Sometimes it’s useful to study characters visually by looking at graphically related characters which are often also semantically related. Here’s the story:
The kid showing filial piety at school gets tested on his numbers. His teacher is an old man.
老lao3 old an old man sitting down on the dirt 土 with a spoon 匕 next which he uses to eat soup since he has no teeth what with being old and all, his walking stick is right next to him.
者zhe3 -ing suffix walking stick between heaven and earth.
孝xiao4 filial piety back when the old man was a young kid 子 he was a 子 not a bi匕. 孝 => 老
教jiao4 the kid is at school 学校 showing fililal piety to his teacher 教授 which is good because the teacher holds the rod of correction in his hand 夂zhi
号hao2 number 0, 1。。。
考kao3 examination
考号
这孩子表示孝道在学校得到测试对他的号码。
他的老师是一位老人。
Zhe Hai Zi Biao Shi Xiao Dao Zai Xue Xiao De Dao Ce Shi Dui Ta De Hao Ma. Ta De Lao Shi Shi Yi Wei Lao Ren.
This was machine translated and I think the haoma part is a bit wrong in fact. The rest looks good to me fml because it’s probably also flawed.
It is useful sometimes to study characters as related visual groups rather than as related phonemes. This is because Chinese characters are much less phonetically determined than Western scripts.
All of these characters are also semantically related.
开kai1
open
image: a barred pair of gates. you must lift open the top bar to open them.
关guan1
switch, close
image: a mountain pass guarded with a sentry post. By extension: close, switch (off) 天 sky, day.
廾gong3
to grasp with two hands
升sheng1
to lift up with both hands thus by extension ascend raise promote
x marks the spot to chop on the log 木 linkword: slaughter, slay
鸡ji1 chicken
a bird 鸟 in the hand又 is worth two in the bush linkword: JIcken
取qu3 take seize capture
It’s the warrior chopping off ears 耳 of fallen enemies and grasping them with his hand 又 as trophies. Linkword: Choosy
卵luan3 egg
It’s a pictogram, I think.
literally, “kill chicken get eggs”
I.e. to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Hong Kong, and Taiwan too, have long served Beijing’s interest in attracting capital and growing PRC trade. I truly hope that can remain the case. Carrie Lam’s ill-considered policies and intransigence (step down already) have more or less pushed Beijing to a precipice. If President Xi is so foolish as to walk off the edge of that cliff she is leading him out on it isn’t my fault or anything I caused.
A wise policy would offer concessions and negotiate and deescalate rather than escalate. Unfortunately to present no one seems particularly interested in being sensible. However, a political party and a government, unlike any protest movement, are highly organized, legally constitute, and enjoy legitimacy. So concessions and conciliations almost always come from the government rather than protestors.
即ji2 the man on his knees on the right PROMPTLY, APPROACHED the pot of food on the left.
既ji4 the man sitting on the right beside the pot of food on the left has ALREADY eaten.
昏hun1 TWILIGHT, LOSING CONSCIOUSNESS
选择xuan3ze2 First+Selection=CHOOSE 择ze3 from an abundant tree one hand can choose and the other can as well such is abundance
游客you2ke4 Walking+Client=TOURIST
偏僻pian1pi4 Oblique+Rustic=SECLUDED
关注guan1zhu4 Switch+Concentrate=PAY ATTENTION, TO FOLLOW
著zhe zhu zhao
省xing3sheng3 Few+Eye=few look within to their few virtues or faults INTROSPECTION SELF EXAMINATION SELF CRITICISM xing3; ECONOMISE sheng3
S.elf
H.elp
E.xamination
N.ow
G.ood ECONOMIZE
勿 wu4 do not (ancient daggar dao1 刀 with blood 彡shan1 SHADOW STRIPES as symbol of DO NOT, NO, ABSENCE OF) 心 = <3 xin1
ABSENCE OF HEART = Careless
H.ere’s
S.ome
I.nscrutable
N.ote HEART XIN1
突然
突1 Tu, schnell sobaka, SUDDENLY 然2 Ran around a red hot fire for rindfleisch!
Chinese does not appear to distinguish knowing a manual skill from knowing an intellectual skill from knowing a person unlike some languages. In German we distinguish knowing people from knowing ideas and also distinguish abstract knowledge from practical knowledge. French also makes these distinctions. English does not. Greek does (metis episteme). But:
可ke3 may,
能neng2 can (in practice: inherent abilities)
会hui4 can (in theory; acquired skills)
To err appears to well correspond to 以为yi4wei2。
派对 pai4dui4 party
Memory trick: if you plan to PARTY in China be sure to go to the RIGHT对 FACTION派。
派对 pai4dui4 party is a transliteration of English “party” into Chinese. 派对 means celebration rather than a political party.
