Free Goodies - The Key to Chinese Characters
Discover Mystery behind Chinese Characters
Historical Background
The origins of Chinese script are shrouded in mystery, and various legends exist to explain its creation. One such legend tells how Cāng Jiē 仓颉, a minister of the Emperor Huáng Dì 黄帝, observed the footprints of birds and animals. He noticed how each one was distinct and recognizable. Inspired by this, Cāng Jiē drew pictures of object ,simplifying them by reducing the number of lines. These were the first pictographs, called xiàng xíng 象形 by the Han lexicographer Xǔ Shèn 许慎(30 A.D.- 124A.D.).
Pictographs
Certain items could be represented very well by pictographs, for example: animals; plants; parts of the body etc. As the development of a particular character is traced, we can see that, over time, it tends to lose some of its resemblance to the original.
Examples of Pictographs
日 rì sun
月 yuè moon
山 shān mountain
虎 hǔ tiger
象 xiàng elephant
犬 quǎn dog
耳 ěr ear
口 kǒu mouth
水 shuǐ water
火 huǒ fire
木 mù wood
羊 yáng sheep
马 mǎ horse
目 mù eye
手 shǒu hand
Ideographs
These are characters which represent abstract concepts. Xǔ Shèn called them zhǐ shì 指事.
Example of Ideographs
一 yī one
二 èr two
三 sān three
上 shàng up, above
下 xià lower, below
Determinative-Phonetic Characters
As civilization grew, so did the demand for new characters. To this end, a new type of character was invented called determinative-phonetic, or xíng shēng形声.
These characters have a determinative part, to convey the meaning, and a phonetic part to show pronunciation.
Examples of Determinative-Phonetic Characters with a Similar Pronunciation
Determinative Phoetic Compound
水 shuǐ(water; abbrev.氵) + 其 qí (his, her its this, that; originally winnowing basket, now 箕) → 淇qí (the River Qi)
玉 yù (jade; abbrev. 王) + 其 qí → 琪 qí(a valuable white stone or gem)
木 mù(tree; wood) + 其 qí → 棋綦 qí (Chinese chess)
This shows how words with the same pronunciation are written completely differently. 其 qí is always phonetic when it appears in a compound word, although it can function as a character it self, meaning his, he, its etc.
Examples of Determinative-Phonetic Characters with a Similar Meaning
木 mù (wood) + 土 tǔ (earth; land; ground) → 杜 dù (the russet pear; to shut out; to stop; to prevent)
木 mù (wood) + 反 fǎn (to turn over; to rebel; to turn back) → 板 bǎn (board; blocks for printing)
Every pictograph can be used as a phonetic, but only a few function as determinatives. This system of radicals was introduced to enable characters to be classified in a dictionary. By the time of the Qing Dynasty ( 1644 A.D-1911 A.D.) the number of radicals had been reduced to its current level of 214. Apart from the three major groups of characters already mentioned, there are also a few others. Associative compounds are formed when two or more pictographs or ideographs combined to create a completely new character.
e.g.
木 + 木 → 林
mù + mù lín
wood + wood forest
mean ‘a place overgrown with trees' (represented by the component for ‘wood') 手 + 分 + 手 → 掰 shǒu fēn shǒu bāi - hand to separate hand
means ‘to separate something with two hands' Phonetic loan characters make up another group. An example of this is the word lái，which means come. Originally, no character existed for this as it is difficult to depict. The same word can also mean cereal plant
. So the character for this was used instead.
Following the introduction of kaǐ shū, or standard script, between 200A.D. and 600 A.D., there was no further formal development of the script. However, as new characters can be created using the determinative-phonetic system, the language has continued to grow and evolve.
Discover Mystery behind Chinese Characters
