CharTypes

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There are six types of characters in terms of how they came about. The first were simply pictures of object seen in every day life. Known as pictographs, they were simply drawings of the object. Note we say "were" because over 3,000 years they have changed considerably, and may no longer look like the object they were originally modeled on.

Drawings of objects only gets you so far, however, and soon the Chinese had to be able to represent concepts. One way to do that was with characters known as ideographs. These are relatively straightforward representation of concepts that are not objects. The character for 'above' was originally just a dot above a line.

The third type are more complex ideas, created by combining two characters to make a third. For example, the sun and the moon are the brightest objects known to man, so the character for 'bright' is the sun and the moon combined into one character. For a further look at characters like this, see here.

The fourth type is, in terms of numbers of characters - 85% of those in common use today - the largest. These are known as sound and meaning, or shape and sound, or semantic-phonetic, and are a combination of a phonetic element - the sound - and a radical - the meaning. In each case, the spoken word already existed, so they borrowed a word that was pronounced the same, and added a radical to lend it meaning. This is why there are many cases where several characters have the same sound element and different radicals.

The last two types are not very common. One is called 'false borrowing,' when a character with the same sound was simply taken to represent an additional meaning. The other is known as 'extended meaning' or 'mutual interpretation.' Here, one character is altered to create a new one with a different pronunciation but a similar meaning.

The following explanation comes from an unknown source. It is used in several websites, none of which actually wrote it. My apologies to the original author for not being able to give credit. It may have come from [], an excellent source of information.