派pai4 in Chinese means clique faction school-of-thought.
Party as in political party 党dang3 as in 共产党gong4chan3dang3 (literally public product party i.e. CCP communists). I am fairly sure that one uses pai to speak of factions within parties so e.g. 江青 was in the 四人帮. 帮派bangpai means faction. This is another example of the Chinese tendency to reduplicate synonyms to be quite explicit about exactly what is meant. Reduplication is commonplace in Chinese 明明白 mingmingbai = get it as in even a schoolkid could get it.
机ji1 the first machines were made of wood 木mu4。 几ji is a tea-table. Here however the tea table character is reused to indicate the bow of a disassembled crossbow. If you put the 几ji1 over the 木mu it makes 尔er which is a crossbow. Indeed, crossbows were a primitive machine. The tree radical in Chinese indicates wood but also structured or patterned material objects.
打da3 is hand+peg/nail. The nail here 丁ding1 is a phonetic clue but also semantic: what do you hit? Nails!
火huo3 is a picture of a person’s backside with sexy tatoos. Ok I lied about that one. It’s just a picture of a campfire.
nod noggin now SCRATCH forehead with hand
pictogram is originally of a potter 儿 with pottery at his kiln which has been simplified to 戈. The hand radical 手 shows he is STIRRING the mud and clay prior to forming and firing it. NAO2
绕
silk scarf really WRAPS rope around
Silk determinant 丝 shows the rope which is wrapped around pottery which is being formed.
WIND COIL WRAP-AROUND DETOUR CIRCUMVENT DETOUR BYPASS RAO4
shadowless foot
is there any noble style?
legs entwined
kick you to buddha’s mountain
lost track of fists
to distinguish reality is too tough
footwork quick as lightning
look how you resist
one knife beheads
Singing spring uses speed strikes slowly
only transmit within not without
the heart must be lenient
Listen! remember by kicks the ring’s voice
Listen! hone emotions no joy or sorrow
Listen! love undecided high or low
Listen! Within heart’s old affair floating light sudden shadow
Helpless, karma comes and goes, but there is destiny
knives on mountains fires on oceans that’s a training field
awaiting, love comes love goes, hard to evade fate
go to sleep wake up confused yet understanding
Alone I walk the world and stare still at the strange
My strategem of love is mysterious and righteous there is no absolute black or white
I train my body and footwork heart upright and mouth forthright
I enjoy freedom here no gate no clique go or come
listen remember by kicks the ring’s voice
listen hone emotions no joy or sorrow
listen love undecided high or low
listen within heart’s old affair of floating light and sudden shadow
helpless karma comes and goes but there is destiny
knives on mountains fires on oceans that’s a training field
awaiting love comes love goes hard to evade fate
go to sleep wake up confused and understanding
Alone I walk the world and stare still at the strange
My strategem of love is mysterious and righteous there is no absolute black or white
I train my body and footwork heart upright and mouth forthright
I enjoy freedom here no gate no clique go or come
Alone I walk the world and stare still at the strange
My strategem of love is mysterious and righteous there is no absolute black or white
I train my body and footwork heart upright and mouth forthright
I enjoy freedom here no gate no clique go or come
Alone I walk the world and stare still at the strange
My strategem of love is mysterious and righteous there is no absolute black or white
I train my body and footwork heart upright and mouth forthright
I enjoy freedom here no gate no clique go or come
shadowless foot
legs entwined
kick you to buddha’s mountain
lost track of fists
to distinguish reality is too tough
footwork quick as lightning
look how you resist
One inch short
I play at having a model and form
Nunchucks
Let all of you fall down
one knife beheads
Singing spring uses speed strikes slowly
only transmit within not without
the heart must be lenient
hā hā hā hā
无影脚 shadowless foot
wú yǐng jiǎo
有没有王者风范 is there any noble style?
