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A Brief Introduction To Chinese Characters

Discover the essence of Chinese characters, their historical significance, and the evolution from ancient scripts to modern usage. Explore the complexity and simplicity of written Chinese compared to spoken language. Uncover the intriguing methods of character creation and usage across various Chinese dynasties. Delve into the world of pictophonetic characters and their role in Chinese communication. Gain insights into the cultural and linguistic aspects of Chinese characters as you journey through this informative introduction.

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A Brief Introduction To Chinese Characters

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  1. A Brief IntroductionTo Chinese Characters Bailin Hao (郝柏林) T-Life Research Center, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China Institute of Theoretical Physics, Academia Sinica Beijing 100080, China The Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico http://www.itp.ac.cn/~hao/

  2. Written versus Spoken Language • By Chinese I mean Han the largest ethnic group (93.3% 1982 census) • Different dialects, almost unique writing • A unifying factor in China • We will concentrate on written Chinese • Chinese language is very simple: close to English but grammatically even simpler

  3. Characters versus Words • Bearing the difference from Western characters in mind, we will use the term “character” to denote the basic unit of written Chinese • Chinese characters rarely used in single • Combinatorics: most characters are used in combinations of 2, (3), 4, or more characters – words • New combinations appear every year, if not everyday

  4. A Little Bit of History

  5. An Reference Point in Chinese and the Western History: 1st year AD A Reference Point in Chinese and Western History: 1st Year AD • Qin Dynasty (221 – 206 BC) • West Han Dynasty (206 – 8 BC)with capital in Chang-an (now Xi-an) • East Han Dynasty (25 – 220 AD) with capital in Luoyang • A short New (“Xin”) Dynasty (8 BC – 23AD) in between • Roman Senate (Augustus) (27 BC – 14 AD) • The Roman Empire (15 – 476 AD)

  6. Chronology of China • Starting from 841 BC: 1st year of “Republic” in West Zhou dynasty • 西周共和元年

  7. Banpo Remains near Xi-an • Upper layer about 5600 YA; lower layer about 6700 YA as determined by 14C • Found 113 appearances of 22 different symbols on pottery pieces: I, II, +, x … • May be numerals • Similar findings at other archeological sites

  8. Characters on Bones

  9. Characters on Both Sides of a Bone

  10. Characters on Tortoise Shell

  11. Characters on Tortoise Shell

  12. Characters on Tortoise Shell

  13. Characters on Stone Drums

  14. Writing on Bamboo Pieces

  15. “Chronology on Bamboo Pieces” • Bamboo pieces unearthed in 281 AD ( Jin(晋) dynasty) in a big tomb in northern Henan province • Original pieces lost, many variants of the text remain

  16. Writing on Bamboo Pieces

  17. Xu Shen and his Dictionary • Xu Shen (许慎, circa 58-147 AD, East Han Dynasty) • Started compiling the Dictionary (《说文解字》) in the year 100 AD • Let his son hand the Dictionary to the Emperor in the year 121 AD when he was seriously ill • 9353 characters in 54 groups • Summarized the “Six Principles”

  18. Six Principles of Creating and Using Chinese Characters • (象形)Pictographic: simulating the form • (指事)Indicating the subject • (形声)Pictophonetic: graph + “sound” • (会意)Implicating the meaning • (转义)Transforming the sense • (假借)Borrowing a character • The first 4: creating a character The last 2: using an existing character

  19. Not Just Pictures:Symbol + • Abstraction • Association • Indication • Implication • Pronounciation: pictophonetic

  20. Pictograph: simple ones sun moon

  21. Pictograph: simple ones human big sky, heaven

  22. Pictograph: less simple ones water fire

  23. Pictograph: less simple ones tree, wood, trees, forest cypress trees forest hill, mountain

  24. Pictograph: less simple ones heart field force man

  25. Pictograph: less simple one woman

  26. Pictograph: more complex ones Long-tail bird horse

  27. Pictograph + Indication above, on top middle, central below, under

  28. Pictograph + Implication small dirt, soil

  29. Pictograph + Indication knife blade

  30. Pictograph and Implication

  31. More Implications sharp tip dust burn, put on fire feel uneasy

  32. Pictophonetic Characters • 洋(ocean)、海(sea)、江(big river)、 河(river)、溪(brook)、湖(lake)、池(pool) • 潮(morning tide) 汐(evening tide)

