Snow signs – The VIEWS project
Well it’s midwinter, and those of us in the northern hemisphere tend to like a bit of snow at this time of year. Love it or hate it, it’s taken on an iconic status for winter, with picturesque white landscapes such as that longed for by Bing Crosby. But what do you call it and how do you write it down? Even if you don’t experience snow often or at all, you may have a word for it. Join us for a selective tour of snow words and signs around the world. We begin with the Oracle Bone Script in Shang China.
Glowing molten bronze, crackling bonfire for sacrificial rituals, and dry specula being scorched for divination—Shang China from the Late Bronze Age is a culture of fire. The Book of Odes, one of the Confucianist classics, vividly portents its conquering king: “The Martial King then set out, killingly he grasped the axe: he was like fire so blazing: and so there was nobody who could dare to check us”. Yet amid this culture of blazing heat, we find a surprising contrast: the soft elegance of snowflakes, beautifully preserved in Shang oracle bone script. The oracle script character for ‘snow’ has intrigued scholars for centuries. Its exact components are still debated, but one thing is clear—it was festive and beautiful. The squarish upper part of the sign is the sky—not unlike the Egyptian hieroglyphic sky sign. But unlike its Egyptian counterpart, what falls from the sky are not only rain drops, but also something resembling feathers. And this is what snow probably meant for Shang people: something light and soft, swirling all its way down elegantly.
Philologically speaking, the feathers also evoke the word hui 彗, the comet—another celestial phenomenon with a feather-like tail. In the word “snow” 雪, it also indicates the pronunciation “hui”. Thus the character embodies multiple layers of meaning, blending both sound and imagery to convey the lightness of the snow.