yǒu méi yǒu wáng zhě fēng fàn
腿连环 legs entwined
tuǐ lián huán
踢你去到佛山 kick you to buddha’s mountain
tī nǐ qù dào fó shān
迷踪拳 lost track of fists
mí zōng quán
要分辨实在太难 to distinguish reality is too tough
yào fēn biàn shí zài tài nán
步法快如闪 footwork quick as lightning
bù fǎ kuài rú shǎn
看你如何招架 look how you resist
kàn nǐ rú hé zhāo jià
一刀斩 one knife beheads
yī dāo zhǎn
咏春以快打慢 Singing spring uses speed strikes slowly
yǒng chūn yǐ kuài dǎ màn
只传内不传外 only transmit within not without
zhī chuán nèi bù chuán wài
心要宽 哈哈哈哈 the heart must be lenient
xīn yào kuān hā hā hā hā
听 回忆被踢馆的声音
listen remember by kicks the ring’s voice
tīng huí yì bèi tī guǎn dí shēng yīn
听 情绪在 切磋 不 为悲喜
listen hone emotions no joy or sorrow
tīng qíng xù zài qiē cuō bù wéi bēi xǐ
听 那未决高下的爱情
listen love undecided high or low
tīng nà wèi jué gāo xià dí ài qíng
听 内心故事的浮光掠影
listen within heart’s old affair of floating light and sudden shadow
tīng nèi xīn gù shì dí fú guāng lüè yǐng
无奈的 缘来缘去 不过是宿命
wú nài dí yuán lái yuán qù bù guò shì sù mìng
helpless karma comes and goes but there is destiny
刀山 火海 都是一场修行
dāo shān huǒ hǎi dū shì yī cháng xiū xíng
knives on mountains fires on oceans that’s a training field
等待的 爱来爱去 难逃是注定
děng dài dí ài lái ài qù nán táo shì zhù dìng
awaiting love comes love goes hard to evade fate
睡去 醒来 糊涂亦是明白
go to sleep wake up confused and understanding
shuì qù xǐng lái hū tú yì shì míng bái
我孤身 行走江湖 见怪不怪
wǒ gū shēn xíng zǒu jiāng hú jiàn guài bù guài
Alone I walk the world and stare still at the strange
我略懂 爱情奥义 没有绝对 黑或白
wǒ lüè dǒng ài qíng ào yì méi yǒu jué duì hēi huò bái
My strategem of love is mysterious and righteous there is no absolute black or white
我修炼 身形步法 心直口快
wǒ xiū liàn shēn xíng bù fǎ xīn zhí kǒu kuài
I train my body and footwork heart upright and mouth forthright
我喜欢 自由自在 无门无派 去或来
wǒ xǐ huān zì yóu zì zài wú mén wú pài qù huò lái
I enjoy freedom here no gate no clique go or come
听 回忆被踢馆的声音
listen remember by kicks the ring’s voice
tīng huí yì bèi tī guǎn dí shēng yīn
听 情绪在 切磋 不 为悲喜
listen hone emotions no joy or sorrow
tīng qíng xù zài qiē cuō bù wéi bēi xǐ
听 那未决高下的爱情
listen love undecided high or low
tīng nà wèi jué gāo xià dí ài qíng
听 内心故事的浮光掠影
listen within heart’s old affair of floating light and sudden shadow
tīng nèi xīn gù shì dí fú guāng lüè yǐng
无奈的 缘来缘去 不过是宿命
wú nài dí yuán lái yuán qù bù guò shì sù mìng
helpless karma comes and goes but there is destiny
刀山 火海 都是一场修行
dāo shān huǒ hǎi dū shì yī cháng xiū xíng
knives on mountains fires on oceans that’s a training field
等待的 爱来爱去 难逃是注定
děng dài dí ài lái ài qù nán táo shì zhù dìng
awaiting love comes love goes hard to evade fate
睡去 醒来 糊涂亦是明白
go to sleep wake up confused and understanding
shuì qù xǐng lái hū tú yì shì míng bái
我孤身 行走江湖 见怪不怪
wǒ gū shēn xíng zǒu jiāng hú jiàn guài bù guài
Alone I walk the world and stare still at the strange
我略懂 爱情奥义 没有绝对 黑或白
wǒ lüè dǒng ài qíng ào yì méi yǒu jué duì hēi huò bái
My strategem of love is mysterious and righteous there is no absolute black or white
我修炼 身形步法 心直口快
wǒ xiū liàn shēn xíng bù fǎ xīn zhí kǒu kuài
I train my body and footwork heart upright and mouth forthright
我喜欢 自由自在 无门无派 去或来
wǒ xǐ huān zì yóu zì zài wú mén wú pài qù huò lái
I enjoy freedom here no gate no clique go or come
我孤身 行走江湖 见怪不怪
wǒ gū shēn xíng zǒu jiāng hú jiàn guài bù guài
Alone I walk the world and stare still at the strange
我略懂 爱情奥义 没有绝对 黑或白
