Characterology - Mojigaku (English spelling)

Japanese: 文字学 - もじがく（英語表記）wén zì xué

Due to the ideographic nature of Chinese characters, there are many characters and their shapes are complex, so it seems that the Chinese struggled to master them from an early age. The oldest books related to philology are what we would now call literacy textbooks. Books such as the Zhou dynasty's Shishu edition, the Qin dynasty's Cangjie edition, and the Han dynasty's Qiuju edition were compiled to spell out everyday characters in rhymes to make them easier to remember. In the Han dynasty, Confucianism became the state religion, and the ability to read and understand classics became necessary. A dictionary was created that organized and recorded classical words according to their meaning, and was named the Erya dictionary, which allowed people to memorize classical characters, learn the sounds, and understand their meanings.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

漢字が表意文字という性格から，字数が多く，字形も複雑なために，中国人は早くからその習得に苦しんだらしい。文字学とかかわりをもつ最も古い書物は，今でいう識字課本の類である。周の《史籀（しちゆう）篇》，秦の《蒼頡（そうけつ）篇》，漢の《急就篇》など，日常の文字を韻語でつづり記憶に便なるよう編集された。漢代に入ると，儒教が国教となり，古典の読解力が要求されるようになった。古典の字句を意味によって整理収録し，古典の字を覚え，音を学び，意味を知るための字書がつくられ，《爾雅（じが）》と名づけられた。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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