Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2015

On the Representational Effect of Chinese Characters

(Abstract)

Li Quanmin

As the basis of Chinese culture and its main vehicle, the unique nature of Chinese characters has exerted a great influence on the Chinese cognitive process and way of thought. As a basic form of external signification, Chinese characters’ representation is different from that of alphabetic writing, being closer to pictorial representation. Because of this, users of Chinese characters tend, in their mental activities, to use analog representation and propositional representation connected with experience. Moreover, they match this with intuition, imagination, and a substantive reasoning model, thus limiting transcendental abstract concepts, representation of transcendent propositions, and the initiation and development of formal inference. As a result, knowledge in traditional Chinese culture is biased toward experience and practical application. At the same time, this has enabled the flourishing of art and literature based on intuition and lyricism.