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Breakthrough in learning Characters?
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chrismccoll -
Hi, I've made a similar study of the basic graphic elements of Chinese characters if anyone's
interested in publishing it. I have drawn diagrams to show the relative positions of the graphic
components. It certainly helped me to learn characters more rapidly and made looking up the
pronunciation faster. So I put all the characters containing a square for example onto one
diagram, all the characters containing the element 力 on another etc. If anyone is interested in
publishing it they can contact me.
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waynewalter -
Chris,
This sounds most intriguing. I would like to see it and probably would be happy to "publish" it.
Also, if you created it yourself, you might appreciate that I just started learning characters
myself after learning alot of Mandarin based on Pin-Yin.
So I could either offer additions or corrections, if you need that while I'm learning characters.
By the way, did you cross-classify characters? So if it has 3 root symbols do you put it under
each of them?
Also, have you worked out the meanings of the individual root symbols like the Professor I mention
did? That would also be helpful in learning and remembering characters.
Wayne
imron -
I can't recall the name off the top of my head, but when I was first learning characters, I had a
book that went through a whole bunch of these. And it seems more or less the same as what this
professor is talking about. I know that 灬 is for heat/fire, 氵is for water, 扌is for hand and
艹 is for plants, in addition to a whole lot more. Although some of the explanations and/or
accuracy of the etymology might not be the same, the basic concept of understanding the root
components and how they can be put together to form greater shapes/meanings is. It's definitely
not a new or breakthrough method, and it's a technique I've personally used to good effect when
learning characters, plus it's interesting to see the "logic" behind the way characters are made
up. The "logic" that I see might not be all that accurate, but it can still serve as as useful
device for helping remember certain characters.
There may be different explanations about history and etymology, but these things can only serve
as a rough guide anyway. In the end, there is no silver bullet for learning characters. You've
simply got to sit down and spend the time learning them.
renzhe -
waynewalter, you seem to be describing kangxi radicals. The four dots at the bottom of a character
, 灬, are the kangxi radical 84, fire, used in every Chinese dictionary in the world. You can
have a look at more radicals here: http://hmarty.free.fr/hanzi/bushou.php?ext=1 .
What this professor seems to claim is that he has discovered a more complex system behind Chinese
characters, going beyond radicals, where every character part actually carries meaning. Perhaps he
proves it in his book, I haven't read it yet, but it looks like a bunch of clever mnemonics.
My favourite mnemonic is for 哲. It consists of a hand (shou), a pound of weight (jin) and a
mouth (kou). I always imagine biting my fist out of frustration because philosophy is so boring,
and my fist probably weighs about a pound.
I don't know if this is exactly what the ancient Chinese had in mind, but all of us make up
explanations to help us along. The professor's may be better, and he may explain it and prove it
with extensive research in his book, but there's nothing earth-moving on that site that I've seen
so far.
waynewalter -
Renzhe,
Your link above shows the "conventional" radicals but not their form as then become part of
another character. Some look the same but many look quite different when included into another
character.
So I'm looking for training like the professors so see all the characters that have the similar
radical organized together so I can see the similarity and learn the meanings as a memory add.
Your list has meaning, though. That's good.
Sincerely,
Wayne
roddy -
Merging two threads . . .
roddy -
Actually deleting, posts were identical.
muyongshi -
Quote:
He provides the exact meaning for each of these root symbols.
Also, apparently some of the meanings of these word roots were lost in history and later analyzed
but were mistakenly identified.
So he is trying to in a sense disprove thousands of years of knowledge and commonly accepted
thoughts on a language???? Sounds fishy to me...just like when someone trys to come out with a
"NEW DIET"
Sorry, but claiming these things may help him make a bit of money, and maybe will help others
learn the language but not all characters have a meaning (especially in modern usage, and by this
I mean you can't look at the radicals and say WHY the character means what it does) and another
thing claiming that 馬 is not a pictograph is really ridiculous. This is commonly accepted
knowledge...
waynewalter -
Well, it appears here are no original "blue prints" or explanations of how the creator(s) of the
language intended it to be.
The professor openly acknowledges the work of those who came before him and simply gives evidence
for filling in some of the gaps and correcting obvious mistakes.
It seems obvious that the 4 dots can't represent legs on the horse since those same dots appear in
the symbol for fire and fish and birds which neither have four legs. Can anyone offer any proof
for that meaning of the 4 dots--as legs?
Personally, I remember feeling confused about the 4 dots under the bird when I was first
introduced to horse and bird symbols.
But so far, the professors ideas make it much easier to remember characters. In contrast, saying
the 4 dots are legs and then seeing them under fish and fire just confuses the dickens out of me.
So please, if someone can recommend a book that makes meaning out of the components that make up
characters, that will exponentially make it easier and quicker to learn them.
I am probably not alone. In fact, even if the meanings were purely fictitious but systematically
fit the pictures and related to the actual meaning of the character. WOW. That would be genius
indeed.
But claiming 4 dots represents 4 legs and then having that under a fish, cooking pot, and the word
for hot boggles my mind--even if that were true it makes it 10 times harder characters compared to
a logical system.
But, of course, the 4 dots as fire fits many characters, you can just visualize people cooking
horse meet, fish, bird, hot, a cooking pot, etc with a fire under it.
Would someone please recommend a book that make since like this since the professor has sold out.
I can't wait to get started.
Sincerely,
Wayne
muyongshi -
But that is where it was SIMPLIFIED to (and now I am not referring to simplified characters but
pictographs have undergone change) so what was originally pictured as legs way back when was over
the course of time simplified and changed into the "modern" strokes rendering the legs as for dots.
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