There are several kinds of Chinese characters, including a handful of pictograms (象形 pinyin: xiàngxíng) and a number of indicatives (指事 zhǐshì), but the vast majority are phono-semantic compounds (形聲 xíngshēng). Although Chinese characters are often called ideograms, only a handful fit this category in any sense, and sinologists and linguists discourage referring to Chinese characters as ideograms, as this term has led to a misconception that characters represent ideas directly, whereas in fact they do so only through association with the spoken word. Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... A Chinese character. ...

Traditional classification

Traditional Chinese lexicography divided characters into six categories (六書 liùshū lit. "Six Writings"), which are described below. This classification system is often attributed to Xu Shen's second century dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, but this classification can be dated earlier. The first mention is in the work Zhou Li of the late Zhou dynasty, and the types listed in the Hanshu of the 1st-century CE as well as by Zheng Zhong (鄭眾), quoted by Zheng Xuan (鄭玄) in his 1st-century CE commentary of Zhou Li, although the details vary. The traditional classification is still taught but is no longer the focus of modern lexicographic practice. Some categories are not clearly defined, nor are they mutually exclusive: the first four refer to structural composition, while the last two refer to usage. For this reason, some modern scholars view them as six principles of character formation rather than six types of characters, the term liushu might therefore be translated as the "Six-Principles Theory of Character Formation". Lexicography is either of two things Practical lexicography is the art or craft of writing dictionaries. ... XÇ” Shèn XÇ” Shèn (許慎) was the author of Shuōwén JiÄ›zì, which was the first Chinese character dictionary. ... The 2nd century is the period from 101 - 200 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. ... a version of Shuowen Jiezi Shuōwén JiÄ›zì (說文解字, Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters) was the first Chinese character dictionary, compiled by XÇ” Shèn between 100 CE and 121 CE in Han Dynasty China. ... Zhou Li (周禮) is known in English as the Rituals of Zhou or the Rites of Zhou. ... Boundaries of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1050 - 771 BC) in China The Zhou Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chou Ch`ao; 1122 BC to 256 BC (ref) followed the Shang (Yin) Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty in China. ... The Book of Han (Ch: 漢書, Hanshu) is a classic Chinese historical writing covering the history of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE-9 CE). ...

The earliest significant, extant corpus of Chinese characters is found on turtle shells and the bones of livestock, chiefly the scapula of oxen, for use in pyromancy, a form of divination. These ancient characters are called oracle bone script. Roughly a quarter of these characters are pictograms while the rest are either phono-semantic or compound indicative structures. Despite millennia of drastic changes in shape, usage and meaning, a few of these characters remain recognizable to the modern reader of Chinese. Left scapula - front view () Left scapula - rear view () In anatomy, the scapula, or shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). ... Pyromancy (from Greek pyros, fire, and manteia, divination) is the art of divination by means of fire. ... Oracle bone script (Chinese: 甲骨文; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally shell bone writing) refers to incised (or, rarely, brush-written) ancient Chinese characters found on oracle bones, which are animal bones or turtle shells used in divination in ancient China. ...

At present, more than 90% of all Chinese characters are phono-semantic compounds, constructed out of elements intended both to hint at meaning and pronunciation. However, as both the meanings and pronunciations of particular characters have changed over time, these components have often ceased to be good guides either to meaning or to pronunciation. The failure to recognize the historical and etymological role of these components often leads to misclassification and folk etymology. A study of the earliest sources (the oracle bones script and the Zhou-dynasty bronze script) is often necessary for an understanding of the true composition and etymology of any particular character. Reconstructing Middle and Old Chinese phonology from the clues present in characters and other sources is a part of diachronic linguistics with a long tradition in China. In Chinese, it is called Yinyunxue (音韻學 lit. "Studies of sounds and rimes"). Folk etymology or popular etymology is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore, as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time, by means of examining languages which are recognizably related through similarities such as vocabulary, word formation, and syntax, as well as the surviving records of ancient languages. ... Historical Chinese Phonology deals with reconstructing the sounds of Chinese from the past. ...

