Wuhan Art Museum: Ancient Characters That Look Like Skateboards & Hotpot | 6 July 2024

Описание: 6 July 2024, Wuhan. Escaping the July heat into the Wuhan Art Museum—and discovering another world in the seal script gallery.

Casual footage by the filmmaker of Masters in the Forbidden City and Every Treasure Tells a Story. This gallery is perfect for kids—lots of families here.

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Seal script gallery: ancient characters from 3,000 years ago.

The exhibition features 275 works from the 13th National Calligraphy and Seal Cutting Exhibition, covering seal, clerical, regular, and running scripts. Visiting on July 6, right in the middle of the June 25–July 9 run.

But what caught my attention wasn‘t the calligraphy itself—it was the shapes.

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Some characters look like birds. Some like human eyes.

The oracle bone script for “eye” is just a horizontal eye with socket and pupil. “Bird” is even more direct: beak, wings, tail—a little bird standing there.

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Some look like two people skateboarding together.

The character for “follow” (cong): two figures, one behind the other, like kids on skateboards. A child pointed: “They’re skateboarding!” Parents laughed. But honestly—it does.

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Some look like four people gathered around hotpot.

The traditional character for “crowd” (zhong): three people (actually three under “eye”) huddled together. One kid: “They’re eating hotpot!” Another: “No, mahjong!” Laughter filled the room.

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Some look like mahjong tile symbols.

Certain oracle bone numerals—“six,” “eight”—with their straight lines and angles, really resemble mahjong patterns. No wonder kids make that connection.

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The magic of pictographs: you can guess.

See a character—don‘t know its sound, don’t know its meaning. Just look at its shape. “Sun” is round. “Moon” is crescent. “Mountain” is three peaks. “Water” is flowing ripples.

In June 2024, children visited similar exhibitions, snapping photos with smartwatches, taking notes. Probably drawn by these “picture-like” characters too.

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Writing began as drawing.

Thousands of years ago, our ancestors saw something and drew it. A deer became “deer.” An ox became “ox.” A river became “water.” Back then, anyone could understand—because characters looked like the world.

Later, writing became abstract, standardized, farther from pictures. But in the seal script gallery, those 3,000‑year‑old characters still keep their original shapes.

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Where do we begin to understand a city?

With its art museum—Wuhan‘s seal script gallery, those picture‑like ancient characters.
With its children—pointing, shouting “skateboard!” “hotpot!” laughing freely.
With its imagination—from ancestors drawing what they saw 3,000 years ago, to today’s kids seeing ancient characters and free‑associating.

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2024年7月6日，武汉。刚从江汉路的酷暑钻进武汉美术馆，没想到在书法展的篆书厅，发现了另一个世界。《我在故宫修文物》《如果国宝会说话》导演随手拍。这个展厅特别适合带小孩，人气很旺。

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篆书厅里，全是三千年前的古文字。

这里展出的是全国第十三届书法篆刻展览进京展的275件作品，涵盖篆、隶、楷、行、草等各类书体。我来的这天是7月6日，正好赶上6月25日到7月9日的展期。

但真正吸引我的，不是书法本身，而是那些古文字的形状。

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有的字像鸟，有的字像人的眼睛。

甲骨文里的“目”字，就是一只横着的眼睛，有眼眶有眼珠。“鸟”字就更直接了，尖嘴、翅膀、尾巴，活脱脱一只小鸟站在那儿。

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有的字像两个人并排一起玩滑板。

那是一个“从”字，两个人一前一后，就像踩着滑板在街上滑行。旁边的小孩指着说：“他们在玩滑板！”家长笑了，但仔细看，确实像。

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有的字像四个人围着一起吃火锅。

那是“众”字的繁体“眾”，三个人（其实是“目”下三人）围在一起。有小朋友说：“他们在吃火锅！”另一个说：“不对，是在打麻将！”展厅里笑声一片。

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有的字特别像打麻将的时候麻将上会出现的符号。

一些甲骨文的数字，比如“六”、“八”，横平竖直的，跟麻将牌上的花纹真有几分神似。难怪孩子们会往那边想。

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象形文字最大的魅力，就是可以猜。

看到一个字，不用知道它的读音，不用知道它的含义，光是看形状，就能猜出几分。像“日”就是圆圆的，“月”就是弯弯的，“山”就是三个峰，“水”就是流动的波纹。

2024年6月，也有老师带孩子们来参观书法展，孩子们抬起智能手表拍照，用本子记录。想必也是被这些“像画一样的字”吸引住了。

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文字最初就是画。

几千年前，我们的祖先看见什么就画什么。画一只鹿，就是“鹿”；画一头牛，就是“牛”；画一条河，就是“水”。那时候的文字，谁都能看懂，因为那就是世界的样子。

后来，文字变得越来越抽象，越来越规范，离画越来越远。但篆书厅里，那些三千年前的字，还保留着最初的形状。

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我们从何处开始了解一座城市？
从它的美术馆开始——从武汉美术馆的篆书厅，从那些像画一样的古文字。
从它的孩子开始——从那些指着字喊“这是滑板”“这是火锅”的笑声。
从它的想象力开始——从三千年前祖先看见什么就画什么的单纯，到今天孩子们看见古文字就展开联想的自由。

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