본 연구의 목적은 오래전부터 한국인이 애용해 온 기본 도형을 분석하여 의미와 상징성을 밝히고 그 유형을 분류하는 것이다. 선조들은 원, 네모, 세모 형태를 선호하였는데 한글에 ‘ㅇ, ㅁ, ㅅ’가 존재하는 사실이 이를 뒷받침한다. 이를 위해 고조선부터 삼국시대에 이르기까지 복식과 유물 등에 나타난 기본 도형을 고찰하였다. 연구방법으로는 도서, 인터넷 및 사진자료 등을 분석하였으며 도자기, 청동기, 복식 등 다양한 곳에 나타난 도형의 연결고리를 찾았다. 그 연구결과 첫째, 원은 하늘, 해, 달, 별, 청동거울, 얼굴 등을 상징하는데 일찍이 천문관측이 발달했던 사실과 원형제단이나 제사장의 표징인 원형 청동거울이 이를 뒷받침한다. 둘째, 땅(地)을 상징하는 것은 네모라고 보았다. 하늘과 땅신에게 모두 제사를 지냈었고 네모는 부족 공동체의 안녕과 풍요를 담은 현실을 의미하는 형태이다. 마름모형이 더 많이 애용되었는데 이는 힘을 상징하는 세모가 두 개나 들어있는 형태이기 때문이라고 추측한다. 셋째, 빗살무늬 토기에서도 나타나지만 뫼 ‘山’과 사람 ‘人’ 및 모자나 마늘의 형태 또는 나 ‘厶’ 등으로부터 세모가 파생되었다고 보는데 하늘, 땅 다음으로 사람이 중요하다는 고대인의 사고에서 발생한 것으로 본다. 아름다운 유산인 기본 도형의 연구를 통해 한국역사의 오랜 전통과 정신을 이해하고 새로운 창조문화로 이어지길 기대한다.

When they teach Chinese characters in school, the most popular method to read Chinese characters is to read the meaning and the pronunciation together. Ministry of Education and Human Resources posted 1,800 base characters for Chinese characters’ education but it arranged the characters only without designating the representative meaning. The representative meaning of Chinese characters is necessary not only to understand the character itself but also to interpret sentences. We define shape, pronunciation and meaning as three elements of Chinese characters and teach Chinese characters according to the elements. Generally speaking, a Chinese character can have many different meanings. The most important thing in teaching Chinese characters to beginners is to teach therepresentative meaning. As people learn Chinese characters focusing on the representative meaning and most of them think it has the defined meaning only, if we can designate the most popular and most widely used meaning as a representative meaning, it will make the most of Chinese characters. In case of notional word(實詞), they are read with representativemeaning anyhow. But form word(虛詞)s are read with Hun showing the function andsometimes part of speech itself becomes the Hun. For example, if ‘er(而)’ is applied to the interpretation of a sentence 不義而富且貴於我如浮雲[To be rich and precious without therighteousness is just like a floating cloud in the sky]’ should be interpreted like ‘What is not righteous and rich and precious is just like a floating cloud in the sky. If not, we need to explain the meaning of ‘connecting speech’ again. It is because ‘connecting speech’ is not the meaning of ‘er(而)’ but the ‘function’ of ‘er(而)’. There is a different case in preposition(介詞). We generally call ‘於’ as ‘EojosaEo’, but ‘Eojosa’ is the name of a part of speech rather than the meaning of ‘於’. Even when considering that ‘Eojosa’ is the name of part of speech, it is not correct because Revised Chinese Characters Educational Curriculum in 2007 classified ‘於’ as ‘preposition(介詞). Additionally, if the above sentence is interpreted just after teaching the letters, they will interpret as 不義而富且貴於我如浮雲[What is not righteous, rich and precious I Eojosa like a floating cloud]’. The same rule applies to similar letters. Accordingly, in this article it was tried to review the issue of representative meaning of 1,800 basic characters focusing on form words such as conjunctions, preposition(介詞) and auxiliary word(語助詞). Among 1,800 basic characters 而, 卽, 且, 則 are used as conjunctions, 於, 與, 于, 由, 以, 因, 自, 從, 乎 are used as preposition and 所, 也, 矣, 耳, 者, 哉, 之, 乎, 耶, 焉, 兮 are used as auxiliary word. Out of conjunctions, in 卽, and 且, meaning is applied during the interpretation so they are excluded from this review and 而and 則 were reviewed. In preposition, 與, 由, 以, 因, 自, 從 use meanings that are applied to the interpretation, 於, 于, and 乎 which use ‘a particle’ as Hun were reviewed. Among particles, excluding 所, 耳 and 者, 也, 矣, 哉, 之, 乎, 耶, 焉, and 兮 were reviewed. For the purpose of the study, it was tried to identify the most widely used meaning focusing on the texts in 2007 Revised Curriculum and then define the Hun as the most widely used meaning. If the representative Huns are designated in this way and students learn Chinese characters using such Huns, they may be able to approach to the usage of individual Chinese characters and we can teach Chinese characters to students more accurately.