Pictograms (象形)

pinyin: xiàng xíng, lit. form imitation.

Roughly 600 Chinese characters are pictograms - characters which are stylised drawings of the things they represent. These are generally among the oldest characters in Chinese. A few, indicated below with their earliest forms, date back to the 14th to 11th centuries BCE and are found on the oracle bones.

Many of these pictograms became progressively more stylized as they evolved through the Zhou dynasty and lost their pictographic flavor, especially during the transition from the Seal Script of the Eastern Zhou to Qin dynasty period to clerical script and then regular script. The table below summarises the evolution of a few Chinese pictograms. Where no simplified form is provided, it is identical to the traditional character. 《尋隱者不遇》—賈島 松下問童子 言師採藥去 隻在此山中 雲深不知處 Seeking the Master but not Meeting by Jia Dao Beneath a pine I asked a little child. ... Alternative meaning: Zhou Dynasty (690 CE - 705 CE) The Zhou Dynasty (周朝; Wade-Giles: Chou Dynasty) (late 10th century BC to late 9th century BC - 256 BC) followed the Shang (Yin) Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty in China. ... The Qin Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chin Chao) (221 BCE - 206 BCE) was preceded by the Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. ... The clerical script (traditional Chinese 隷書, simplified Chinese 隶书) is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which, due to its high legibility to modern readers, is still being used for artistic flavor in a variety of functional applications such as headlines, signboards and advertisements. ... Sheng Jiao Xu by Chu Suiliang: calligraphy of the Kaishu style The Regular Script, or in Chinese Kaishu (楷書 Pinyin: kÇŽishÅ«) and Japanese Kaisho, also commonly known as Standard Regular (正楷), is the newest of the Chinese calligraphy styles (peaked at the 7th century), hence most common in modern writings and...

Oracle Bone Script	Seal Script	Clerical Script	Semi-Cursive Script	Cursive Script	Regular Script (Traditional)	Regular Script (Simplified)	Pinyin	Meaning
						—	rì	Sun
						—	yuè	Moon
						—	shān	Mountain
						—	shuǐ	Water
						—	yǚ	Rain
						—	mù	Wood
						—	hé	Rice Plant
						—	rén	Man
						—	nǚ	Woman
						—	mǔ	Mother
						—	mù	Eye
						—	niú	Bull
						—	yáng	Goat
							mǎ	Horse
							niǎo	Bird
							guī	Tortoise
							lóng	Chinese Dragon
							fèng	Chinese Phoenix

