The wisdom in Chinese characters

汉字的智慧

For Ragnar Baldursson, sinologist and Iceland's former minister counselor to China, Chinese characters contain the DNA of the Chinese civilization. What wisdom is embedded in these mysterious ideograms? How does Confucianism encapsulate the concept of sustainable development? How has China's traditional culture permeated today's society? Baldursson shares his journey toward a greater understanding of Chinese wisdom through Chinese characters, one stroke at a time

对于汉学家、冰岛前驻华公使衔参赞Ragnar Baldursson来说，汉字蕴含着中华文明的DNA。

这些神秘的表意文字中蕴含着什么智慧？儒家思想如何概括可持续发展的概念？

中国传统文化是如何渗透到当今社会的？

巴尔德松分享他通过汉字一笔一笔地了解中国智慧的历程

以下是各国网民的评论：

ongsengfook

Simplified Chinese was invented to quickly solve illiteracy among Chinese after Qing dynasty. It was estimated only 5% of Chinese could read or write then. It will be good to reintroduce Traditional Chinese where the characters are more meaningful.

简体中文是清朝以后为了迅速扫盲而创造出来的。据估计，当时只有5%的中国人会读写。

在汉字更有意义的地方，重新引入繁体中文会很好。

JWscandi

same reason with the invention of korean alphabets in Joseon era, whom used chinese as medium of education.

朝鲜时代朝鲜字母的发明也是为了扫盲，当时朝鲜人使用汉语作为教育媒介。

JWscandi

it was whom realised the idea of the simplified chinese characters, it was done during his administration. At 1st he wanted to eliminate the chinese characters altogether and use pinyin just like Vietnam.

I shook my head in disbelief! Wat a shame!

是新中国成立后，开始搞简体字的思。起初想废除汉字，像越南一样使用拼音。

难以置信，我只能摇摇头！太可惜了！

horridohobbies

@JWscandi It is insulting and racist to call the Chinese "brainwashed." They are perfectly capable of independent thought.

They revere Mao for good reasons. He unified a country that was previously in total chaos. He laid the foundation for the future development of China.

称中国人被“洗脑”，是侮辱和种族主义。他们中国人完全有独立思考的能力。

崇拜毛 主席是有充分理由的。他把一个混乱的国家统一了起来。他为中国未来的发展奠定了基础。

vueport99

Absolutely agree that traditional Chinese characters embody the true nature and elegance of the Chinese. Simplified was a hack. Time to restore the good stuff

完全同意。繁体汉字体现了中国人的真实本性和优雅。简体汉字就是乱来，是时候恢复繁体字了

chengyangooi4694

I think introduce both. Simplified and traditional. Now with computer, ty traditional characters is the same effort as ty simplified word

我觉得两个都应该学。简体字和繁体字都要学。现在有了电脑，打繁体字和打简体字一样轻松

jivvyjack7723

@JWscandi Wrong !! The simplified Chinese system was a project started under the KMT when they governed China from 1912 to 1949. Mao just continued with it after the KMT was defeated. KMT ran off to Taiwan island. When Mao continued with the simplified chinese project, the KMT reverted to traditional chinese and then claimed they were the real inheritors and guardians of Chinese culture. It's all political posturing, nothing else.

错！简体中文字是国民党在1912年至1949年在中国开始的一个项目。国民党被击败后，新中国继续推行简体字。国民党败逃台湾。

大陆继续推行简体中文，而国民党恢复繁体中文，然后声称他们是中国文化的真正继承者和守护者。这都是政治姿态，没有别的。

theinazmie2472

Time has changed...we are in a fast moving era...

时代变了。我们正处于一个快速发展的时代。

theinazmie2472

We're even engaging generative AI to increase our productivity....

我们甚至已经开始使用生成式人工智能，提高我们的生产力。

jimmylee1776

Thank you for this video. You know more about Chinese writing than me (a Chinese). God bless you.

