Creation of Chinese Characters 有趣的中國造字 Ms. Chiang Galileo Academy Fall 2004

INTRODUCTION People making records in their daily life by tying knots in ropes or strings. Legend of the inventor of Chinese writing by Ts‘ang Chieh (cang1 jie2,倉頡) , who records the history in the court of Emperor Huang Ti (huang2 di4, 黃帝), the first king of China. A FOOTNOTE:        TsÕang Chieh invented the Chinese script was inspired by an extraordinary occasion. He observed the footprints of birds and animals that lines and shapes were perceptible and distinct. TsÕang Chieh then drew pictures of the objects according to their shapes and forms. In time these pictures were reduced and simplified to a few lines and highly stylized.

Importance of Characters Many dialects or spoken forms. Mandarin, Min Nan, Hakka, Cantonese, Etc. One written form.

Six principles/六書 象形: Pictographs 指事: Indicatives 會意: Ideatives 形聲: Harmonics 轉注: Transmissives 假借: Borrowed Words

Create Vs. Use The first four methods actually created characters. The last 2 principles only create new uses of existing characters. 「象形」、「指事」、「會意」、「形聲」是造字的基本方法，「轉注」、「假借」只能算是用字的方法，他們並未另造新字，只是取已有之文字來應用。

象形 Pictographs PinYin: Xiang4 xing2 Definition: Words formed from things which can be drawn (animal, person, object.) 以簡單的線條，將實體物的形狀和特徵描繪出來。如「龜」、「牛」、「人」、「月」。

Examples of 象形

More Examples of 象形

指事/ Indicatives PinYin: zhi3 shi4 Definition: Words formed from things cannot be drawn (directions, numbers.) 抽象的客觀事物與概念，以指示性的線條符號表達出來。 如「上」、「飛」。

Examples of 指事 上 下 明 王 up, above: Originally shows a dot above a line down, below: Originally shows a dot below a line. 明 bright: It is the combination of sun and moon to give the idea if brightness. 王 king: The three horizontal lines stands for heaven, man and earth. The vertical line connects the three means the power from heaven to the earth to rule over man.

會意/ Ideatives Pin Yin: hui4 yi4 Definition: Words formed to be understood easily after the pictograph and indicatives were formed. 兩個以上的文字形類合併成一新字，並會合其文字之意義。如「看」、「森」、「信」。在某一特別含意字旁加上另一字，又可成一新字。如「情」、「清」。「伐」、「仙」。

Examples of 會意 休 rest: It is a sketch of a man leaning against a tree means resting under a tree. 囚 prisoner: a sketch of a man in a quad as a prisoner. 見 to see: It indicate seeing by showing the eye on a pair of legs. 林 tree, small forest: The two symbols of tree stands for a group of trees or small forest.

形聲/Harmonics PinYin: xing2 sheng1 Definition: Words formed with the fact taken as the basis for pronunciation in simile and add other signs or words to form a new word. This is the most popular method, about 90% of the characters are created this way. 一半以事務的類別作為文字之形符表示意思，再一半取該事務的語言表讀音，兩半組合成一字。「形聲」文字佔字之十分之九，是最便利之造字方法。

嫁 jia4 家 jia1 婚 hun1 昏 娶 qu3 取 忘 wang4 亡 wang2 Examples of 形聲 Word Sound Source 嫁 jia4 家 jia1 婚 hun1 昏 娶 qu3 取 忘 wang4 亡 wang2

轉注/ Transmissives Pin Yin: zhuang3 zhu4 Definition: Words that are under one heading and in the same idea are jointly receptive. 一字的意思被借走或聲音轉變時，為分辨清楚，就另造一字區別。如「丁」原為「頂」意。

Examples of 轉注 爸 & 父 腰 & 要 改 & 更 雲 & 云 返 & 環 趾 & 止 Different sound, same meaning 聲音的轉注 Similar sound, 聲近義通的轉注 爸 & 父 腰 & 要 改 & 更 雲 & 云 返 & 環 趾 & 止

假借/ Borrowed Words Pin Yin: jia3 jie4 Definition: Words formed by taken from other word according to its sound and meanings that the original word is lacking. 本無其字，依聲託事。如「令」「長」實為引伸字。本有其字，其義不同，依聲託事。

Examples of 假借 后 & 後 策 & 冊

Sources/Resources http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/orthography/chinese.html 有趣的文字, 方益霞 http://www.geocities.com/on_on_hui/extra.htm http://www.taiwaninfo.org/info/culture_c/aei014.html http://www.chinapage.com/main2.html