Introduction to Chinese characters.

Chinese characters are composed of one or several writing units being originally pictograms. Those pictograms have progressively evolved into a more stylized representation well adapted to the use of a paintbrush. Traditional Chinese writing as it is in use nowadays exists since centuries. Though the shape has greatly changed since the beginning it is always possible for some characters to recognize the original pictogram. In a way we can speak of a graphical etymology. For example we have:

· The sun the solar disk · The tree a trunk with the branches and the root · The cart an axe and two wheels · The ox the head with horns, two legs and the tail · The mountain a mountain range

Graphical etymology is a good mean to remember the meaning of the different units composing Chinese characters.

The different writing units can be combined to produce new meaning; Let's take again the character meaning "tree" . If we add a small bar at the bottom we obtain the meaning "root" . If the unit "tree" is repeated we obtain meaning "forest". If we repeat it again we obtain meaning first "big forest" and after "numerous", "dark". If we add together the characters meaning "head" (written as ) and "heart" , we obtain meaning "think".

We can notice that each character is bounded with an invisible square having a constant size. If a character is composed of different units, those units keep their shape but can be squeezed to fit in the "ideal" square. See again the example of the character "big forest".

Another way to obtain a new meaning and by far the most current one is to combine two kinds of writing units : a radical unit and a phonetic unit. Let's take an small example:
The following character means "horse" and is pronounced "ma 3" (the figure 3 is related to the accent type). If we add the unit "women" , we obtain a word with a similar pronunciation to the horse but with a different accent "ma 1" and meaning "mother". If we add two mouths we obtain meaning "insult" and pronounced this time "ma 4". So the three characters have similar pronunciation (ma) except for the accent. We see that for "mother" and "insult" the character plays the role of a phonetic element. The other element is called "radical" and gives some clues about the meaning of the character ("women" for "mother" and "mouth" for "insult").

The radical is very important because it is the base of the classification of Chinese characters. Though a Chinese knows several thousands characters, there are only 214 different radicals. A good way to become acquainted with them is to use the radical page of CharDic and to hover the mouse cursor or to click on them to display their English name.

Another hint for the beginners is to use the option "MOST CURRENT" in such a way to learn first the most currently used. If you have studied carefully the different radicals you have maybe noticed that some of them have the same meaning. For example , and mean all three "heart". In fact they correspond to the same radical but the last two represent compressed versions. You may also notice that the number of strokes for the three versions can vary (respectively 4, 3 and 4 strokes).

Finally it is important to say that a Chinese character by itself represents a full word. However in general Chinese words are composed or several characters. In fact for a linguist a Chinese character corresponds to a "morpheme" i.e. the smallest language unit having a meaning.

How to find Chinese characters in a dictionary ?

The first step is to identify the radical. In about sixty percent of the cases it is located on the left-hand side of the character. In the other cases it can be everywhere, on top, at the bottom, on the right-hand side and even inside. With a little bit skill it becomes easier to find it. When you have located it, count the number of its strokes. A stroke is a line drawn without lifting the brush from the paper (see below: "how to count the number of strokes"). For example in the character , the radical is located on the left-hand side. Its number of strokes is 4. You can identify this radical with CharDic by selecting 4 for the number of strokes in the radical page and looking for the right match. You will see that its meaning is "jade", it is a reduced form of .

The next step is to count the number of strokes in the remaining part (i.e. the non-radical unit). This number is 6. If you have selected the standard search (limiting the search in a dictionary containing the 5000 most current characters) CharDic will propose you six characters matching the selected stroke number in which you will easily recognize the character you are looking for. Its meaning is "pearl", "bead".

How to count the number of strokes ?

Counting the right number of strokes is essential to find a character. As previously mentioned a stroke is a line drawn without lifting the brush (or the pen) from the paper. It can be a straight line or a more complex line like a hook, a bend, an angle… It can be also a simple dot. To draw correctly a Chinese character some rules must be respected concerning the direction and the order of the strokes. The nonobservance of order and direction produces for a Chinese the equivalent of a misspelling fault. Knowing the rules helps to identify the strokes correctly and thus to count their correct number. Those rules can be summarized like that:

1. One begins from the left-hand side of the character and one goes on to the right-hand side; one goes from the top to the bottom.
2. Horizontal strokes are drawn before vertical strokes except if one of the following rules is violated.
3. When extremity of a stroke ends on another, the first is drawn before the second.
4. When a unit is enclosed in another, this one must be closed only when the inside unit is completely drawn.

The following character (meaning "eternal") is often used to illustrate the different types of strokes:

Example of a valid sequence:

Remembering the number of strokes of current patterns helps also greatly.

1, 3, 2, 1, 4.

Traditional and simplified characters.

The difficulty to memorize Chinese characters and the will to allow access to the writing for everybody has led Chinese Communist Authorities to realize some simplifications in 1955. Globally the number of strokes for some characters has been reduced. For example the character "tortoise" became , reducing the number of strokes from 16 to 7.

The simplified writing is in use in China but the traditional one remains in application in countries like Taiwan, Honk Kong and among the Chinese diaspora. So it is important to know the origin of a Chinese text to select the right dictionary: simplified or traditional. Some radicals have been simplified too, that’ s the reason why CharDic provides automatically the right radical version according to the selected dictionary.