A Study On Ma Part Of Shuowenjiezi

shuowenjiezi(a book about the origin of Chinese characters) composed by XU Shenfrom the Eastern Han Dynasty, is the first dictionary concerning the analysis of charactersstructures, meanings and pronounces, and besides it is a classical work of philology. Sinceshuowenjiezi was published, the scholars of successive dynasties have studied it in depthfrom various points of view, especially which is significant to the study of the radicals inChinese characters. In the book shuowenjiezi, there are115characters composed by theradical ma, and the other5new characters in the appendix, so this study selects these120characters for the investigate target to study systematically.The essentials contents of this study are made up of five parts. The part one gives anintroduction of the characters with the radical ma in general, and whose general situations,meanings of the study, sources of reference and methods of writing, etc. The part twoclassifies the characters with the radical ma by applying the theory of modern semantic field.On the basis of numerous references this part makes a scientific research about the literalmeanings of the characters with the radical ma, and assorts these characters into fourcategories: the names related with the character ma, the properties and transformations of thecharacter ma, the interrelated actions and things with the character ma, and the animalssimilar as horses, etc. The part three discusses the nomenclature of the character ma.First, itexpounds the conception of nomenclature. And then it introduces the material of this studybased on(Tongyuan zidian,Li Wang) and the method of study (homology meaning elementsanalysis method),etc. Last, it investigates the origin of the radical ma via analysis of the samephonetic phonogram characters’ homology meaning elements. The part four is to discuss thereplacement of the radical ma. Compared with Modern Chinese Dictionary,it divides theradical ma into three parts, as the abolished radical ma, the declined radical ma and the activeradical ma. It does a depth study of the radical ma characters. Through the study of the radicalma, it brings light to the interior reasons for rising and falling of the radical ma. Part five is asummary of the full study and points out the inadequacies of the paper as well as the nextissue to be examined.The radical ma is a miniature of the radicals in Chinese characters from shuowenjiezi. Asystematic study on the radical ma not only benefits to deep study of shuowenjiezi, but alsoprovides great help to the further study of the history of Chinese characters.