wǒ lüè dǒng ài qíng ào yì méi yǒu jué duì hēi huò bái
My strategem of love is mysterious and righteous there is no absolute black or white
我修炼 身形步法 心直口快
wǒ xiū liàn shēn xíng bù fǎ xīn zhí kǒu kuài
I train my body and footwork heart upright and mouth forthright
我喜欢 自由自在 无门无派 去或来
wǒ xǐ huān zì yóu zì zài wú mén wú pài qù huò lái
I enjoy freedom here no gate no clique go or come
我孤身 行走江湖 见怪不怪
wǒ gū shēn xíng zǒu jiāng hú jiàn guài bù guài
Alone I walk the world and stare still at the strange
我略懂 爱情奥义 没有绝对 黑或白
wǒ lüè dǒng ài qíng ào yì méi yǒu jué duì hēi huò bái
My strategem of love is mysterious and righteous there is no absolute black or white
我修炼 身形步法 心直口快
wǒ xiū liàn shēn xíng bù fǎ xīn zhí kǒu kuài
I train my body and footwork heart upright and mouth forthright
我喜欢 自由自在 无门无派 去或来
wǒ xǐ huān zì yóu zì zài wú mén wú pài qù huò lái
I enjoy freedom here no gate no clique go or come
无影脚 shadowless foot
wú yǐng jiǎo
有没有王者风范 is there any noble style?
yǒu méi yǒu wáng zhě fēng fàn
腿连环 legs entwined
tuǐ lián huán
踢你去到佛山 kick you to buddha’s mountain
tī nǐ qù dào fó shān
迷踪拳 lost track of fists
mí zōng quán
要分辨实在太难 to distinguish reality is too tough
yào fēn biàn shí zài tài nán
步法快如闪 footwork quick as lightning
bù fǎ kuài rú shǎn
看你如何招架 look how you resist
kàn nǐ rú hé zhāo jià
一寸短
yī cùn duǎn
One inch short
我耍得有模有样
I play at having a model and form
双节棍
Nunchucks
shuāng jié gùn
让你们全倒下
Let all of you fall down
ràng nǐ mén quán dǎo xià
一刀斩 one knife beheads
yī dāo zhǎn
咏春以快打慢 Singing spring uses speed strikes slowly
yǒng chūn yǐ kuài dǎ màn
只传内不传外 only transmit within not without
zhī chuán nèi bù chuán wài
心要宽 哈哈哈哈 the heart must be lenient
xīn yào kuān hā hā hā hā
tian field+gong=lift up together+split/divide/part character component on the top right. (tu3+ge1=split)
traditional form of yi4 which means “different strange surprising” 异 + split/divide/separate
D.on A.scot I.llustrate TO WEAR
D.ress A.rmband I.mpeccable WEAR
when doing public works 共 in the dirt 土 in a field 田 you need to WEAR a weapon 戈
In the dirt 土 on a field 田 doing public works 共? Then you must then wear a weapon 戈
Joe Pesci in Goodfellas telling the story about how he was casing a bank. he was in the dirt on a field doing work with a weapon. what was he WEARING?
戒jie4ring for a finger Hand
Visualization: Hand’s joined together wearing ring raises sword at ceremony of a wedding. Joined In Eternity RING FOR A FINGER
You might want to CLASP HANDS 廾gong3 but will cut that short split separate divide them 土+戈 when you see that wedding RING 戒jie4
截jie2 cut off, intercept, stop, section
隹zhui1 short tailed bird had it’s short tail CUT OFF截jie2
Jaybird Is Excised CUT OFF. INTERCEPT STOP SECTION
戚 qi1 relative parent grief sorrow battleaxe
story: A relative, my parent, goes to war with a battleaxe, causing grief. guess what， someone got CUT 土+戈
West is a Nest: 西xi1 is a stylized and simplified picture of a bird’s nest. Because Birds were thought to nest at night in the West the bird’s nest becomes a symbol of the idea of West.
洋yang2
洋yang2 is the ocean. 3 drops of water on the right are the key to unlocking the meaning, this character has something to do with water. Tthe sound clue is on the right. 洋 sounds like 羊 sheep. What sounds like “sheep” and has something to do with water? The ocean. To the ancients vast flocks of sheep flowed like the whitecaps of the ocean! Poetic!
