “quasi-etymonic” that are not commonly used in the literature (we will define them in the paper). The Old Chinese (OC) rimes comprised of a relatively few words such as *-əp, *-en, and *-ui suffer a shortage of graphs to write the words with such rimes. This implies the existence of graphs with only a segment or segments of an OC syllable that suggest its entire phonological form with a meaning or function. For example, the top portion of (=羊 *jaŋ~*laŋ, i.e., ) seems to serve as quasi-phonosignific in (=羌 *khaŋ~*khiaŋ—cf. 西戎, 牧羊人也, 羊亦聲—SW). That is, 羌 were “sheep herders”, and the grapheme can be taken as partial phonetic, not really “亦聲” it would seem, because only the rime of 羊 agrees (“quasi-phonetic”). When we pay attention not only to the rimes but also to the initials, we may, if cogent analysis can be made, come to understand why a word was written in a certain specific way. This interfaces between paleography and historical phonology, further involving historical lexicology. We shall also assess some traditional paleographical interpretations of nǚ 女= ‘woman’ and mín 民= ‘people’ and try to descry “graphic designs” by the original scribes. Here, however, we first need to figure out the underlying meanings of the words nǚ and mín in their early history. Their semantic fields could range from synonymy, near/quasi-synonymy, antonyms, and near/quasi-antonyms to members of some large word-family. In this paper, we limit our analysis to some “graphic minimal pairs” and the words represented by them. For example, “ (女 ‘woman’) and (卩 ‘joint’)”; “ (如 ‘follow, go’) and (訊 ‘interrogate’)”; “ (目 ‘eye’) and (臣 ‘servant’)”; “ (民 ‘people’) and (見 ‘see’)”; and a few related graphs.

Human sacrifice in the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC – 1046 BC) refers to the practice of killing of human beings in rituals such as slaves, war prisoners as offerings to divine patrons and ancestors. The reason for this is the worship of the ancestors and the sacrifice of slaves to the gods to expand the ranks of their ancestors in another world. This paper aims to demonstrate that the Shang culture was based on human sacrifice to the wife of a king of Shang called Female Ancestors(xianbi 先妣) and the focus of this article is qualified xianbi of enjoying sacrifice in oracle inscriptions of Shang Dynasty. This research shows that xianbi had a quite high status in Shang dynasty, they enjoyed the same species of human sacrifices and animals with male ancestors(xianwang 先王). These results are evidence showing that the status of men and women were equal in the royal system of Shang Dynasty.

This article explores the socioreligious background of the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions from an unconventional perspective by analyzing the use of oracular language in epigraphic texts found on slightly later ritual bronze vessels. While this phenomenon has so far received little scholarly attention, the author argues that the cross-contextual occurrence of oracular terminology indicates a relationship between the two types of epigraphic texts and the social discourses from which they were created. Drawing on parallel passages in other bronze inscriptions, the author examines the precise meanings of the two most common oracular phrases and proposes that they belonged to a technical terminology that shared fundamental conceptual characteristics with later legal jargon. Addressing the communicative intention behind their use, the author points out that oracular language is generally placed in prominent positions in bronze inscriptions and appears in various highly ritualized and ceremonial interactions between humans and the ancestral spirits. Based on these observations, the author concludes that the bronze inscriptions support the view that the Shang dynasty oracle bone inscriptions were written for administrative and specialized purposes and were embedded in a much wider network of communication practices between humans and supra-human powers.

Chinese characters are an important symbol and carrier of Chinese civilization. The inheritance and dissemination of Chinese characters are the two wings of Chinese culture. In addition to the past handed down and unearthed documents, the study of Chinese characters in the new era has entered the cross-cultural field. The study of cross-cultural Chinese characters has become a new trend in the study of Chinese characters, that is, using cross-cultural methods to study Chinese characters and Research on Chinese characters in a cross-cultural environment. The current cross-cultural Chinese character research has made many achievements in the history of Chinese character transmission, the collation of foreign Chinese books and Chinese character materials, and the comparison of crosscultural Chinese characters. The foreign Chinese books and Chinese character materials produced by Chinese characters in a cross-cultural environment show the distinctive characteristics of Chinese characters under the influence of different cultural factors.

The topics addressed, scope, and approach of this paper involve contemporary postmodern/poststructural critical theory, literary criticism in particular, and Mahayana (大乘)—especially kongan (公案) and hwadu (話頭) Ch’an(Chinese)/Seon(Korean)/Zen (Japanese)—Buddhist thought (佛敎思想) is explained in detail. However, the theoretical ground is only to help the twenty-first century audience to deeply comprehend how literature and film offer us precious opportunity to experience the sublime (崇古)—aesthetic sensibility (美的感覺), through which we glimpse (一見) the ultimate reality (窮極的 現實). It is time now that intellectual (philosophical, critical, academic) explanation and spiritual experience are brought to work together in the common area, literature (文學) and film (映畫). It is important for literary readers to experience someone’s life story in the way of encountering the non-duality (非二重性) of the ultimate reality.