Shirakawa Shizuka (白川靜) thinks, “yan (彥)”, “chan (產)”, “yan (顏)” three characters are the characters that show the tattooed character on the forehead. He carried out three aspects of arguments: 1. Glyphs and meanings; 2. Tattoo custom of uncivilized people; 3. Language use cases. In fact, Shirakawa Shizuka’s arguments in three aspects are all wrong: 1. His interpretation of “yan (彥)”, “chan (產)” and “yan (顏)” is wrong. He cited the tattoo custom of the uncivilized people to prove the original meaning of “yan (彥)” and “yan (顏)” is wrong. His understanding of some of the words he quoted was wrong. Moreover, there is something illogical about his argument. Therefore, his arguments are unreasonable. There are mistakes in Shirakawa Shizuka’s interpretation of human forehead tattoo Characters.
Shirakawa Shizuka believes that there is a tattoo custom in the Yin culture of the Chinese Shang Dynasty: people in accordance with certain etiquette, respectively, on the forehead, breasts, chest and other body parts to apply tattoos, he proved that this view is mainly based on the Chinese characters at that time. He believes that “text” is the Chinese character that represents the tattoo, “Chan (產), Yan (彥), Yan (顏)” and other words are the Chinese characters that represent people tattooed on the forehead, “Er (爾), Shuang (爽), Shi(奭)” and other words are Chinese characters that represent the tattoo in the breast, and also believe that “Xiong (凶), Xiong (兇), Xiong (匈), Xiong (胸)” are the words that mean the chest tattoo (for the convenience of the writing, the following aunt called “the chest tattoo series”). Shirakawa believes that the Chinese Shang Dynasty Yin culture there is a literary custom of the view is wrong, for this, the author has written a special article to refute, is now intercepting part of it, his release of the bra series of words wrong to start the argument. The author tracks the research process of Shirakawa’s, analyzes the glyphs, contacts the word use, and draws on the relevant research results, proving that he is wrong about the composition of the bra series, the meaning of the expression and the relationship between each other.
Shirakawa Shizuka recognizes the Chinese Character before the Warring States Period as a kind of sacred one which exists in a way of series. For example, he interpreted the meaning of ‘Kou (口)’ according to its structure prior to the Period, regarding the meaning as the symbolization of an instrument used for praying. Then, he thought all the Chinese Characters with the structure element of ‘Kou’ should belong to the sacred. But his recognition is not correct. First, the interpretation of ‘Kou’ as the prayer instrument with the prayer character is wrong. So, the interpretation of serial characters of ‘Kou’ based on his misinterpretation of ‘Kou’ also proves to be wrong. Second, except the abovementioned mistakes, Shirakawa Shizuka made some other mistakes in his research on the serial characters of ‘Kou’ as well. But in this paper, we will just take examples of the characters such as ‘Gao (告)’, ‘Yue (曰)’, and ‘Yan (言)’, to point out the mistakes.
Shirakawa Shizuka’s viewpoint about the Chinese Characters before the Warring States Period is a system theory. The theory includes several kinds of content as followed: First, the causes of Chinese Characters’ birth. Shirakawa Shizuka thought that characters’ creation is to express something sacred. Second, the resources of Chinese Character symbols. Shirakawa Shizuka thought, Chinese Characters are etiquette reflections, developing from the symbols which have the sacred nature. Third, Chinese Characters’ functions. Shirakawa Shizuka thought that to the ancient Chinese people, Chinese Character was a character with extraordinary power before the Warring States periods. Fourth, the usage of Chinese Characters. Shirakawa Shizuka thought, Chinese Characters were mainly using in activities of offering sacrifices and casting inscriptions. The last, the essence of Chinese Pictographic Characters. Shirakawa Shizuka didn’t believe Chinese Pictographic Characters as pictograph characters, but as symbolic characters. However, based on the facts and the logic, we can prove the five points have some mistakes.