Why Chinese writing has not been replaced by some kind of alphabetic system yet, limiting the use of
characters to the art of calligraphy? The reason why Chinese-speakers still use a writing system where
one is forced to memorize thousands of symbols is not merely a tribute to their history and traditions, nor
to artistic beauty; it's rather the unique nature of Chinese language itself that makes alternative systems
unfit.
First of all, Chinese is not alphabetic but syllabic. Hindi is an example of a syllabic language that uses a
few tens of symbols - only twice Western alphabets - but while it's still possible to understand an Indian
word in Latin letters, one can only try to guess the meaning of a transcribed Chinese word, in spite of the
fact that so-called Mandarin Chinese has more than 400 different syllables. The problem is, words are
often composed of only one syllable. While classical Chinese was almost completely monosyllabic,
polisyllables are becoming more and more common in modern Chinese. The average number of syllables
in a word, however, is two; still too low to allow a precise individuation of a word's meaning by its
transcription.
In spoken Chinese the problem is overcome by the context and by the use of five different tones, but an
isolated syllable can be actually misunderstood in spoken language, too. Characters, on the contrary, are
impossible to misunderstood, and that is why they have always been a unifying factor among speakers of
different dialects or languages, such as Cantonese, Korean and Japanese.
By now, the difference between writing the character ("middle") and the correspondent transcription
zhong should be clear, because while the former is immediately recognizable among 50.000 some
symbols, the latter could well be meaning, for instance, "clock" ( ) or "loyal" ( ), each of them
pronounced exactly the same.
Transcribing characters
So is it transcription useless? Actually, it is on of the easiest ways to memorize characters and their
pronounciation, because it codifies a huge range of sounds that are only slightly different to a Western
ear. The People's Republic of China promotes the diffusion of "pinyin" transcription, an alphabet of 26
letters, the same of the English alphabet, but outside China a different transcription is still widely used,
especially for classical Chinese: the so-called "Wade-Giles" system. The latter makes it easier to guess
the correct pronounciation of syllables... but once you have learned the few rules of pinyin you will hate it.
A few examples of the differences among these two systems:
Character Wade-Giles Pinyin
Chih zhi
Hsien xian
ts'ao cao
There are other systems, such as the one used in France, which is similar to Wade-Giles, and the
Chinese Phonetic Script ( zhuyin zimu), which uses special symbols. Of course we will use
the pinyin transcription for the characters we'll present.
Traditional and simplified characters
Chinese writing has actually undergone some kind of modernization. You may have noticed that
Taiwanese and emigrants use different characters from continental Chinese; the reason why is that
people outside China still use traditional characters ( fanti zi). In the Sixties the government of
the People's Republic of China, on the contrary, decided to simplify most characters and therefore reduce
the number of strokes that compose them. Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary, published in 1931,
contains characters of up to 28 strokes, while the majority of characters can be written nowadays with no
more than ten strokes.
Here we are with three examples:
became ma (horse)
became ti (body)
In the following tutorial we will learn simplified characters ( jianti zi)... but who knows? Maybe
you'll have the chance to know more on traditional ones in future pages on classical and medieval
Chinese...
substituted by li shu ( ),
Administrative Style, a far easier and clearer
writing that marked a turning-point in the
development of modern characters, now
more and more abstract and far from the
original pictographs. This trend continued
The evolution of the character qu (to go) is illustrated below, from oracular bones to inscriptions on bronze,
to Small Seal style, Administrative Style, Exemplar Style and Cursive. The original pictograph showed a
man going out of his cave.
Modern characters resemble those written in Exemplar Style.
Far from being complicated drawings, Chinese characters are made out of simple single strokes, all of
them variations of only eight basic ones. All strokes have their own name and are written according to a
few rules. It's very important to learn to recognize them, since the number of strokes in a character is
often the easiest way to find it in an index... but this will become clear after learning radicals and the use
of dictionaries.
