Understanding the meaning of Chinese Character 华(huā, huá, huà)
Li Huatian
Vice professor at School of Foreign Languages, Central China Normal University
Language is a symbol for culture, and culture is an orbit of language. Thus, every Chinese character is closely associated with its culture. So is the same with the Chinese character 华(huā, huá, huà), which means “flower” originally, “prosperous” or “splendid” extendedly, and refers to the Chinese nationality in general. Hence it embodies the Chinese people’s love of beauty and reveals plentiful and colorful Chinese culture.
The Chinese character 华has a very long history of more than 3000 years since it originates from the Oracle Bone Script, the Ancient Chinese which appears in the Shang Dynasty (1600 B.C. — 1046 B.C.), the first dynasty that has written records in China’s history. Then with the development of a long history, its spelling is simplified into the present form华. The following is a simple list of the transformation of forms and spellings in accordance with historic epoch.
甲骨文Oracle Bone Script
金文Bronze Script
篆文Seal Script
隶书Official Script/Clerical Script
楷书Regular Script
行书Running Script
草书Cursive Script
繁体字宋Complex-formed Song Typeface
简体字宋Simplified Song Typeface
From this list, it is also found out that the transformation of Chinese calligraphy’s type style from seal character, official>
Firstly, in order to make clear the original meaning of Chinese character 华, we can take a close look at its Oracle Bone Script or Bronze Script.
Oracle Bone Script 华
Bronze Script 华
In these two complicated spelling forms of 华(huā), different horizontal lines symbol flourishing tree branches and blossoming flowers or plentiful fruits, while the main vertical line signifies the tree trunk and other minor vertical lines refer to branches. This exploitation of the origin can be found in some classical Chinese masterpieces:
Origin of Chinese Characters: Huā means blossoming flowers. (华,荣也。—《说文解字》)
Erya—Literary Expositor of Grass: Tree is named blossom, and grass is called prosperity. (木谓之华,草谓之荣。—《尔雅•释草》)
The Book of Poems—Peach: The peach trees are in full blossom, so shinning and brilliant. (桃之夭夭,灼灼其华。—《诗经••桃夭》)
Plain Questions of Yellow Emperor's Canon of Medicine: Those who are as weak as flower pulse are so frightening that we should take care of them. (脉至如华者,令人善恐。—《黄帝内经•素问》。)
And both this pronunciation of “huā” and meaning are still used in some phrases, such as华英(huā yīng, blossoming flowers), 华叶(huā yè, flower and leaf), 华胜(huā shèng, flower-like jewelry of ancient Chinese women); 华实(huā shí, flower and fruit; to blossom and produce fruits).
When 华 is pronounced “huā”, it can also be used as a verb which means blossoming or flowering, such as桃李始华(táo lǐ shǐ huā, peaches and plums begin to blossom).
Secondly, when Chinese character华 bears the pronunciation of “huá”, it shoulders a variety of meanings which are somewhat difficult for us to understand:
The most basic meaning or conceptual meaning is to blossom, such as that used in the following two idioms: 春华秋实(chūn huá qiū shí, flower in spring and yield fruit in autumn), 华而不实(huá ér bù shí, produce flowers but bear no fruits; flashy; showy but not substantial).
And because flowers of kinds are all very beautiful and the season of flowering is just in the proper time, 华(huá) can be used to mean “magnificent”, “gorgeous”, “prosperous”, “splendid”, which is its connotative meaning or reflected meaning. This meaning is so widely put into use that there appear so many different phrases: 华丽(huá lì, magnificent; resplendent), 华艳(huá yàn, gorgeous), 华彩(huá cái, resplendent or rich color), 繁华(fán huá, flourishing; prosperous), 荣华富贵(róng huá fù guì, telephone-number-sized wealth and high rank), 华章(huá zháng, beautiful poem; handsome harvest), 华服(huá fú, well-dressed), 华筵(huá yán, plentiful delicious food), 华观(huá guān, magnificent imperial palace), 华舆(huá yú, magnificent vehicle or sedan), 华毂(huá gǔ, decorated carriage).
In addition, it is just due to the beautiful season of flowering that华(huá) gets its derivative meaning of “proper time”, “age” or “special gift”. We can have a look at these phrases: 年华(nián huá, time; years), 韶华(sháo huá, prime of youth), 精华(jīng huá, essence), 才华(cái huá, literary or artistic talent), 含英咀华(hán yīng jǔ huá, take one’s time to eat flowers; take the essence of a reading piece; appreciate gems of the language).
But too many flowers will become too shinning and even make viewers’ eyes watering and uncomfortable, so Chinese character华(huá) gets its another extended meaning of “luxurious” or “sumptuous”, such as that in the phrases豪华(háo huá, gorgeous; luxurious), 奢华(shē huá, extravagant; luxurious), 华贵(huá guì, extravagant; luxurious), 浮华(fú huá, showy, flashy).
More often than not, the Chinese people like to put strong affection on character华(huá) and take it as a reference to the Chinese people themselves or the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China. So the following phrases have got their social meaning or affective meaning: 中华(zhōng huá, China), 华夏(huá xià, China), 华裔(huá yì, ethnic Chinese; foreign citizen of Chinese origin), 华侨(huá qiáo, overseas Chinese), 华中(huá zhōng, Central China), 驻华使馆(zhù huá shǐ guǎn, embassy to China), 华胄(huá zhòu, descendants of Chinese, esp. nobles).
Thirdly, when Chinese character华 takes the pronunciation of “huà”, it has about two different meanings: On one hand, it refers to 华山(huà shān, Mt. Huashan) in Shaanxi Province; and on the other hand, it is used as a surname, such as华元(huà yuán, the scholar-officials of the State of Song during the Spring and Autumn Period ), 华佗(huà tuó, a famous doctor of the Han Dynasty), 华蘅芳(huà héng fāng, a famous mathematician of the Qing Dynasty), 华罗庚(huà luó gēng, a modern mathematician and educationist).
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