  33. Pictophonetic: more examples • 衣(dress,cloth) 衤 • 複(double-layered)复 • 彳復 复(repeat,back and forth) • 覆 复

  34. Pictophonetic: more examples • 日 • 旦(dawn,dawning) • 复旦大学 • 小学、中学

  35. Pictophonetic Characters Makethe Most of Characters • On bones and tortoise shells (~1400BC): 20% • In Xu Shen’s Dictionary (121AD): Pictograph=264, pict+indication=129, pict+implication=1167, pictophonetic=7679 (82%) • In Kangxi Dictionary (1716AD): 90%

  36. A Riddle for the Character也 (also, too) • With water you feed fish (池) • With soil you grow vegetable (地) • With horse you ride 1000 miles a day (驰) • With person you get a partner (他)

  37. Creating New Characters in Science • Physicists have created very few characters, for example, entropy (熵) • Chemists create a new character almost for each new element or organic compound: 镭(radium, the 88th element), 鍆(mendeleevium, the 101th element)苯(benzene)

  38. How Many Han Characters?

  39. How Many Han Characters? • About 65 000 ever existed • Standard set for computer input (GB2312, published 1 May 1981): 3755 in pinyin order + 3008 in stroke order, total 6736 It covers 99.75% of common usage • About 2000 to read newspapers Li He (李贺, 790-816), the exotic poet of Tang Dynasty, used 2700+ characters in all his exotic poems

  40. Typing Characters into Computer • More than 400 different methods invented, only less than 10 have survived • Phonetic (Pinyin): most efficient if you speak standard Beijing dialect • Several stroke systems: very efficient by specially trained professionals • Associative input system, using common words and phrases • Input of Chinese texts much more efficient than English

  41. Chinese Character Font/Style • 金木水火土 • 金木水火土 • 金木水火土 • 金木水火土 • 金木水火土 • 金木水火土

  42. Chinese Calligraphy andPainting • Story on the son of the great caligraher WANG Xi-zhi: “our son has spent a whole barrel of water and now he has got one dot resembling his father”, a remark by the boy’s mother. • Almost no dyslexia among Chinese kids

  43. Chinese Classic Poems “We are simple people. We speak poetic language”, as a Russian joke says. Let’s end with Chinese poems.

  44. Classic Chinese Poemsversus European Sonnets • Sonnet = 14-line poems • (Italian) Petrarchan sonnet: octet + sestet = ABBA CDDC XYZ XYZ • (English) Shakespearen sonnet: 3 quatrains + couplet ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

  45. “Regular Expressions” in Han • Couplets: 2 symmetric pharses • 5-character classic poem: 4 lines with 5 characters in each, AABA rhyme • 7-character classic poem: 4 lines with 7 characters in each, AABA rhyme • 5- and 7-character poems: 8 lines including two couplets • Long-and-short sentences using a fixed template

  46. Example of 5-Character Classic 打起黄莺儿(da qi huang ying ni) 莫叫枝上啼(mo jiao zhi shang ti) 啼时惊妾梦(ti shi jing qie meng) 不得到辽西(bu de dao liao xi)

  47. Example of 5-Character Classic 打 起 黄 莺 儿 Beat up yellow oriole (-chen) 莫 叫 枝 上 啼 Not let branch on sing 啼 时 惊 妾 梦 Sing- ing break (my) dream 不 得 到 辽 西 Not able reach Liao West

  48. Mutual Understanding of PeopleIs Crucial for Mankind Future • “The clash of civilization” (S. P. Huntington) • “Conflict of culture” in wider context • We are anxious to understand other people, other culture, other civilization • Language is an important bridge. It is hard and unnecessary to become a polyglot, but knowledge of a 2nd and some feeling of a 3rd language is very helpful.

  49. http://www.zhongwen.com/ (Yale) • 《马氏文通》：comparative Chinese and English grammar, written in the turn of 20th century by the brother of the founder of Fudan University Ma Xiang-bo (马相伯)

  50. Thank You Notice: Many figures used in this PPT were obtained by googling. Since no URLs were indicated explicitly, please keep this for your own use only.

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