衣yi1
衣yi1 is a picture of a guy in a Chinese robe. Dot on top is his head the horizontal line in the middle are his arms legs are the two vertical lines below. The clothes are fancy wagnhich is why there’s a couple other small lines in there, they indicate fine clothing pockets etc. Chinese writing is organized around pictures, and symbols, linked by rhymes instead of spelling and is more figurative and metaphoric than Western writing. These words show that. 西装 rhymes with 西洋 连衣裙lianyiqun and 裙子qunzi are more common forms for dress and skirt respectively.
欠 is a picture of a mouth on top it’s wide open food isn’t going into it words aren’t coming out of it but air is coming out of it. on the bottom is a person 人. he might be yawning, singing, or laughing. That’s its literal meaning. Metaphorically it means deficient lacking: e.g. lacking sleep, lacking decorum lacking whatever caused that gaping mouth to open wide but not say words or stuff the pie hole.
打哈欠da3ha1qian5 yawn
打da3
打 strike.
hand 手shou3 on the left （semantic）nail 丁ding1 on the right (phonetic)
哈ha1
哈ha1 yawn，laugh is mouth on the left 口 + closed 合he2 on the right. 合he2 means closed and is mouth with something coming out of it on top and mouth below it’s two people kissing as a symbol of “closed”
欠钱qianqian deficit
钱qian2 money = gold on the left 金jin (semantic) + crossed halberds on the right 戋jian1（phonetic). Gap/Gaping+Money=Deficit. 金+戋=钱
欠条qiantiao
欠条qiantiao debt instrument
条tiao2
条tiao2 strip walking on top 夂zhi3, wood on the bottom 木mu4。 Wood here means pattern: Winding strip (“walking” wood e.g. paper, vine, leaves). Q.uid I.s A.rgentinian N.ote: T.his I.s A.n O.BLIGATION, DEBT INSTRUMENT, BOND
欠揍qianzou
欠揍qianzou gaping mouth + smash. Smashmouth.
奏zou4=丰feng1+大da4+天tian1=奏zou4 to play.
Big4+Fertile Abundant Crosshatched1=Covering Over Heaven1 = produce something e.g. music pleasing to heaven and thus also to heaven’s earthly prince, the emperor. 手+奏=揍
歌
歌ge gopnik gege poyut 哥哥歌 big brother belts out good song
喜欢xi3huan1
喜欢xihuan baraban happy drumbeat 喜欢 rhymes with yawn. drum on the left 喜 （pictogram of a drum)
欢huan1
欢huan1chorus of owls feeding on the right and singing in joy as a consequence or cause of their feeding frenzy.
又you4 though now a hand is sometimes a simplified form of what used to be an owl in the oracle bone script.
System: Started out by focusing on the kangxi radicals, once I understood those 213 characters reiterated form (including abbreviated forms) ALL the other characters. I then figured out that there are pictographs, ideographs, picto-semantic picto-phonetic characters. Then I discovered Bai Shuangfa’s hanzi gong 白双发 汉字宫 which confirmed what I figured out. Hanzi gong teaches pictograms first, then ideograms, then associative compound characters, and then picto-phonetic characters. That is definitely the right order to learn characters.
To remember and understand characters I look at their original forms in the oracle bone script 甲骨文 where the pictograms had not yet been simplified and were tougher to write but much easier to read. for that I use chinesecode
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chinesecode&hl=en_US
which is awesome
and hanziyuan.net
which is also very good.
When you understand what the character REALLY depicts what it REALLY means it is MUCH easier to remember the characters meaning. Then it’s just a matter of remembering pronunciation, for which I use mnemonics such as:
表
Bearskin’s
Impressive
Attire
Outside TO SHOW DEMONSTRATE OUTSIDE EXTERIOR biao. Biao3 is literally a bearskin coat. It’s figuratively the idea of such clothing which is impressive, exterior, i.e. to show demonstrate display
浅
Quelle
Is
A
Narrow SHALLOW STREAM SUPERFICIAL SWORDSTREAM qian. Jian1is a river on the left and crossed swords on the right; SWORDSTREAM.
Believe it or not these are all pictograms: Highly stylized and simplified pictures of literal objects. Pictograms are the basis of Chinese; the pictograms are then recombined to form associative compound characters (“a meeting of ideas”), aka picto-semantic characters and then the much larger set of picto-phonetic characters (aka phono-semantic characters).