谢谢。你比我（一个中国人）更懂中文写作。上帝保佑你。

bleung52

Another problem of Simplified Chinese is that some characters were being over-simplified such that a single character replaces a few different traditional characters and cannot be properly translated back by computer software : 干 - (天)干, (能)幹, 乾(坤)...肖 - (相)肖, 俏(麗), 肖(姓), 蕭(姓)...Of course, a lot of people misread and thereby misunderstand them.

简体字的另一个问题是，一些汉字被过度简化了，结果一个汉字代表了几个不同的繁体字，并且无法通过计算机软件正确翻译回来： 干 - (天)干, (能)幹, 乾(坤)...肖 - (相)肖, 俏(麗), 肖(姓), 蕭(姓).

bleung52

Learning Traditional Chinese is very important to read ancient manuscripts. Simplified Chinese has already served its historical purpose (權宜之計!) The wise authority should therefore consider to revive the learning of Traditional Chinese. I learned that nowadays most Koreans could not recognize the characters of the name-plates at the gate or entrance of their historic palace when they pay a visit to it.

学习繁体字，方便阅读古代手稿。简体字已经完成了赋予的历史目的，现在应该考虑复兴繁体字。我了解到，如今大多数韩国人在参观历史悠久的宫殿时，都认不出大门或入口处的铭牌上的文字。

MyVoice-bn1vj

Change the world China wisdom

改变世界的中国智慧

bertanelson8062

Such basic formative precepts upon which to create a culture. Cooperation & trust between, with & for we, the people! Thank you, China!

这些基本的规则是创造文化的基础。我们与人民之间的合作与信任！谢谢你，中国！

thetruthandnobs

Very good.

非常好

gritnltw

Learning Chinese and in order to learn Chinese characters I was asking my Chinese teachers to tell me the story behind every character to really understand them. Unfortunately none really knew and were telling me to just memorize them. But then you loose 99% of the richness of the language and the “reason” of everything. There is always a reason.

学习中文，为了学习汉字，我让我的中文老师告诉我每个汉字背后的故事，以便真正理解汉字的奥妙。可惜没有人真正知道，他们只是让我要记住。但是，这样就失去了99%的意义。造字总是有规律的。

jivvyjack7723

You are too simplistic. Not every Chinese character has a story. The bigger bulk of chinese characters are based on pronunciation or ideographic using original simpler components.

你太简单了。不是每个汉字都有故事。大部分汉字都是基于发音或表意文字，简单的笔画组合起来的。

mingto7753

Thank you, Mr Baldursson for the nice lecture. I learned the basics of the Chinese language over 60 years ago in HK and can still remember most of it, but I share the joy of rediscovery when I see someone not a native Chinese speaker, obviously appreciating the language.
 

The wisdom of the Chinese language goes much deeper than what was discussed here.

60多年前，我在香港学习了汉语的基础知识，至今仍能记住其中的大部分，现在我看到一个母语不是中国的人很欣赏这门语言，我很高兴有了新的发现

汉语的智慧比这里讨论的要深刻得多。

WendyBost

Thank you for this interesting video. I would like to learn to speak and write Chinese language. - Does anyone know of reliable sources online? - without breaking my bank account...

谢谢。我想学习中文。有人知道网上哪里可以学习吗？免费的那种

soongyongseng6961

「和」=禾（grains）+口（mouth）
Literally means when one is fed, he tends to calm down and rest. Hence, comes the phrases, like 和平peaceful, 和气no quarrel & etc. It reflects in the central philosophy of Confusionalism.
Nevertheless, the Western minds of "Peace" is "Pea" (food) + "ce" (Conquer and Engulf), meaning that once the Westerners is fed, they will greedily conquer & collonise other countries and Engulf the wealth of these nations.

「和」=禾（粮食）+口

字面意思是当一个人被喂饱时，他往往会冷静下来休息。也就是“和平无事”、“不吵架”等。这反映了儒家的核心哲学。

然而，西方人心目中的“和平”是“Pea”（食物）+“ce”（征服和征服），也就是说一旦西方人吃饱了，他们就会贪婪地征服和殖民其他国家，并掠夺这些国家的财富。