N.B.: Oracle bone script (Chinese: 甲骨文; Hanyu Pinyin: ; literally shell bone writing) refers to incised (or, rarely, brush-written) ancient Chinese characters found on oracle bones, which are animal bones or turtle shells used in divination in ancient China. ... 《尋隱者不遇》—賈島 松下問童子 言師採藥去 隻在此山中 雲深不知處 Seeking the Master but not Meeting by Jia Dao Beneath a pine I asked a little child. ... The clerical script (traditional Chinese 隷書, simplified Chinese 隶书) is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy which, due to its high legibility to modern readers, is still being used for artistic flavor in a variety of functional applications such as headlines, signboards and advertisements. ... Semi-cursive script (Chinese: 行書, Pinyin: XíngshÅ«, Japanese: gyōsho, Korean: haengseo) is a partially cursive style of Chinese calligraphy. ... Cursive is a style of handwriting in which all the letters in a word are connected, making a word one single (complicated) stroke. ... Sheng Jiao Xu by Chu Suiliang: calligraphy of the Kaishu style The Regular Script, or in Chinese Kaishu (楷書 Pinyin: kÇŽishÅ«) and Japanese Kaisho, also commonly known as Standard Regular (正楷), is the newest of the Chinese calligraphy styles (peaked at the 7th century), hence most common in modern writings and... Traditional Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 正體字/繁體字, Simplified Chinese: 正体字/繁体字) refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Sheng Jiao Xu by Chu Suiliang: calligraphy of the Kaishu style The Regular Script, or in Chinese Kaishu (楷書 Pinyin: kÇŽishÅ«) and Japanese Kaisho, also commonly known as Standard Regular (正楷), is the newest of the Chinese calligraphy styles (peaked at the 7th century), hence most common in modern writings and... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), commonly called Pinyin, is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... Image File history File links Character_Ri_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Ri_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Ri_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Ri_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Ri_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Ri_Trad. ... The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuue_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuue_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuue_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuue_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuue_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuue_Trad. ... Apparent magnitude: up to -12. ... Image File history File links Character_Shan_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Shan_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Shan_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Shan_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Shan_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Shan_Trad. ... Lyskamm, 4 527 m, Pennine Alps A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. ... Image File history File links Character_Shui_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Shui_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Shui_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Shui_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Shui_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Shui_Trad. ... Impact of a drop of water Water is a chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuu_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuu_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuu_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuu_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuu_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Yuu_Trad. ... Rain is a source of precipitation which forms when separate drops of water fall to the Earths surface from clouds. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu4_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu4_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu4_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu4_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu4_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu4_Trad. ... Trunks A tree trunk as found at the Veluwe, The Netherlands Wood is a solid material derived from woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs. ... Image File history File links Character_He_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_He_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_He_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_He_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_He_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_He_Trad. ... Species Oryza glaberrima Oryza sativa The planting of rice is often a labour-intensive process Terrace of rice paddies in Yunnan Province, southern China. ... Image File history File links Character_Ren_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Ren_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Ren_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Ren_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Ren_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Ren_Trad. ... Michelangelos David is widely considered to be one of the finest artistic portrayals of a man. ... Image File history File links Character_Nuu_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Nuu_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Nuu_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Nuu_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Nuu_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Nuu_Trad. ... Diverse women. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Mu_Trad. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Image File history File links Character_Eye_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Eye_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Eye_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Eye_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Eye_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Eye_Trad. ... A human eye. ... Image File history File links Character_Niu_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Niu_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Niu_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Niu_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Niu_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Niu_Trad. ... Look up bull in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Image File history File links Character_Yang_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Yang_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Yang_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Yang_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Yang_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Yang_Trad. ... Species See Species and subspecies The goat is a mammal in the genus Capra, which consists of nine species: the Ibex, the West Caucasian Tur, the East Caucasian Tur, the Markhor, and the Wild Goat. ... Image File history File links Character_Ma_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Ma_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Ma_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Ma_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Ma_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Ma_Trad. ... Image File history File links Character_Ma_Simp. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... Image File history File links Character_Niao_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Niao_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Niao_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Niao_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Niao_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Niao_Trad. ... Image File history File links Character_Niao_Simp. ... “Aves” redirects here. ... Image File history File links Character_Gui_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Gui_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Gui_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Gui_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Gui_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Gui_Trad. ... Image File history File links Character_Gui_Simp. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Image File history File links Character_Long_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Long_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Long_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Long_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Long_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Long_Trad. ... Image File history File links Character_Long_Simp. ... The Chinese dragon (spelled Long, Loong or Lung in transliteration), is a mythical Chinese creature that also appears in other East Asian cultures, and is also sometimes called the Oriental (or Eastern) dragon. ... Image File history File links Character_Feng_Oracle. ... Image File history File links Character_Feng_Seal. ... Image File history File links Character_Feng_Cler. ... Image File history File links Character_Feng_Semi. ... Image File history File links Character_Feng_Cur. ... Image File history File links Character_Feng_Trad. ... Image File history File links Character_Feng_Simp. ... Chinese Phoenix sculpture, Nanning city, Guangxi province. ...

• 女 nǚ is a stylised drawing of a woman kneeing in profile. In the oracle bone, bronze and seal scripts, the torso vertically bisects the crossed arms; in the clerical and standard scripts, the graph is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise so that the hands, not the feet, are pointed downward.
• 水 shuǐ, "water" represents the lines of a flowing river.

