chinese writing lesson

Why characters? Why Chinese writing has not been replaced by some kind of alphabetic system yet, limiting limiting the use of characters to the art of calligraphy?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, 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 zhong should be clear, because while the former is immediately recognizable among 50.000 some symb symbol ols, s, the the lat latte terr cou could ld well well be mean meanin ing, g, for for inst instan ance ce,, "cl "cloc ock" k" ( pronounced exactly the same.

) or or "lo "loya yal" l" (

), each each of them them

Transcribing characters So is it transcription useless? Actually, Actually, it is on of the easiest ways to memorize characters and their pronounciation, because it codifies a huge range of sounds that are onl y 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: Chara aracter cter Wadeade-G Giles iles Pinyi nyin

Chih

zhi

Hsien

xian

ts'ao

cao

There are other systems, such as the one used in France, which is similar to Wade-Giles, 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 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, 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) ti (body)

In the following tutorial we will learn simplified characters ( )... but who knows? Maybe jianti zi )... 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 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 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 The xiao zhuan ( ), Small Seal, was created by the Prime Minister of the first Chinese emperor. It was substituted by li shu ( shu ( ), Administrative 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 ( shu ( ) or Exemplar Style (on the left), created during the Han dynasty. Cao shu ( shu ( ) or Cursive was also born under the Han dynasty, around the I century c.e.

The evolution of the character qu character qu (to (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 heng

horizontal stroke (written from left to right) yi (one) yi (one)

as in the character shu

vertical stroke (written from top to bottom) shi (ten) shi (ten)

as in the character pie

down stroke to the left (written from top right to bottom left) ba (eight)

as in the character na

down stroke to the right (written from top left to bottom right) ru (to ru (to enter) as in the character

dian

dot (written from top to bottom right or left) liu (six) liu (six) as in the character

ti

upward stroke (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) 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) 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 wang (to forget)

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

as in the character shuzhe

vertical stroke with a horizontal turn to the right yi (doctor yi (doctor,, medicine)

as in the character hengzhe

horizontal stroke with a vertical turn kou (mouth) kou (mouth)

4. Combined strokes are made out of basic ones. The following are a few examples:

as in the character shuwangou

vertical stroke combined with a level bending stroke with a hook ye (also)

as in the character piedian

down stroke to the left combined with a dot nu (woman) 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

zhong (middle) zhong (middle)

is written this way:

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.



[ 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, 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 character

is written this way: si (four) si (four)

The sealing horizontal stroke must be written last ("close the door after you have entered the room")

The character

yue (moon)

is written this way:

But: •

When there aren't enclosing strokes at the top of the character, enclosed strokes are written first:

The character

is written this 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) 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) 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.




<< Stroke order ] order ]



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 nonradical 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, 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 the pinyin transcription, we didn't put the tones (pronounciation doesn't really concern us by now) nor the umlaut s that certain syllables have. #1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Radicals

Original characters --

--

Pinyin

--

--

yan

dao

ren

Meaning

--

--

word

knife

man

Examples

leng cold

bing ice

jing capital

shuo to talk

dao to arrive

di emperor

qing to request

jian

xiu to stop

fo Buddha

sword

xi to practise

xuan obscure

yu language

kan to publish

lengyin

Beijing

shuo hua

daolai

xian Immortal

Compounds

xiuxi

cold drinks

Peking

to speak

bingdong to freeze

huangdi emperor

qing wen may I ask...

jianbing handle of a sword

yuyan language

xiannu yuekan monthly publication female immortal

xiguan xuanmiao to get used to marvellous

arrival

to rest

fojing Buddhist scripture

#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 ble e of rad co ica nte ls : nts par ] t1 ]

[ Th e rad ica ls : par t3 >>]] >>

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 2]

#11


#12

#13

[ The radicals : part 4 >>]] >>

#14

#15

Radicals

Original characters

--

Pinyin

men

zou

tu

--

da

Meaning

door

to walk

soil

--

big

jian space in between

jin to enter

Examples wen to ask

xian leisure

shijian time

yuan far

mi to be lost

jinbu to improve

di earth

ta pagoda

cao grass

hua flower

ping

tai greatest

kua to exaggerate

qiang wall

apple

mei beautiful

difang place

caoshu grass writing, cursive

taitai madame

Compounds wenti question

yuanzu excursion

dengta lighthouse

xianhua gossip

mixin superstition

qiangbi wall

xuehua snowflakes

pingguo apple

kuakou to boast

meili pretty

#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 2]






#16

#17

#18

#19

#20

Radicals

Original characters

--

Pinyin

shou

kou

--

shan

Meaning

hand

mouth

--

mountain

da to hit

jiao to shout, to call

Examples zhua to seize

tan to sigh

guo country

tu drawing

dao hang line

island

ling mountain ridge

very

ting to listen

quan circle, to enclose

peak

virtue

dakai open

jiaohan to shout

guoji international

daoyu islands

yinhang bank

zhuazhu to catch

tanci exclamation

ditu map

shanling mountain ridge

hen duo very much

ti to carry

feng

Compounds

tingzhong audience, listeners

tigao to raise

quanzi circle, ring

shanfeng mountain peak

daode ethics

#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







#21

#22

#23

#24

#25

Radicals

Original characters

Pinyin Meaning

shi

shi

quan

nu

corpse

food

dog

woman

wei tail

fan cooked rice

gou dog

nai breast, milk

mao cat

fu woman, wife

Examples ju to dwell jiao dumpling

zhan to spread

e hungry

zhu pig

gu aunt

zi son

sun grandson

gu lonely

hai child

Compound s weisui to tail behind, to follow

fandian goupi nainai hotel, bullshit, grandmoth restauran nonsense er t

jumin jiaozi resident, ravioli inhabitant

fazhan

esi to starve

maojiao mewing

zhurou pork

furen married woman

guniang girl

Sun Zhongshan Sun Yat-sen

guer orphan

haizi child

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 5 ]

