phonetic map : 国 guo
goulnik
December 12, 2008, 07:58 AM posted in General Discussion| guo | ||
| 帼 guó . 巾帼 jīnguó woman's headdress |
国 guó country; state; nation(al); Chinese 国旗 guóqí national flag 国际 guójì international 祖国 zǔguó motherland; native land |
* 掴 guó (variant pronunciation of guāi) |
| 蝈 guō . 蝈蝈 guōguo katydid (Tettigoniidae) 蝼蝈 lóuguō frog |
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| guai | ||
| * 掴 guāi to slap; smack 掴耳光 guó ěrguāng to box sb.'s ears; slap sb. on the face |
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changye
December 12, 2008, 11:30 AMThe traditional form of "国" is "國", and it has a variant character "圀", however, this character is only used in Japan now, but not in China anymore.
"圀" is one of the 17 characters called "则天文字/新字", introduced in 689 by Empress Wu-Zetian (武则天), the only reigning female in the history of China. The most famous one is "曌" (zhao4, 明 + 空), which means "shine" and was used as the name of 武则天.
These characters were invented to demonstrate the power of 武则天 and gradually forgotten after her death. Most Japanese people know "圀" as it's used in the name of a famous historical figure. The period drama series "水戸黄門", featuring this person is, is very popular in Japan.
P/S. The most hilarious 则天文字 is "〇", and this means "a star".
goulnik
December 12, 2008, 12:20 PM國 is a much nicer character, love writting it. I am going do the 或 (huò) map soon, and include 國, which has a pronunciation close enough to be considered having 或 as phonetic.
calkins
December 12, 2008, 12:28 PMI've never really understood why China （中國）would ever simplify 國 。
changye
December 12, 2008, 12:45 PM“國” has variant characters "囯" (囗 + 王) and "或" (yu4, not huo4), but interestingly both China and Japan adapted "国" (囗 + 玉) as a simplified form. I don't know why.
All I can say is that 武则天 didn't like "國" because the 或 in the character connotes "惑" (puzzle), and that is why she invented a new character "圀" (guo2, state).
changye
December 12, 2008, 08:29 AM巾帼英雄 = a heroic woman, an amazon.