Chinese characters are fundamentally pictures but what is depicted is rarely immediately obvious because of simplification, reuse of pictorial elements to represent different things, and the combination of pictures to express complex abstract concepts.
Most of the purported explanations about the characters in this series are wrong.
你Ni3 is two abbreviated stick figures 人ren2 (on the left and top) with 小xiao small on the lower right. Three small dots as a symbol of the idea of small). 你ni3 It may be a picture of a crossbow seen from the top.
是shi4 is the sun 日ri4 at dawn 旦dan4 on top of “upright” 正zheng4 which is composed of 一one yi2 (sideways Roman numeral I) and “stop”止zhi3 which is composed of vertical 1 and “high”上 是shi4日ri4正zheng4一yi1止zhi3上shang4
I AM THE SUN AT DAWN, UPRIGHT, ONCE STANDING HIGH AND STILL
谁shei2 is a person speaking on the left (“i”) with a short-tailed bird on the right 隹zhui1 the bird’s head is on the top left we are looking at it from the side the four horizontal lines are the wing and tail feathers. The bird here tells us shei sounds like zhui1隹.
By breaking down Chinese characters into their elements and then describing them you can easily unravel their logic! Chinese characters are easy and fun! YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO ALL YOUR LIFE ABOUT THEM but not by me!
And now you will easily remember AM in Chinese is the sun+dawn+upright+one+stop+high. It’s a person standing up at dawn he EXISTS he IS.
小大中 small big middle are symbols so three dots are small 小xiao3 a guy standing up with his arm’s outstrechted is big 大 and a line through the middle of a square is middle.
提ti2 is the hand on the left with 是shi am on the right. So there I AM at DAWN 旦dan UPRIGHT 正zheng STOPPED by a a HIGH 上shang wall RAISING My HAND 手shou3
琴 stringed instruments what sounds like 令ling4 (ZERO) and has strings? 琴qin2 Here the two 王wang4 on top indeed represent the strings.
紫竹林中 within the violet bamboo forest
观自在，seeing one’s self therein
护法龙女与善财 guard the law dragon girl, gentle justice, prosperity.
救苦救难救世界 save the sorrowful, rescue in hardship, save the world
大慈大悲善门开 great compassion, great sorrow, open the gates of gentle justice
In “Rules for Radicals” Alinsky teaches a good radical tactic is to point out your opponent’s statements — and then make them live up to them. When you prove your opponent cannot keep his word, cannot live up to the things he himself claimed to believe in or want — you win.
紫竹林中within the violet bamboo forest 观自在 seeing one’s self therein 护法龙女与善财guard the law dragon girl, gentle justice, prosperity. 救苦救难救世界save the sorrowful, rescue in hardship, save the world. 大慈大悲善门开great compassion, great sorrow, open the gates of gentle justice.
big bad dog mean and mad war dog hunting dog
Q.uite
U.gly
A.nd
N.asty VICIOUS GUARD DOG BIG DOG WAR DOG HUNTING HOUND
Image big 大 dog with a slab of meat. Don’t try to take it from him.
厂 chang3 han3
C.liff
H.ere
A.nd
N.ow
G.ood
FACTORY, CLIFF
厌yan4
what’s a big bad dog under a cliff with a slab of meat? a HATEFUL guard dog that’s what!
Y.appy
A.ggressive
N.asty HATEFUL (junk yard guard dog as symbol of HATE)
卷juan3 =
da4 big covering on top 大
it’s a man with outstretched arms showing us how BIG that fish was +
卩jie2 seal i.e. royal stamp underneath transformed a bit to better depict
a SCROLL or ROLLED UP FLAT OBJECT
卷juan3
scroll, roll up, book volume chapter
倦juan4
tired. person on the left 人ren scroll on the right 卷juan3。 TIRED of reading writing working in the royal library? Too bad.
Must check pleco again for that distorted da characer on top. I think it’s da+feng as the idea of “all-covering”.
厌倦 yan4juan3 FED UP WITH, SICK AND TIRED OF
业ye4
Y.es
E.xtremely INDUSTRIOUS
亚ya4
Y.et
A.ctually INFERIOR
恶e3e4 wu4
E.xcrement e3 DISGUSTING
E.VIL e4 EVIL HATE
W.orst
U.nspeakably VICIOUS FEROCIOUS EVIL
厌恶 yan4wu4
LOATHESOME
Encipher:
I am tired of migration problems and utterly disgusted by the murder of migrants.
S.prout
H.ealthy
E,ternal
N.ew
G.ermination
SPROUT LIFE LIVE GROW GIVE BIRTH!
