Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought

by Wolfram Eberhard

Book Overview

This unique and authoritative guide describes more than 400 important Chinese symbols, explaining their esoteric meanings and connections. Their use and development in Chinese literature and in Chinese customs and attitudes to life are traced lucidly and precisely.
An ideal reference book to help one learn and explore further, while simultaneously giving greater insight into many other aspects of Chinese life ... the most authoritative...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415002281
• ISBN13: 9780415002288
• Release Date: July 1986
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Very nice encyclopedic approach

Finding this in the library today, as a life-long (well, 20 years now) student of the Chinese characters I think this book is really well done -- I really like how the author groups the various 4,5,8 etc. associated hanzi together into their cultural sets so you can see their interrelations. Heisig and/or Henshall's books will give you some of the same backstories but I like the depth and breadth of this work more. I just placed an order for it since I know I'll be wanting to reference this at my leisure. 4 stars since I'd like to see more than 400 characters, and while the art is generally good the overall art design is somewhat lacking.

Ian Myles Slater on: Revealing Meaning

"A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols" is the work of Wolfram Eberhard (1909-1989) A German-born Sinologist and sociologist, and a political refugee from Hitler, he spent eleven years in Turkey introducing Sinology to that country at Ankara University, and then most of the rest of his career (1948-1976) at the University of California at Berkeley, in the then-new Department of Sociology. He published in German, English, and Turkish, on both standard Sinological subjects and Chinese and comparative folklore, and the local cultures of China and adjacent areas. His "Dictionary of Chinese Symbols" is based on a lifetime of study, and an unusual diversity of experience. The bulk of Eberhard's publications (thirty-five books, 195 articles, 300-some book reviews) are usually fairly technical, or, if popular, rapidly becoming obsolete. (His "History of China," first published in German in 1948, was last revised in 1977, just before an explosion of archeological and other work.) However, his "Folktales of China" (1965), part of University of Chicago Press series aimed at both college students and the general public, should be accessible to most readers, if a copy is available. The present volume was also apparently aimed at a wider public, although it was well-received by Sinologists. The 1983 German edition of "Lexicon chinesischer Symbole," translated by G. L. Campbell, as "A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols," was his last major work. It is the condensed -- in some ways perhaps too condensed -- product of a lifetime of study. It is organized not around the meaning of Chinese art motifs as such, but around the symbolic associations of the written characters of classical China, with their fully pictorial counterparts as supporting data; and it includes primarily verbal symbolisms as well. (More exactly, while the Chinese script isn't pictographic, some pictures are "read" as if they were phonetic -- so that a picture of a "lu" (a deer), which often stands for "longevity," may also be seen instead as "the exact phonetic equivalent" word "lu" meaning "good income," and interpreted as "riches" instead (see Deer, page 79, and cross-references.) It is primarily historical, and, inevitably, very selective: "no more than an introduction to the subject," according to the author. A topic is always given its Chinese character, or set of characters; and many are illustrated from traditional art, mostly reproduced rather well. Eberhard uses the traditional, or "full" forms of Chinese characters, rather than the recent simplified forms, pointing out that the symbolic associations may depends on the perceived imagery of at least part of the character, as well as on, or in addition to, its phonetic reading. (He doesn't get into the real history, which may be different, given shifts in the spoken language and development of the written forms.) Eberhard does use survival of ideas into modern times -- by which he apparently means the first part of the twentieth century --

Informative but...

It seems to be general consensus that this is one of the only books of its kind. While its content is concise and informative, it does seem to be dated. I had to double-check that it had indeed been originally published in 1983 because stylistically speaking (in addition to the weird romanization issues and lack of "modern" symbology that others have mentioned), it seems to stuck in the early 20th century and perhaps a little tainted with the Edward Said notion of "Orientalism." I can't help but get the feeling that it is from an "outsider looking in" perspective, meaning I wish it was written in a more intimate and warmer way, and that if it were, perhaps the text would become more alive. I also found the method of cross-referencing information (by peppering the text with a lot of arrows -->) fairly distracting, and that the descriptions of individual symbols did not really "flow," but rather were written in a piecemeal fashion.<p>Again, I am grateful that this information has been compiled and assembled in this text; however, I wish that it could be updated.

Delightful

This is a noteworthy volume from someone who for five decades had been one of the worlds preeminent Sinologists. The late Wolfram Eberhard, a former instructor at Peking National University, unfolds the story behind over 400 Chinese characters giving the reader a vivid insight to Chinese life and thought.The book starts with a ten-page introduction to Chinese symbolism and how the Chinese conception of words differ from views held by the West. The remainder of the book is an alphabetical listing of important symbols written in the form of an English-Chinese dictionary. Each entry contains the English word for a particular symbol, the Chinese equivalent (using both Chinese characters and Peking romanization) and an explanation as to why the ideas behind the symbol are important. Many entries are multiple paragraphs long and are accompanied by black-and-white illustrations from Chinese texts. Among the entries are numbers, colors, plants and animals, mythological characters, the cardinal directions, body parts, bodily functions, and several concepts that are uniquely Chinese. While the title implies the book is a dictionary this is a bit of a misnomer. Eberhard uses the dictionary format as a vehicle to introduce the reader to the cultural symbolism that lies behind selected Chinese characters. You will not find any detail on radicals, stroke order, stroke counts, or pronunciation as you might in a more typical language-oriented Chinese dictionary.It would be impossible to comprehensively survey even the most common elements of Chinese symbology. The author himself states that his selections follow from a few basic themes such as health, happiness, and longevity. For a volume of its size and given the level of detail that it contains, Eberhard's work is about as comprehensive as one can get. The only real detraction is the lack of an index. Language students might also be disappointed by the lack of pin-yin romanization. The book is wonderful as a stand-alone primer on Chinese culture or as an adjunct text for students of the Chinese language who desire an intimate knowledge of the latent symbology that accompanies many Chinese words.

Essential to understand Chinese culture.

I am half Chinese and lived in Taiwan for a few years. Growing outside Chinese culture, I found this dictionary very informative on learning about the meaning of many things I saw in Taiwan. For example, why fish are seen in many stores, why is there a phoenix and a dragon at every wedding, who are the different Chinese deities and gods, why is eight such a popular number, what does it mean to give oranges to someone, why you shouldn't wear anything white on your hair, etc. Until a better dictionary of symbols comes out, this one is essential to your understanding of Chinese culture.