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Why characters?

Why Chinese writing has not been replaced by some kind of alphabetic system yet, limiting the use of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 guo (country)

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...

The origin of Chinese writing is commonly placed


around the XIV century b.C., around 3400 years ago.
The first real "characters" are those found on the bones
used for divination under the Shang and Zhou
dynasties, which form the so-called jiagu wen (

). On the right, an example of oracular


inscription on ox bone. The study of this language
began at the beginning of this century, but hundreds of
symbols among the 4500 found on oracular bones
haven't been translated yet. The following phase in the
evolution of Chinese characters is represented by the
symbols encarved on bronze vessels from the Zhou
dynasty onward (XI century b.C), a writing known as jin
wen ( ). Characters began to be written with brush and
ink around the V-IV century b.C., first on wood, bamboo
or silk. The latter was still used also after paper
substituted wood tablets.

The need for a codified writing brought to the


creation of many different styles that
substituted one another century after
century. The first was the da zhuan or Big

Seal style ( ), used from the VIII

century b.C. The xiao zhuan ( ),


Small Seal, was created by the Prime
Minister of the first Chinese emperor. It was

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

with kai shu ( ) or Exemplar Style


(on the left), created during the Han dynasty.

Cao shu ( ) or Cursive was also born


under the Han dynasty, around the I century
c.e.

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

henggou horizontal stroke with a hook

zi (character)
as in the character

shugou vertical stroke with a hook

xiao (small)

as in the character

wangou bending stroke with a hook

gou (dog)

as in the character

xiegou slant stroke with a hook

wo (I, me)

as in the character

pinggou level bending stroke with a hook

wang (to forget)

3. And the following by two single strokes with a turn:

as in the character
vertical stroke with a horizontal turn to the
shuzhe
right
yi (doctor, medicine)
as in the character

hengzhe horizontal stroke with a vertical turn

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.

[ << Basic strokes ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 1 >>]


But:
• If it crosses other strokes the vertical stroke in the middle should be written last:

The character is written this way:


zhong (middle)
The fundamental rules - from top to bottom and from left to right - are easily understandable, since they
are used in Western writings, too. The others on the contrary need a few exercise. Be sure to learn from
the beginning the correct way each different character should be written; otherwise you may find yourself
repeating the same mistakes over and over without realizing it, especially when you'll know hundreds of
characters.

[ << Basic strokes ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 1 >>]

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.

1. Strokes at the top before those at the bottom.

The character is written this way:


san (three)

The character is written this way:


tian (heaven)

2. Strokes to the left before those to the right.

The character is written this way:


men (door)

The character is written this way:


hua (to change)

3. Containing strokes before contained ones.


The sealing horizontal stroke
The is written must be written last ("close
character this way: the door after you have
si (four) entered the room")
The is written
character this way:
yue
(moon)
But:
• When there aren't enclosing strokes at the top of the character, enclosed strokes are written first:

The is written this


character way:
zhe
(this)

4. Vertical stroke in the middle before those on both sides or at the bottom.

The character is written this way:


shui (water)

The character is written this way:


shan (mountain)
But:
• If it crosses other strokes the vertical stroke in the middle should be written last:

The character is written this way:


zhong (middle)
The fundamental rules - from top to bottom and from left to right - are easily understandable, since they
are used in Western writings, too. The others on the contrary need a few exercise. Be sure to learn from
the beginning the correct way each different character should be written; otherwise you may find yourself
repeating the same mistakes over and over without realizing it, especially when you'll know hundreds of
characters.

[ << Basic strokes ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 1 >>]

<< Stroke order ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 2 >>]


Introduction
All characters contain a particular component called "radical" or "side". These elements were once
characters themselves, but some are no longer recognizable as such. Learning the radicals helps to
categorize and memorize characters; the presence of a certain radical can even suggest the meaning of
the whole character, which often relates to the original form of the radical. On the other hand, the non-
radical component of the character often suggests its pronounciation, or viceversa.
Chinese dictionaries contain more than 200 radicals, but you will easily memorize the most common
ones. In the following lessons we'll present 60 radicals, each of them followed by three characters that
contain them, by compounds and notes on their use.
Please note that the shape of a radical changes according to its position in the character, and that the
same radical could well be found at the top of a character and on the left side of another: our examples
couldn't always show all of the possibilities. As for the pinyin transcription, we didn't put the tones
(pronounciation doesn't really concern us by now) nor the umlauts that certain syllables have.