** The Six Types of Characters ** The Han time scholar Xu Shen 許慎 (d. 147 AD) who wrote the great dictionary Shuowen jiezi 說文解字 "Explaining Simple and Analyzing Compound Characters", divided the Chinese characters into six different types ( // liushu //六書 ): Most of these characters have lost their original sense. Many grammatical particles without particular meaning are of this type, making it necessary to create a new character for the original meaning: This kind of character shows that Chinese characters could also be used only with their sound, thus creating a kind of syllable script. The Japanese Hiragana and Katakana alphabets follow the same pattern. Some of the phonetic parts are also used with their true meaning: Other characters use the phonetical part as a philosophical interpretation:
 * // xiangxing //象形 : "depicting the shape", about 600 characters, pictures of concrete things or abstract things:
 * o "sun" 日, "moon" 月 , "evening" 夕
 * o "child" 子, "wife" 女 ; "mother" 母 (wife with breasts)
 * o "tree" 木, "rain" 雨 , "dog" 犬 , "bird" 鳥 , "hand" 手 or <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">又 , "foot" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">足 , "heart" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">心
 * o "eyebrow" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">眉 (eye <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">目 and brow [[image:brow.png]])
 * o "exchange" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">交 (old: [[image:2nd.png]]; two crossed legs)
 * o "board" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">片 (old: [[image:3rd.png]]; half of a tree <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">木, old: [[image:4th.png]] ).
 * // zhishi //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">指事 (also called // chushi //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">處事 or // xiangshi //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">象事 ): "pointing at situations" ("placing situations" or "depicting situations"), marking a character with a dot or a stroke to indicate a part of it:
 * o "above" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">上 ; the "blade" of a knife <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">刃 ; the "root" of a tree <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">本 ; the four cardinal "directions" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">方 ; the "center" of a butt <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">中 ; the "border" between fields <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">畺
 * o "blood" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">血 (blood in a vessel <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">皿 during an oath ceremony)
 * o "deficient" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">乏 (a "correct" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">正 turned upside down; old [[image:5th.png]]); "minister" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">司, turned to <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">后 "empress".
 * // huiyi //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">會意 (also called // xiangyi //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">象意 ): "combining meanings" ("depicting meanings"), combined image of an abstract sense:
 * o "dawn" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">旦 (the sun <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">日 over the horizon)
 * o "public" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">公 (opening <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">八 a market place <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">ㄙ )
 * o "trusting" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">信 (a man <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">人 speaking <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">言 )
 * o "bright" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">明 (sun <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">日 and moon <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">月 )
 * o "burning" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">炎 ; "flames" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">焱 (two and three fires <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">火 ); "standing side by side" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">竝 (double "standing" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">立, modern shape <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">並 )
 * o Sometimes one of the parts is abridged (//sheng// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">省 ), like "lame, slow" // jian //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">蹇 from <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">足 "foot" and <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">寒 "cold", leaving out the two dots.
 * // zhuanzhu //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">轉注 : "mutually interpretation (tautology)", creating a new character from an old one to differ between words with the same meaning but with slightly different pronunciation
 * o "old" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">老 // lao // and "aged" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">考 // kao //
 * o "give back" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">返 // fan // and "turn back" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">還 // huan //
 * o or "tip of a branch" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">標 // biao // and "end of a stalk" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">杪 // miao // . A rare type.
 * // jiajie //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">假借 : "false borrowing", borrowing a character for a word that is pronounced equally but has a totally different meaning:
 * o <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">我 (a kind of axe <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">戈 ) for "me"
 * o <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">來 (a kind of grain; modern form <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">麥 ) for "coming"
 * o <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">足 "foot", also meaning "enough"
 * o <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">卒 (a kind of slave clothing) for "slave", "soldier", "ending", "dead", "at last", "suddenly"
 * o <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">乃 // nai // "breast", borrowed for // nai // "therefore", creating the new character <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">奶 for "breast, milk" with the radical <span style="font-family: 宋体;">女 "woman"
 * o <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">其 // qi // "basket", borrowed for // qi // "his, her, its", creating the new character <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">箕 (modern pronunciation // ji // ) for "basket" with the radical <span style="font-family: 宋体;">竹 "bamboo"
 * o The character <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">之 // zhi // originally means "to go", but it is also used as a genetive particle ("his"), an object pronoun ("him") and sometimes as demonstrative pronoun ("this"), without having lost its original meaning.
 * o The character //bi// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">辟 "standard" is used as a phonetic representative in place of the characters //pi// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">僻 "unusual", //pi// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">闢 "opening", //bi// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">避 "avoiding", and //pi// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">劈 "cleaving".
 * // xingsheng //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">形聲 (also called // xiesheng //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">諧聲 or // xiangsheng //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">象聲 ): "shape and sound" ("harmonizing with sound" or "depicting sounds"), a combination of a "classifier", "determinant" or "radical" (sphere of word sense) and a sound:
 * o <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">梨 // li // "pear" from <span style="font-family: 宋体;">木 "tree" and the sound <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">利 // li //
 * o <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">掌 // zhang // "controlling" from <span style="font-family: 宋体;">手 "hand" and the sound <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">尚 // shang //
 * o "the middle of three" // zhong //<span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">仲 from <span style="font-family: 宋体;">人 "man" and <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">中 // zhong // "middle"
 * o "to lie" <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">誣 // wu // from <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">言 "speaking" and <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">巫 // wu // "sorcerer"
 * o or the character set of <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">包 // bao // "package": <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">苞 // bao // "bud" (with <span style="font-family: 宋体;">艹 "grass" ), <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">胞 // bao // "placenta" (with <span style="font-family: 宋体;">肉 "flesh" ), <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">雹 // bao // "hail" (with <span style="font-family: 宋体;">雨 "rain" ), <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">飽 // bao // "full stomach" (with <span style="font-family: 宋体;">食 "eating" ), <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">抱 // bao // "embracing" (with <span style="font-family: 宋体;">手 "hand" ), <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">泡 // pao // "foam" (with <span style="font-family: 宋体;">水 "water" ), all of them describing ball- or package-like things.
 * o If a banished person was allowed to come back to his home, he was sent a half-circle jade ring. This type of ring was called //huan// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">環 playing with the word //huan// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">還 "to return".
 * o Bats are thought to be ominous animals, bringing luck and prosperity (//fu// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">福 ). Therefore, bats are called //fu// <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 10pt;">蝠.

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<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">__Bullet Point Summary__ <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">There are six types of characters, in terms of how they came about: <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">*Pictographs: pictures of objects; <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">*Ideographs: chaarcters that describe a concept; <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">*Compound Pictographs/Compound Ideographs: combinations of characters that describe another concept; <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">*Semantic-phonetic: a combination of a radical (meaning element) and a phonetic (sound element); these make up 85% of characters in common use today; <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">*False borrowing: not very common, when a character with the same sound as another word was used for its meaning as well; <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">*Extended meaning: not very common, this is where a character is altered slightly to become the character for a word with a different sound but similar meaning.

Recommended Reading @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification @http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Script/script.html @http://myweb.uiowa.edu/jiliao/menu.html http:// www.internationalscientific.org

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