英文摘要 |
In oracle bone inscriptions, characters ''Meng'' and ''Wu'' are connected to dreams and sleep. This article points out that, according to Shuowen jiezi (Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters), the transitive verb ''Meng'' used by the awakened subject is followed by an object in relation to the description of dreams. ''Wu,'' instead, means the sound made by the subject during slumber, namely somniloquy, which requires no objects for further explanation of dreams. With the evolution of semantics, ''Wu'' maintained its meaning as ''waking up after sleep,'' but the other implication for ''Wu'', somniloquy, gradually vanished. Because ''Wu'' had been transformed from the meaning of ''simniloquy'' to ''the utterances after waking up from the dreams,'' this character thus started to appear with ''Meng.'' The meaning of ''waking up'' was soon replaced by ''Jue'' ; at the same time, ''Wu'' had transformed once again from ''waking up'' to ''awakening something or realizing something,'' and became a transitive verb. This article also points out that when ''Jue'' is used to express the meaning of ''Juewu,'' its original writing should be ''Gao.'' It can be proved by some variant forms in literature that ''Gao'' includes the meaning of perception. |