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| Do you know the evolvement history of Chinese characters and how to Learn Chinese characters? |
| Labels: study Chinese,
Chinese, mandarin, Chinese Character |
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Evolvement of Chinese Characters |
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Sun 日 |
Moon 月 |
Car 车 |
Horse 马 |
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| Oracle Bone Script
甲骨文 |
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| Inscriptions on bronze 金文 |
| Seal Script 小篆 |
Clerical Script 隶书 |
Regular Script 楷书 |
Cursive Script 草书 |
Semi-Cursive Script 行书 |
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| Dates |
Dynasty
of China |
Characters
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| 2000-1500 B.C. |
Xia |
Oracle Bone Script |
| 1700-1027 B.C. |
Shang |
Oracle Bone Script |
| 1027-221 B.C. |
Zhou |
Inscriptions on bronze |
| 221-207 B.C. |
Qin |
Seal Script / Clerical Script |
| 206 B.C.-Now |
Han - Now |
Regular Script / Cursive Script / Semi-Cursive Script |
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| Notes: |
| Seal Script was created by Li Si, Prime
Minister, at early time of Qin Dynasty. Qin unified the whole China,
so a united script is necessary. |
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| 1, There is generally a story or historical
story behind every Chinese character. Once you know and remember the
story, it is easy to remember how to read and write character. |
| 2, Learn basic and simple characters
as components at first. Most of characters are composed by these basic
components. |
| 3, Most of basic and simple characters
structure has very close relation with meaning of the characters,
not with pronunciation of the characters. It is a very important difference
point from English, French and the other spelling languages. |
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| Examples: Woman
女, Son 子, Elephant
象, Image 像 |
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| 4, Learn more about evolution of Chinese
character. It is very helpful to know and remember Chinese characters. |
| Based on Evolution
Method 2, origin of Chinese characters is from |
| 1) 声 Sound: of cry, laugh, twitter... |
| Examples: 鹅 - e2; 鸡 - ji1; 鸭 - ya1; 猫
- mao1 (All from cry of animals) |
| Examples: 哈 - ha, 喔 - wo, 嘘 - xu, 哎唷
- ai you (All from different emotion of human beings) |
| 2) 形 shape: more similar to graph and
marks of life. |
| Examples: "审（审）→宀番→宀采田" ; "番"
means footprint of wild animals (田 means field), so 审 means 'censor',
the meaning is from censoring footprint of wild animals in field. |
| 3) 象 Components: complex characters are
composed by basic characters based nature theory. |
| Examples: "明→日月" ; 日 (sun)
plus 月 (moon) is 明 (bright) |
| Examples: "旦→日一" ; 日 (sun)
plus 一 (horizon) is 旦 (dawn, Sun just rises above horizon) |
| 4) 数 Numbers: some are from "book
of changes" |
| Examples: "噪→口喿→口品木" ; 口 (mouth
→ cry), 木 (wood → tree), 品 (3 birds are crying); 噪 (chirp → confusion
of voices → 3 birds are crying on a tree) |
| 5) 理 Extending: deeper meanings. |
| Examples: "猫→犭苗→犭艹田" ; 猫 (cat).
From 2,000 B.C, Chinese people trained cat to protect plant from field
mouse. 犭(animals), 艹 (grass), 田 (field), "艹 plus 田" is "苗".
苗 (seedling) was extended to "person with ability". 猫 is
from cry "mao" and also from "animal with ability". |
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| 5, Sequence of character strokes is necessary
to remember. Strokes Sequence can help us to remember the structure
and feature of every character. |
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