Recently, a series of “Chinese Characters”, edited by Zeng Zhenyu, a professor of Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies at Shandong University, was published. The “Chinese Characters” series is a funded project of Collaborative Innovation Center of Confucian Civilization, a key project of Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies at Shandong University, and a phased achievement of Taishan Scholars Project of Shandong Province.

Xu Jialu, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 9th and 10th National People's Congress, Dean of Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies, Shandong University, a famous scholar, wrote the preface to the “Chinese Characters” series.

Preface written by Xu Jialu

"Chinese Characters" series will appear in print soon, and the chief editor, Professor Zeng Zhenyu, asked me to write a few sentences on the book. I think "Chinese Characters" is a good title, and the publication of the series is an important matter, also, what is presented to the readers is a set of good books. How can I refuse the kindness of Professor Zeng? So I wrote these words carefully and respectfully.

First of all, I want to say what kind of series it is. Obviously, it is not a series of academic books on the study of Chinese characters, but a series of works on the basis of the study of characters, which narrates a number of important concepts in China's own cultural and philosophical system. It is a set of innovative works that presents the unique phenomenon of how Chinese characters are closely integrated with the philosophical concepts it carries.

According to the authors of the series, the concepts, characters and words in Chinese native philosophy and cultural form are the combination of Chinese philosophy and culture. This means that Chinese Characters will make an in-depth interpretation of the concept of Chinese philosophy and culture, explore its connotation and extension, so as to explore and show the unique spirit, quality and character of Chinese culture and its philosophy, and eliminate the misunderstanding, confusion and embarrassment caused by the interpretation of Chinese philosophy only by western philosophy. On the other hand, through the cognition and experience of Chinese philosophy and culture, we can understand and deepen the understanding of the origin, derivation and variation of the pronunciation and meaning of these Chinese characters, as well as the cultural genes that are preserved and permeated in modern Chinese vocabulary. Perhaps this is also the reason why the series is titled "Chinese Characters".

It is true that most of the words and expressions analyzed and discussed in Chinese Characters are those used in daily life, and some even "special" words have been practiced by more and more people. However, due to various historical and social reasons, modern people often have some distance from the deep meaning of these words. However, if we ignore the traditional cultural significance of Chinese characters for later generations in the process of inheritance and evolution over thousands of years, the characteristics of Chinese culture will be weakened. Language and concepts may "drift", so that we have to seek explanations from other cultures, which makes it difficult to form a Chinese discourse system to elaborate Chinese culture. The creators of “Chinese Characters” sincerely hope to do something with this book. I can't help but think that The influence of “Chinese Characters” may not be limited to the humanities and social sciences, philosophy, even in the construction of science and technology ethics, natural language processing, human-computer dialogue, Chinese-Foreign language translation, and artificial intelligence and other fields, it seems to play a role.

I'll leave it at that. I would like to thank Mr. Zeng for using my article as the preface of this book.

Introduction of the Content

Each volume of the "Chinese Characters" series takes one Chinese character as the theme, focusing on exploring the ideological, cultural and spiritual connotation behind the Chinese characters, and telling the ideological concept and humanistic spirit contained in Chinese culture by explaining the Chinese characters. The editor starts from the origin of each Chinese character or phrase, and from the oracle bone inscriptions and jinwen to modern times, analyzes the evolution of the meaning of each character or phrase, and examines it from the perspective of cultural history, involving multiple disciplines such as ideological history, academic history, literary history and social history. The series focuses on absorbing and summarizing the academic achievements of Chinese and foreign scholars in this field, and exploring the social and cultural images and phenomena that the character embodies for the common people in Chinese history. In terms of writing, the series presents the key concepts of traditional Chinese thought in a popular way to understand words, simple and easy. Accompanied by vivid pictures, it is suitable for public readers with a high school education or above to read and introduce the excellent traditional Culture of China. At present, there is no similar work in Chinese book market. The publication of this series will provide readers with a complete, authoritative and systematic original product of Chinese characters and Chinese culture, so that readers can have a deeper understanding of the charm of Chinese character culture.

Editor-in-Chief: Zeng Zhenyu

Zeng Zhenyu, Taishan Scholar, professor of Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies, PHD Director in Shandong University with a PHD doctorate in History. Former Vice Dean of the Advanced Institute of Confucian Studies, Shandong University; Director of Zengzi Research Institute of Shandong University; Member of the 9th, 10th, 11th of the People's Political Consultative Conference of Shandong Province; a famous social scientist in Shandong Province; Visiting Scholar at the University of Connecticut, Daito Bunka University,; Director of the International Confucian Association; member of Publicity and Publishing Committee of International Confucian Association; Director of the Chinese Pre-Qin History Society; Director of the Chinese Confucian Academy; President of the Chinese Zengzi Research Association; Director of The Zeng Zi Research Institute; Vice President of the Dong Zhongshu Society of the Chinese Confucian Academy; Standing Director of the China Mozi Society;

Main Research Direction:
Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi's Pre-Qin Confucianism, Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy, Dong Zhongshu and Han Dynasty thought, Song and Ming Theory, concept history.

So far, Zeng has published more than 100 academic papers in journals including Historical Study and Philosophical Research. He has also published 15 academic works, including Conceptual System of the Ideological World, Commentaries on Chen Chun, New Commentaries on Sections about Chun-qiu theory, New Commentaries on The Four Books, Modern Commentaries on Filial Piety, and Studies on Ethics of Confucianism in the 20th Century. He has co-authored 11 books and edited five academic Research series.

Source: Official account of Huaxia Publishing House