Simple indicatives (指事)

pinyin: zhǐ shì, lit. indication.

Indicatives (sometimes called "ideograms") are intended to express an abstract idea by means some non-arbitrary sign or by modifying an existing pictogram. This most often means pictograms with added dots or lines to indicate what part or action is intended. In the examples below, abstract notions like numbers are represented by a matching number of strokes and the parts of trees are represented by marking them on a pictogram of a tree.

N.B.:

• 本 běn, "root" - a tree (木 mù) with the base indicated by an extra stroke.
• 末 mò, "apex" - the reverse of 本 (běn), a tree with the top highlighted by an extra stroke.

Note that the words "ideogram" and "ideograph" are objectionable to many scholars because they have historically been associated with the broadly rejected notion that Chinese characters somehow represent ideas directly without any link to spoken language.

Compound indicatives (會意)

pinyin: huì yì, lit. joined meaning.

Also variously termed associative compounds, logical aggregates, or composed ideograms (see above for objections to the word "ideogram"). In compound indicative graphs, two or more graphic elements are juxtaposed to indicate a new meaning. (Note that in modern characters, one or more of the graphic elements may be compressed or abbreviated: 人 "human" → 亻, 水 "water" → 氵, and 艸 "grass" → 艹.)

An example of the two components interacting to give meaning is 各 gè, originally meaning 'to arrive' but long borrowed for 'each'. The oracle bone of this compound, very similar to the modern graph, shows 夂, a foot (inverted form of 止 zhǐ, originally a foot) arriving at or entering a U- or 口-shaped object, representing perhaps a dwelling or a walled city. Neither of the components is the radical or semantic root of the entire graph in the manner of European languages. Rather, the meaning is expressed jointly through their interaction. In another example, the character 明 - composed of the characters for the sun and the moon - means "bright".

A few further examples:

Phono-semantic compound characters (形聲)

pinyin: xíng shēng, lit. form and sound.

By far the bulk of Chinese characters - over 90% - were created by linking together a character with a related meaning (the "semantic" element) and another character (the "phonetic" element) to indicate its pronunciation. These constructs came into being because of the difficulty of using pictorial forms to represent physically similar objects (e.g., dogs versus wolves), actions and abstract notions. This practice appeared very early in the development of Chinese writing; already in the Shang dynasty oracle bone script.

For example, a verb meaning "to wash one's hair" is pronounced mù, which sounds the same as the character for "tree". So, the character used to indicate washing one's hair is composed of the character for "tree", because it sounds the same, and the character for "water" (水, shuǐ), because "water" is semantically related to "washing".

A common error is to assume that in a phono-semantic compound, each component plays one and only one role. It is often the case that one of the two was the original graph and the other was added later as a form of semantic or phonetic disambiguator. That is, the original graph or "etymon" might therefore have both roles as well. Take 菜 cài ("vegetable") as a case in point. The pictogram for 艹 cǎo "grass" (an abbreviation of 草 cǎo "grass") is used as a semantic component, in conjunction with 采 cǎi ("harvest") as the graph's pronunciation. But 采 cǎi ("harvest") was also used in classical texts to mean "vegetable". In other words, the graph 采 underwent semantic extension, to also mean "vegetable"; the addition of the 艹 is in fact redundant. Thus, although the graph 菜 is usually understood in folk etymology (as it was by Xu Shen in Shuowen Jiezi) as 艹 (semantic) plus 采 (phonetic), it can also be analyzed as 采 (semantically extended to "vegetable") which is etymonic, playing both semantic and phonetic roles, plus 艹 as a redundant semantic indicator.

