Chinese Calligraphy History (5) Chinese Indicative characters - 指事字

Indicative characters

We have discussed how ideogram characters could express the non pictography abstract meanings with two or more pictography characters. There are another characters which could do the same: Indicative characters, e.g.

Shell bone script for Up, and Down

The short line on top is Up, the short line on bottom is Down. The short lines are indicator or pointer, which tells the point or position the character emphasizes.

Shell bone script for Root, and Tip

There is a dot on character Wood (tree). The dot in the middle low position is Root, the dot in the middle high position is Tip. The dots are indicator or pointer.

The shell bone script for Sweet is

The short line in Mouth is something Sweet.

The bronze script for Foot is

The dot is in a leg, the distance from the ground to the dot right below the knee is one Foot (Chinese Foot).

The shell bone script for Inch is

A short line right below a hand means that the distance between that point to the wrist is one Inch.

The shell bone script for Trunk (朱）is

A dot is the middle of the trunk of a tree. 

So the short lines, dots, circles are all indicators of the characters.They are meaningful and understood. But they are not pictogram and ideogram, similar but not the same. They are called Indicative characters.

I don't know how many indicative characters in Chinese, but should be very few. I don't have exactly number, but I think not more than 30.

However, the above indicative characters evolved to forms dramatically different.

The clerical script for Up

the bottom curve becomes straight line, the vertical line is new.

The clerical script for Down

 the top curve becomes straight line, the vertical line is new, and the short horizontal line becomes a diagonal.

The clerical script for Root

The clerical script for Tip

The dots in both characters become horizontal lines, the one in Tip is long, not like indicator or pointer anymore.

The clerical script for Foot

The dot is disappeared, not Indicative character anymore.

The clerical script for Inch

Difficult to see a hand.

The clerical script for Trunk

The dot becomes a long horizontal line. The meaning of the character becomes Red, the original meaning is changed to be 株，a Wood radical on the left.

The fact is that most people don't know indicative characters very well. They are few, and less important in comparison with other characters. But they are different and special.