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5
Radicals

Original
characters
-- --

Pinyin -- -- yan dao ren


Meaning -- -- word knife man
Examples

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

lengyin Beijing shuo hua daolai xiuxi


cold drinks Peking to speak arrival to rest

bingdong huangdi qing wen jianbing fojing


to freeze emperor may I ask... handle of a sword Buddhist scripture

xiguan xuanmiao yuyan yuekan xiannu


to get used to marvellous language monthly publication female immortal

#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 >>]
]

[ << The radicals : part [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 4


2] >>]

#11 #12 #13 #14 #15

Radicals

Original
--
characters

Pinyin men zou tu -- da


Meaning door to walk soil -- big
jian di tai
jin cao
space in earth greatest
to enter grass
between

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

xianhua mixin qiangbi meili


pingguo
gossip superstition wall pretty
apple

#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] >>]

[ << The radicals : part [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 5


3] >>]

#16 #17 #18 #19 #20

Radicals

Original
--
characters

Pinyin shou kou -- shan


Meaning hand mouth -- mountain

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

dakai jiaohan guoji daoyu yinhang


open to shout international islands bank

zhuazhu tanci ditu shanling hen duo


to catch exclamation map mountain very much
ridge
tingzhong shanfeng
tigao quanzi daode
audience, mountain
to raise circle, ring ethics
listeners peak

#16 The original form of the "hand" is also a radical, placed at the bottom or on the left:

Na to hold, to take

Bai to worship, to respect

#17 The "mouth" is not always placed on the left of characters, as in the following examples:

ming name

shi history

#19 This radical also stays on top or at the bottom of characters:

sui year

yue high mountain

[ << The radicals : part [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 5


3] >>]

[ << The radicals : part [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 6


4] >>]
#21 #22 #23 #24 #25

Radicals

Original
characters

Pinyin shi shi quan nu zi


Meaning corpse food dog woman son

fan gou nai


wei sun
cooked dog breast, milk
tail grandson
rice

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

weisui fandian goupi nainai Sun


to tail hotel, bullshit, grandmoth Zhongshan
behind, to restauran nonsense er Sun Yat-sen
follow t

maojiao furen guer


jumin jiaozi mewing married orphan
resident, ravioli woman
inhabitant

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

#24 This radical can also be found at the bottom of characters:

qi Wife

#25 The "son" is not always placed on the left of characters, as in the following
example:

xiao filial piety

[ << The radicals : part [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 6


4] >>]

[ << The radicals : part 5 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 7 >>]

#26 #27 #28 #29 #30

Radicals
Original
characters

Pinyin ma si huo fang hu


Meaning horse silk fire square door

qu hong lie fang jian


to drive red violent to put shoulder

Examples
tuo zhi re lu fang
camel paper hot to travel house, room

pian xi zhao zu bian


to deceive thin, delicate to shine, to reflect nationality flat

quzhu kouhong menglie jiefang jianbang


to expel lipstick fierce, violent to liberate shoulder

Compounds
tuobei zhipai renao luyou fangzu
hunchback playing cards lively to travel rent

qipian zixi zhaoxiang minzu biandan


to cheat audience, listeners to photograph nationality shoulder pole

#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

#29 This radical also stays at the bottom of characters:

pang side

[ << The radicals : part 5 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 7 >>]

<< The radicals : part 6 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 8 >>]