#26

Radicals



#27

#28


#29

#30

Original characters

Pinyin Meaning

ma

si

huo

fang

hu

horse

silk

fire

square

door

qu to drive

hong red

lie violent

fang

to put

jian shoulder

fang house, room

Examples tuo

zhi

re

camel

paper

hot

lu to travel

pian to deceive

xi thin, delicate

zhao to shine, to reflect

zu nationality

quzhu to expel

kouhong lipstick

menglie fierce, violent

jiefang to liberate

jianbang shoulder

tuobei hunchback

zhipai playing cards

renao lively

luyou to travel

fangzu rent

qipian to cheat

zixi audience, listeners

zhaoxiang to photograph

minzu nationality

biandan shoulder pole

bian flat

Compounds

#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 6 ]



#31

#32

#33

#34

#35

Radicals

Original characters

Pinyin Meaning

shi

yu

mu

che

ri

to show

jade

tree

vehicle

sun, day

li rite

wang king

lin forest

lun wheel

Examples shen deity, spirit

zhu bead

zu ancestor

qiu ball, globe

song pine

tao peach

shi time

zhuan to turn

liang classifier for vehicles

ming light

wan evening, late

limao courtesy

wangguo kingdom

linmu woods

guanglun halo

xiaoshi hour

shenhua mythology

zhenzhu pearl

songshu pine tree

zhuanhua to transform

mingbai to understand

zuguo motherland

wangqiu tennis

taohua peach blossom

san liang qiche three cars

wanshang evening

Compounds

#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







#36

#37

#38

#39

#40

Radicals

Original characters

--

Pinyin Meaning

bei

jian

niu

--

shellfish

to see

ox

--

fu to carry, to bear

Examples yuan employee

cai wealth

guan to watch

gui regulation

jue to feel, to awake

wu thing

moon - flesh, meat

shou to receive liver

mu herd

yue - rou

di enemy

te

gan

peng friend

special

jiao to teach

tui leg

guannian concept

dongwu animal

shouhuo to harvest

gandan sincerity

guilu law

muchang pasture land

didui hostile

ganjue

tedian

daojiao

Compounds

fuze be responsible for

fuwuyuan waiter

pengyou friend

huotui

caizheng finance

to feel

characteristic

daojiao

ham







#41

#42

#43

#44

#45

Radicals

Original characters

--

Pinyin Meaning

qian

--

yi

shi

to owe

sickness

clothes

stone

ci sequence, next

sha sand, grit

mu eye

bing sick, disease

bu to mend

mei eyebrow

joyfully

ji illness, pain

xiu sleeve

hard

eye

kuan a sum of money

teng to ache

ku trousers

bi emerald

shui to sleep

cixu order

shengbing to fall ill

buchang to compensate

meimao shazhi sand paper eyebrow

Examples huan

ying

yan

Compounds

huanying welcome

fukuan to pay

jiku sufferings

touteng headache

lingxiu leader

yingzuo hard seat

yanjing eyeglasses

kucha underpants

bilu dark green

shuijiao to sleep







#46

#47

#48

#49

#50

Radicals

Original characters

Pinyin

tian

jin

he

niao

yang

Meaning

field

metal, gold

cereal

bird

sheep

Examples dian electricity

bei to prepare

zhen needle

private

qian money

si

zhong seed, type

ji chicken

ya crow

yang to raise, to grow

xian to admire, to envy

liu to leave

guo pot, pan

dianshi television

Compounds

zhenji injection

zhunbei to prepare

qianbao wallet

liuxue to study abroad

huoguo hot pot

qiu autumn

ya

qun crowd, group

duck

sichan private property

fenzhong minute

yangsheng to preserve one's health

jidan egg

wuya crow

chunqiu Springs and Autumns

xianmu to admire

yarong qunzhong duck's down the masses






[ 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

road

lei thunder

xian fresh, tasty

sui marrow

hun hun soul

tiao to jump

xu to need

e crocodile

du --

mo evil spirit

Lu Xun Lu Xun

haigu human bones

kuishou outstanding

lu

paoxie xiaxue running shoes to snow

Compounds lubiao road sign

leiting jisui xianhuo thunderclap fresh goods spinal cord

tiaozao flea

xuyao to need

eyu crocodile

dulou skull

hunpo one's souls

moli magic power



[ Dictionary use >>] >> ]



[ Characters index >>] >> ]

1. By alphabetical order The easiest way to find a character in a dictionary is the Western one: by alphabetical order. order. Of course, you will need to know the pinyin the pinyin (or Wade-Giles, depending on the dictionary) transcription for your character, character, and possibly its tone - take a look at how many characters are there under the syllable ji syllable ji or or shi . In most dictionaries characters are ordered by alphabet and by tone, but n ot all of them... the notorious Mathew's Chinese-English Dictionary is by alphabet (though a weird alphabet, with, for instance, sung coming sung coming before sha), sha), but not by tone. In the end, the more characters you know, the faster you will find them on a dictionary, 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 couple of examples:

is pronounced jiao pronounced jiao like its component

But:

is pronounced chong w 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, character, which is most times easy. 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 (lo chang (long) ng) also also has has radi radical cal number number 4:

chu ( chu (to exit xit)

has ra radical num 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 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!



[ Characters index >>] >> ]

chinese writing lesson

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