1. The following are the first six strokes, the fundamental ones:
as in the character
horizontal stroke
heng
(written from left to right)
yi (one)
as in the character
vertical stroke
shu
(written from top to bottom)
shi (ten)
as in the character
down stroke to the left
pie
(written from top right to bottom left)
ba (eight)
as in the character
down stroke to the right
na
(written from top left to bottom right)
ru (to enter)
as in the character
dot
dian
(written from top to bottom right or left)
liu (six)
as in the character
upward stroke
ti
(written from bottom left to top right)
ba (to grasp)
2. The last two strokes have several different variations. The first group is composed by five strokes
with a hook:
as in the character
zi (character)
as in the character
xiao (small)
as in the character
gou (dog)
as in the character
wo (I, me)
as in the character
as in the character
vertical stroke with a horizontal turn to the
shuzhe
right
yi (doctor, medicine)
as in the character
kou (mouth)
4. Combined strokes are made out of basic ones. The following are a few examples:
as in the
character
vertical stroke combined with a level bending
shuwangou
stroke with a hook
ye (also)
as in the
character
piedian down stroke to the left combined with a dot
nu (woman)
as in the
character
Shuzhezhegou vertical stroke with a double turn and a hook
ma (horse)
If a character can be compared to a word in alphabetic languages, then strokes are like letters... learning
them is the key to memorize characters. And then, characters don't only need to be correct, they should
also be as beautiful and balanced as possible. It is therefore necessary to copy the single strokes many
times (be it with a brush or, much easier, with a pen) to memorize their shape and thickness.
The way strokes are combined into characters involves learning a few rules on stroke order; this will be
the goal of our next lesson.
Strokes are combined together according to a few fixed rules (and to several exceptions!). Learn these
rules, because they're of great help for memorizing characters. They are also fundamental in case you
need to recognize the first stroke of a character, but we'll talk about that again.
4. Vertical stroke in the middle before those on both sides or at the bottom.
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5
Radicals
Original
characters
-- --
xiu
leng jing shuo dao to stop
cold capital to talk to arrive
fo
bing di qing jian Buddha
ice emperor to request sword
xian
xi xuan yu kan Immortal
to practise obscure language to publish
Compounds
#1 The first radical is called the "two drops of water"; it usually appears in characters that have to do with
coldness. It's placed at the left side of characters.
#2 This radical always stays on top of characters.
#3 This radical is called "speech", and it appears at the left side of characters that have to do with
language.
#4 The original form of the "knife" is also a radical; it's found at the bottom of characters, as in the first of
the following. The second character shows a third form of this radical (placed on top):
fen to divide
zheng to argue
#5 The fifth radical is called the "standing person", and is always placed at the left side of characters.
The character it comes from can also be used as a radical; in that case it always stays on top, as in the
following character:
[ [ [
<< Ta Th
Th ble e
e of rad
rad co ica
ica nte ls :
ls : nts par
par ] t3
t1 >>]
]
Radicals
Original
characters
Pinyin
Meaning
Examples
Compounds
#6 The first radical is called the "ear", and it can stay at the left side or at the right
side of characters.
#7 This radical is called "three drops of water", symbolizes flowing water and
occurs on the left of characters. Its original form is also a radical; in the following
character is placed at the bottom but its position is not fixed:
quan
#8 The original form of the "heart" is also radical, and is always placed at the
bottom, as in the following character:
si
#10 This radical is called "the covering top" and it always occurs on top.
Characters with this radical are often related to the idea of house.