#31 #32 #33 #34 #35

Radicals

Original
characters

Pinyin shi yu mu che ri


Meaning to show jade tree vehicle sun, day

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

zuguo wangqiu taohua san liang qiche wanshang


motherland tennis peach blossom three cars evening

#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

Pinyin bei jian niu -- yue - rou


Meaning shellfish to see ox -- moon - flesh, meat

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

fuze guannian dongwu shouhuo gandan


be responsible concept animal to harvest sincerity
for

guilu muchang didui pengyou


fuwuyuan law pasture land hostile friend
waiter

ganjue tedian daojiao huotui


caizheng
to feel characteristic daojiao ham
finance

[ << The radicals : part 7 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 9 >>]

[ << The radicals : part 8 ] [ Table of contents ] [ The radicals : part 10 >>]

#41 #42 #43 #44 #45

Radicals

Original
--
characters

Pinyin qian -- yi shi mu


Meaning to owe sickness clothes stone eye

ci bing bu sha mei


sequence, next sick, disease to mend sand, grit eyebrow

Examples
huan ji xiu ying yan
joyfully illness, pain sleeve hard eye

kuan teng ku bi shui


a sum of money to ache trousers emerald to sleep
Compounds

cixu shengbing buchang shazhi meimao


order to fall ill to compensate sand paper eyebrow
jiku
huanying sufferings lingxiu yingzuo yanjing
welcome leader hard seat eyeglasses

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 >>]

#46 #47 #48 #49 #50

Radicals

Original
characters

Pinyin tian jin he niao yang


Meaning field metal, gold cereal bird sheep
Examples

dian zhen si ji yang


electricity needle private chicken to raise, to grow

bei qian zhong ya xian


to prepare money seed, type crow to admire, to envy
liu guo qiu ya qun
to leave pot, pan autumn duck crowd, group

dianshi sichan yangsheng


zhenji jidan
television private property to preserve one's
injection egg
health

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 >>]

[ << The radicals : part 11 ] [ Table of contents ] [ Dictionary use >>]

#56 #57 #58 #59 #60

Radicals

Original
characters

Pinyin zu yu yu gu gui
Meaning foot rain fish bone demon
Examples

pao xue lu hai kui


to run snow dull, stupid skeleton chief, head

lu lei xian sui hun


road thunder fresh, tasty marrow hun soul

tiao xu e du mo
to jump to need crocodile -- evil spirit

paoxie xiaxue Lu Xun haigu kuishou


running shoes to snow Lu Xun human bones outstanding

Compounds
lubiao leiting xianhuo jisui hunpo
road sign thunderclap fresh goods spinal cord one's souls

tiaozao xuyao eyu dulou moli


flea to need crocodile skull magic power

[ << The radicals : part 11 ] [ Table of contents ] [ Dictionary use >>]

[ << The radicals : part 12 ] [ Table of contents ] [ Characters index >>]


1. By alphabetical order
The easiest way to find a character in a dictionary is the Western one: by alphabetical order. Of course,
you will need to know the pinyin (or Wade-Giles, depending on the dictionary) transcription for your
character, and possibly its tone - take a look at how many characters are there under the syllable ji or
shi. In most dictionaries characters are ordered by alphabet and by tone, but not all of them... the
notorious Mathew's Chinese-English Dictionary is by alphabet (though a weird alphabet, with, for
instance, sung coming before sha), but not by tone.
In the end, the more characters you know, the faster you will find them on a dictionary, also because
experience will help you "guess" the pronounciation of characters you've never seen by the elements
that compose them - even though this is not a precise method, on the contrary! A couple of examples:

is pronounced jiao like its component

But:

is pronounced chong while its component is pronounced zong

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:

2. Let's find its radical. It's at the


top:
3. This radical is composed of
one stroke.
We can find it in the first table
(detail);
it is radical number 4 of this
dictionary.
4. The rest of the character
is composed of three strokes:

5. In the second table we will


look for
characters with radical number
4 plus three strokes:

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:

chang (long) also has radical number 4:

chu (to exit) has radical number 3:

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:

3. The first two strokes of this


character are:

4. So we'll look for this


character here:

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:

In the second table we can now find our


character:

And that's all. Hope you had some fun throughout this tutorial!

[ << The radicals : part 12 ] [ Table of contents ] [ Characters index >>]

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