| Exploring Chinese Characters, A Preface Restoring the Chinese Symbols and CharactersBy Chang Fuchang
Epoch Times Staff Apr 25, 2009  An illustration of the composition of some basic Chinese characters, such as that for 'person,' 'see,' and 'search.' (The Epoch Times) Many who are interested in learning Chinese are baffled by the seemingly complicated Chinese characters. However, contrary to English and other phonographically derived languages, Chinese characters are actually easier to learn. How so? Take music notes as an example; they are images that are easy to learn and memorize, as each image is very intuitively descriptive. The Chinese characters, like music notes, were originally a composition of images brought together to represent a particular meaning. Once you learn the meaning of basic components, the more complex characters become easier to understand. For instance, “見” is composed of “人” (human) and “目” (eye). In this character the eye was emphasized in the character and thus represents the eye of a person, or “to see.” Additionally, the character “覓” is a “爪” or ‘hand’ on top of “見”. It shows the gesture of covering the eye with a hand to provide shade from the bright sun, and thus represents “to search.” These basic images are symbols. Chinese characters are composed of one or multiple symbols. Mostly, two or three symbols, and normally no more than five, make up one Chinese character. With this new knowledge you may find it surprising that the Chinese ancestors actually used images to spell out a word.
There are approximately 250 basic symbols in Chinese, called radicals, that represent images of objects in nature and life. Human features take up one-third of these basic symbols. There are also radicals with abstract meanings. This collection of images is easy to comprehend, and truly reflects the life and energy of our world. This unique feature makes learning the characters a simpler task.
This series of Exploring Chinese Characters uses the method of a detailed introduction of a symbol, followed by characters derived from that symbol. Readers will personally experience and sense the process of composing a character from simple to profound. Culture is the soul and fundamental element in learning any language. How old is the Chinese language? Like Chinese culture, Chinese characters have evolved for over 5,000 years. Approximately 2,000 years ago the images transformed into sophisticated symbols along with an evolution toward easier to use writing tools. These symbols, while modified slightly, still maintained the original meaning of the images and became easier to write.
Of course, beginners may find it a challenge, requiring a certain amount of imagination. Therefore, this work includes images of the original Chinese characters found in oracle bone carvings and bronze inscriptions to provide the intuitive vision of the characters and facilitate learning. Thus, learning Chinese characters becomes an extension of your imagination rather than a conventional memory based process. Additionally, you’ll find these compositions entail the philosophy, life and concepts of ancient times, and help illustrate the genuine and traditional culture of China.
We suggest you learn the basic symbols first, and then try to understand the characters within the concepts of the composition. This way, learning Chinese characters will become both easy and profound.
What awaits you is a journey full of culture and imagination. Last Updated
Apr 25, 2009 Exploring Chinese Characters Article 1: Introducing 一 (one) By Chang Fuchang
Epoch Times Staff Apr 12, 2009 In this new series of articles exploring Chinese characters, 一 (yī) is the first character we will introduce. It is used to represent the concept of one and first. 一, however, in Chinese culture, contains a deeper meaning, because it represents ancient Chinese people’s view of the universe. Many of you may have heard “Tao,” and “Taiji.” Ancient Chinese people believed that before the formation of the universe there was chaos and infinity. 一 indicates that the universe was formed in a moment. Tao was then generated from 一. At the same time, yin and yang were generated. Heaven and Earth and everything in the universe were then evolved from the interactions of yin and yang and they are forever lasting. Therefore, 一 also contains the meaning of unity and whole.
  
Following on from the understanding that in the Chinese language 一 plays the role of creating Heaven and Earth, 一 can, therefore, represent the concept of space. For example, by putting a short horizontal line or a vertical line above 一, it becomes the ancient character, 上 (shàng), meaning up; if you put a short horizontal line or a vertical line under 一, it is the ancient character, 下 (xià), meaning down.
  In particular, the space above 一 often indicates the divine world, and the space below 一 indicates the human world. Sometimes, the space above 一 indicates yang, and below indicates yin. Thus, Chinese characters can actually show different spatial dimensions. We will use examples to illustrate this later when introducing related characters.
Let us investigate further the process of creating Chinese characters. We now know that 上 means up, and 下 means down. The character 卡 (kǎ), shown below, combines 上 and 下. Can you guess what 卡 means?
It is used to express “a check point,” such as 關 (guān; pass) 卡 and 邊 (biān; border) 卡. The character 卡 also shows that things cannot move either up or down. Thus, another meaning of 卡 is to block. In modern usage, 卡 is also used to transliterate foreign terms. As an example, 卡 is used for the translation of the English word, card. Birthday card is 生 (shēng; birth) 日 (rì; day) 卡. 卡通 is the Chinese translation for cartoon. 通 (tōng) means connection. Because 卡 in modern times already has the evolved meaning of paper and pictures, thus 卡通 becomes the perfect translation for cartoon, literally meaning “connecting pictures.”  
This Chinese translation not only contains the sound of the English word, but also indicates the meaning. This example shows that after each Chinese character is created, the meanings have built up, developed, and extended over the course of history. Alphabetical languages, such as English, have to constantly create new words in order to meet the needs of changes in society. Commonly used Chinese characters, however, have been around for two thousand years. Last Updated
Apr 12, 2009 Mysterious Chinese Characters (2): Yao http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/1341/ Epoch Times Staff Jul 17, 2008  藥 Yào, the Chinese character for medicine. The character 藥 (yào) in Chinese refers to a medicine or drug. According to mythology, Shénnóng the "divine farmer", sampled hundreds of herbs to test their medicinal value. After this, herbs 草 (căo) were thought able to heal. 藥 therefore contains the shortened version of this character, 艹, which means herbs. Shénnóng is said to have taught the Chinese their agricultural practices. The lower half of the character is 樂 (pronounced either lè or yuè) means, on the one hand, “elation” and “happiness”, on the other hand “music.” In Chinese medicine therefore, besides the extraction of medicine from medicinal herbs, targeted application of music also played a crucial role. According to Chinese mythology, Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, was once challenged to a fight by his adversary Chiyou. Following a dream, the Yellow Emperor eventually used cow-skin drums to conquer his foe and his iron and bronze artillery. Not only did the soldiers of Chiyou pass out by the dozens and die, but the Emperor’s army were themselves close to death. Finally, Huangdi’s music master used a special bow to create lovely music which reached the Emperor's warriors, and they were given new energy to live. Since then, Chinese medicine was also characterized by this understanding. The use of music as remedy also shows in 白 (bái), which is in the center of 藥. Though 白 usually means "white,” in this case it refers to a plectrum (like a pick), used to strike or play stringed instruments. Last Updated
Jul 18, 2008 | |