Miscellaneous

Fun Facts

  • My last name “鬲” has two pronunciations in Chinese: Gé when it is used in a surname, a place name, or an ancient state name, and Lì when it refers to the ancient vessel li (鬲).
    • The li is an ancient Chinese cooking vessel, typically with three hollow legs, a structure that increases the surface area exposed to fire and improves heating efficiency. Early examples were often made of pottery, while later examples were also cast in bronze (See Figure 1 below).
    • A simple way to distinguish a li (鬲) from a ding (鼎) is that a li typically has hollow legs, whereas a ding is usually described as having solid legs.
    • Pottery li first appeared in the Late Neolithic period, roughly around 5,000 years ago! The modern Chinese character “鬲” also originated as a pictograph of the vessel itself: its earliest forms in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions visually resemble the tripod cooking vessel, and over time the character gradually evolved into its present form (see Figure 2 below).
  • （中文版）“鬲”字是个多音字，有2个读音[1]：在人名、地名、古国名中读 “Gé”，在指代器物的时候读 “Lì”。
    • 鬲（Lì）是古代炊器[2,3,4]，典型特征是三足，且足部中空。中空是为了增大受热面积、提高加热效率。早期常见为陶鬲，后来也有青铜鬲。
    • 鬲和鼎的典型区别是前者是中空的足，后者是实心的。
    • 陶鬲最早出现在新石器时代晚期（距今约5000年!）[5,6]，到夏商周时期进一步发展，逐渐从生活用具演变成祭祀礼器。所以如果去博物馆见到类似下图的器物，那大概率就是鬲了。
    • 古鬲国[7]，也被称为有鬲氏，是上古时期的部落方国，传说参与过大禹治水[8]，但是后来没落了。鬲姓[9]延续至今，全国（或者说全世界）只剩下两千余人[6,10]。
henan boju

Figure 1. Two examples of li: the left one was made of pottery, and the right one was made of bronze (images from Henan Museum (left) and Capital Museum (right)).

图1. 河南博物院的绳纹陶鬲（左图）和首都博物馆的伯矩鬲（右图）。

Process of "鬲" (from Baike.Baidu)

Figure 2. Evolution of the Chinese character "鬲" (images from Wiki (left) and Baike.Baidu (right)).

图2. "鬲"字的字形演变流程图 (左图来自维基百科，右图来自百度百科)。


Thank You

  • I want to thank my family, friends, teachers, advisors, and all the people who have helped, supported, and influenced me.