生sheng1 is the image of a plant freshly sprouting from the earth. We are looking at it from the side. Line on the bottom is the earth/horizong. Vertical line is the Stalk.
挂牛头卖马肉 gua niu2 tou2mai ma rou
Literally “to hang an ox head and sell horsemeat” i.e. to cheat customers.
歹 Dai3 Evil Wicked Bad
This is the image of bones, specifically of the scapula (shoulderblade). It is a symbol of the idea of BAD EVIL
Dai Stands For Evil
D.ead
A.bducted
I.mmigrants. EVIL.
D.eath
A.bominations
I.llness EVIL wIckeD bAD
歹dai3毒du2
Dai Du means POISON
On top is 主zhu3 a candle mounted on a pillar as representation of the MASTER LORD OWNER
Beneath is Mother 母mu3 (pictogram).
Image: A Mother bringing melted wax POISON to kill her own child! Very very EVIL 歹
餐can1
歹dai3 bones on the top left 又you4 hand on the right 良liang2 food CAN on the bottom
When you eat meat you use your hands to pick the bones out of the stewpot. Kinda evil.
C.runchy A.limentation N.ow EAT MEAL
死si3
Death. Death is Evil. 歹dai3 Evil on the left, 匕bi3 dagger on the right 一yi one on top.
ONE DAGGAR=DEATH. EVIL!
S.trangle I.t DEAD DEATH
残can2
歹dai3 on the left 戋jian1 crossed blades of fighting warriors on the right C.ompletely A.nnihilated N.ow DESTROY ELIMINATE DECIMATE CRUEL OPPRESSIVE SAVAGE BRUTAL
刺ci4 STAB STAB RIPPITY STAB
C.ut I.t PiERcE cUT STiNG THORN PRicK
on the left is 朿ci4 STAB which is a picture of a thorn bush seen from the front.
The 冂jiong1 cover in the middle depicts the thorns on the 木mu4 tree or bush. The sword 刀dao1 on the right of 刺ci4 makes clear that what is stabbing here is something metal.
行xing2
is a cross roads. Memory trick: A CROSSWALK IS A PED XING
What do you have when you have a pair of shoes in a crossroads? a street! The middle part is two 土tu3 but here they represent two pair of shoes. 鞋xie2 means shoes! 革ge2 is a picture of a flayed and splayed leather hide, it’s on the left. Hanging jade most excellent on the right.
挂gua4 hanging
G.ravitationally
U.pright
A.nd HANGING
佳jia1 excellent.
J.ade
I.s
A.mazingly EXCELLENT
街jie1 is a crossroads seen from the sky with a pair of footprints in it!
狂kuang2
Like the lion A King of the jUNGle WILD K.ing U.nder A.nimals N.ow G.oes WILD
逛guang4
walking on the left+wild on the right = STROLLING G.one U.nderground A.nd N.ow G.oing STROLLING
This 胜 sheng4 means victory.
S.he
H.ears
E.veryone,
E.ternal
N.ight
G.oddess
胜 is originally the image of a boat on the left, which was simplified into the crescent moon. Hanzi may be recycled to depict different things. Here, 月 moon is being used as a picture of a boat seen from on top. See also: 舟zhou1 船chuan2. In zhou2 and chuan2 the boat character has not been simplified or somehow compared to a changeable luminous heavenly body or a human or other animal’s body.
The green sprouting plant on the right 生sheng1is not only phonetic, it too is simplified. One view is it is originally the HANDS of the HELMSMAN steering the ship on the left. Thus by extension: THE HANDS OF THE HELMSMAN STEERS THE SHIP OF STATE TO VICTORY
Crib: EEEMTDTDHD
Another view is that the simplification arose out of the idea that effort 力li4 and insight from omens lead to victory.
In fact, both views are correct. The oracle bone character clearly portrays hands, steering the rudder of a ship. But this was simplified to a still semantically sensible idea of power/effort 力 connected 关guan with insight.
Thus in the early modern view:
The SPROUTING POWER of LIFE emerges TRIUMPHANT
it is this, the power of LIFE, which draws the Ship Of State, to VICTORY!
Notwithstanding allegations of brutality, the police in Hong Kong have continually exhibited remarkable restraint, performing better than those of the United States or even France in the face of comparable situations. Despite the best efforts of Hong Kong’s much maligned police, the government in Hong Kong, namely C. Lam, has not and in my opinion cannot solve the problem it (she) created. Lam and her government have no plan. She must step down.