[ [ [
<< Tab Th
Th le e
e of rad
rad co ical
ical nte s :
s : nts par
par ] t3
t1 >>]
]
Radicals
Original
--
characters
Examples ta kua
yuan hua
wen pagoda to
far flower
to ask exaggerate
mi ping
xian qiang mei
to be lost apple
leisure wall beautiful
caoshu
shijian jinbu difang taitai
grass writing,
time to improve place madame
cursive
Compounds
wenti yuanzu dengta kuakou
xuehua
question excursion lighthouse to boast
snowflakes
#12 The original form of this radical is also a radical, as in the following character:
chao to exceed
#13 The original form of the "soil" is also radical, and is always placed at the bottom, as
in the following characters:
chen dust
zuo to sit
[ << The radicals : part [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 4
2] >>]
Radicals
Original
--
characters
da guo dao
jiao
to hit country island hang
to shout, to call
line
Examples tu ling
tan
zhua drawing mountain
to sigh
to seize ridge very
quan
ting
ti circle, to feng
to listen
to carry enclose peak virtue
Compounds
#16 The original form of the "hand" is also a radical, placed at the bottom or on the left:
Na to hold, to take
#17 The "mouth" is not always placed on the left of characters, as in the following examples:
ming name
shi history
sui year
Radicals
Original
characters
Examples fu
ju gu
mao woman,
to dwell jiao lonely
cat wife
dumpling
hai
zhan gu
e zhu child
to spread aunt
hungry pig
Compound
s
zhurou haizi
esi pork guniang child
fazhan to starve girl
to
develop
#23 The original form of the "dog" is also a radical, as in the following
character:
ku to cry
qi Wife
#25 The "son" is not always placed on the left of characters, as in the following
example:
[ << The radicals : part 5 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 7 >>]
Radicals
Original
characters
Examples
tuo zhi re lu fang
camel paper hot to travel house, room
Compounds
tuobei zhipai renao luyou fangzu
hunchback playing cards lively to travel rent
#26 The "horse" is also found at the bottom of characters, as in the following:
ma to curse
#28 The original form of the "fire" is also a radical, placed on the left of characters, as in the following
examples:
deng lamp
yan smoke
pang side
[ << The radicals : part 5 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 7 >>]
<< The radicals : part 6 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 8 >>]
Radicals
Original
characters
lun
li wang lin shi
wheel
rite king forest time
Examples zhuan
shen zhu song ming
to turn
deity, spirit bead pine light
liang
zu qiu tao wan
classifier
ancestor ball, globe peach evening, late
for vehicles
limao wangguo linmu guanglun xiaoshi
courtesy kingdom woods halo hour
Compounds
shenhua zhenzhu songshu zhuanhua mingbai
mythology pearl pine tree to transform to understand
#31 The original form of this radical is also a radical, found at the bottom of characters:
jin to forbid
#33 The "tree" also stays on top or at the bottom of characters, as in the following examples:
li plum
zhuo table
#35 This radical is not always found on the left side of characters:
xing star
chun spring
[ << The radicals : part 6 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 8 >>]
[ << The radicals : part 7 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 9 >>]
#36 #37 #38 #39 #40
Radicals
Original
--
characters
guan
fu wu shou gan
to watch
to carry, to bear thing to receive liver
Examples gui
yuan mu di peng
regulation
employee herd enemy friend
jue
cai te jiao tui
to feel, to
wealth special to teach leg
awake
Compounds
[ << The radicals : part 7 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 9 >>]
[ << The radicals : part 8 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 10 >>]
Radicals
Original
--
characters
Examples
huan ji xiu ying yan
joyfully illness, pain sleeve hard eye
touteng
fukuan headache kucha bilu shuijiao
to pay underpants dark green to sleep
[ << The radicals : part 8 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 10 >>]
[ << The radicals : part 9 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 11 >>]
Radicals
Original
characters
Compounds
zhunbei fenzhong
qianbao wuya
to prepare minute xianmu
wallet crow
to admire
liuxue chunqiu
huoguo yarong
to study Springs and qunzhong
hot pot duck's down
abroad Autumns the masses
[ << The radicals : part 9 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 11 >>]
Radicals
Original
characters
Pinyin zu yu yu gu gui
Meaning foot rain fish bone demon
Examples
tiao xu e du mo
to jump to need crocodile -- evil spirit
Compounds
lubiao leiting xianhuo jisui hunpo
road sign thunderclap fresh goods spinal cord one's souls
But:
2. By radical
What you must learn is to find characters by radical (what have we learned them for?). First you need to
identify the radical in a character, which is most times easy. Let's try to find a character with a radical we
didn't learn in the tutorial:
1. This is the character we have
to find:
Don't worry; it's easier than it seems. A little practise and you will immediately understand where the
radical is. There are, however, a few difficult radicals; you better learn some characters once for all,
because finding them could be really hard. They're usually very common and composed of few strokes.
A couple of examples:
3. By number of strokes
This is a very useful method in case you can't find the radical of a character, but not every dictionary
allow you to use it.
1. This is the character we have
to find:
2. It is composed of 12 strokes
(shier hua in Chinese);
let's find the right page:
4. The "corners"
The last method is a very difficult one... According
to it, the different shapes of strokes are given a
number from 0 to 9:
Characters are then classified after the number of
their four corners (and according to many rules),
as in the following example:
And that's all. Hope you had some fun throughout this tutorial!