The phonetic element of a semantic-phonetic character represented the exact or almost-exact pronunciation of the character when the character was first created; and characters sharing the same phonetic part had the same reading. Linguists rely heavily on this fact to reconstruct the sound of Old Chinese. However, over time, the reading of a character may be no longer the one indicated by the phonetic part due to sound change and other reasons. When people try to read a two-part character of which they are ignorant, they may take one of the parts as the phonetic indicator, following the folk wisdom of you bian du bian (有邊讀邊). That often results in mistakes. The Seal script characters for harvest (later year) and person. ... Sound change or phonetic change is a historical process of language change consisting in the replacement of one speech sound or, more generally, one phonetic feature by another in a given phonological environment. ... Youbian dubian (Chinese: 有邊讀邊 pinyin: yÇ’u biān dú biān lit. ...

Borrowed characters (假借)

pinyin: jiǎ jiè, lit. borrowing.

Main article: Jiajie

Refers to the case where a character is borrowed to write another word due to a fortuitous homophony between the words. For example, the character 來 lái depicts the wheat plant and meant "wheat" in ancient times -- it was a pictogram. Because "wheat" and "to come" were pronounced the same, the character 來 was then borrowed to write the verb "to come". The pronunciation of the original word meaning "wheat" has changed in modern times to mài(now written 麥), and the original homophony between the two words has disappeared. In Written Chinese, jiajie (假借 borrow; make use of) is the practice of using the character for one word to write another homophonous or near-homophonous word. ... Homophony is a musical term that describes the texture of two or more instruments or parts moving together and using the same rhythm. ...

Derived characters (轉注)

pinyin: zhuǎn zhù, lit. reciprocal meaning.

This classification is of purely historical value, and is the least understood of the liushu principles of character formation. It may refer to characters which have similar meanings and often the same etymological root, but which are pronounced differently and usually have somewhat different meanings. The English words chance and cadence, for example, have the same Latin root word: cadentia, cadentiam, meaning "fall". If English was written the way Chinese is, these two words would likely have similar characters.

The characters 老 lǎo ("old") and 考 kǎo ("a test") are the most commonly cited examples of derived characters, which come from a common etymological root but differ in that one part is changed to indicate a different pronunciation and meaning.

Modern classification

The liushu had been the standard classification scheme for Chinese characters since Xu Shen's time. Generations of scholars tried to modify the scheme, but none challenged it. Tang Lan (唐蘭) (1902-1979) was the first person to dismiss liushu, offering his own sanshu (三書 "Three Principles of Character Formation"), namely xiangxing (象形 "form-representing"), xiangyi (象意 "meaning-representing") and xingsheng (形聲 "meaning-sound"). This classification was later criticised by Chen Mengjia (陳夢家) (1911-1966) and Qiu Xigui. Both Chen and Qiu offered their own sanshu. (Qiu 2000:chp. 6.3)

References

• Boltz, William G. (1994). The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System. American Oriental Series, vol. 78. American Oriental Society, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. ISBN 0-940490-78-1.
• DeFrancis, John (1984). The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. ISBN 0-8248-1068-6.
• _____(1989). Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. ISBN 0-8248-1207-7.
• Qiu Xigui (裘錫圭) (2000). Chinese Writing. Tran. Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman. Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. ISBN 1-55729-071-7.
• Woon, Wee Lee (雲惟利) (1987). Chinese Writing: Its Origin and Evolution (漢字的原始和演變), originally published by the University of East Asia, Macau (no ISBN).

See also

• Radical
• Chinese writing
• Chinese calligraphy
• Japanese writing
• Stroke order

The left part of mā, a Chinese character meaning mother, is a radical that means woman A radical (from Latin radix, meaning root) is a basic identifiable component of every Chinese character. ... The Chinese written language consists of a writing system stretching back nearly 4000 years. ... Calligraphy is an art dating back to the earliest day of history, and widely practiced throughout China to this day. ... Nihongo in kanji This article describes the modern Japanese writing system and its history. ... Outline of the character 永, showing stroke order. ...

External links

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Written Chinese/Lesson 1

• This page draws heavily on the French Wikipedia page Classification des sinogrammes, retrieved 12 April 2005.