What is to be done? Democratization. Amnesty. And to use HK as a place for more experiments in local self-governance and democracy, including direct democracy under the rule law for application and emulation in the mainland. China must build the rule of law and democracy on the mainland so as to deter enemies of popular rule and to attract support of all Chinese people.
Hong Kong is the fat goose which lays gold eggs. Beijing knows this so likely won’t give it the ax.
In fact, Hong Kong is Xi’s chance to outmaneuver foreign opponents by taking the high ground of popular self-rule under law. I doubt that will happen but Xi is intelligent and strong so could do that. If he does not then either HK will collapse economically bringing China down (not out), or China will impose a Tiananmen 2.0 which will also flatline the Chinese economy: axing the goose means no more eggs. Either of the bad outcomes, economic collapse in Hong Kong or Tiananmen 2.0 serves the interests of international imperialism and is not in China’s self interest. So Xi faces a problem, but there is a solution: new democracy.
I shall work on our provocative Russian puzzle tomorrow.
Traditional ai4 has a heart. Simplified doesn’t because it’s a private matter also because communists wanted to emphasize non-romantic forms of love. ai4 is a picture of a grasping hand on top (line and three dots) then a roof because people live under a roof 宀 (the dot is transposed under the 3 fingers/claws of the 爪 on top) and beneath it is two hands 友 （又） clasped expressing the idea of love. These are VERY simplified and stylized pictures. Yes 爪 is claws/grasping hand, 宀 is a roof and 又 is a hand and 友 is two hands. Crazy!
Feng 风 means wind. It’s etymologically related to “sail”. I found 风 easiest to remember as the wind of justice 义 yi hitting the sail 帆fan 凡。 冂jiong1 means “cover” 几ji3 means how many, 几ji1 means table. Hanzi are HIGHLY STYLIZED SIMPLIFIED pictures and symbols; these are combined to form concepts in cases of complex characters. They may be “recycled” as pictorial, semantic, or auditory elements which are meant to be mutually reinforcing wherever possible.
This Feng疯 means Crazy. 疯 features a sideways sickbed on top and left (two legs of bed on left, heating portion on top. Yes ancient china had heated beds. Civilized! And there we see that wind character again. The crazy person is sick and the sickness is like a strong wind blowing through them. PICTURE SOUND AND MEANING ARE MUTUALLY REINFORCING IN HANZI. 风 here is phonetic AND semantic in exactly the way I describe. 你 means you ni3. It’s 人 ren2 on the left. On the right may be a picture of a crossbow (c.f. hanziyuan.net). On the right is 尔 which means “thou“; like thou 尔 is a bit archaic, antiquated, literary no longer part of ordinary speech. 尔 is small (小xiao3） and a sideways/abbreviated/compressed person 人ren2 character on top. The small you is THOU. 了 le/liao is a great easy character which can mean: change of state le (often used in cases of past tense, but not exclusively). 了 can also mean to understand liao. 了 can also be used pictographically to portray e.g. a stick as in 老人 old person lao3ren2 Hanzi may be recycled as pictorial, auditory, or semantic symbols.
为什么 Wei Shen Me Why 为=. 刀DAO1A KNIFEpowerfully力 LI4 SPLITS办 BAN4 EIGHT BA1 八 into TWO二 er4 parts.
WHY? just BECAUSE!
什 ren + ten sounds like SHEN2 means WHAT
ren2 person 人+十 shi2 10 = renshi (homophone 认识)
么 question particle; originally meant smallest one
为
Why
Ever
Is WHY BECAUSE WEI
什
Such
Hard
Examples
Now WHAT SHEN
么
Me?
Eric? QUESTION PARTICLE. ME=”?”
刀力办认识吗？ might be the logic behind 为什么 and does make it memorable – if you speak Chinese.
Shop is Dian right on the Dot, let’s figure it out!
店 = 广 manor on a hill + 上 + 口。 口 mouth. here it’s the building shang 上 means up/on top.
店
Drop
In
Anytime
Now! DIAN SHOP
上
So
High
And
Now
Go UP SHANG
口
Kneel
Open
Up MOUTH KOU
广 Grandiose Umfassend Amazing New Grand BROAD GUANG
苍 gray (clue:granary 仓) cang1
蝇 flies (bug on left frog on right) ying2
不 don’t (picture of a root as symbol of not/don’t. roots DON’T move) bu4
叮 sting (ding rhymes with sting and they mean the same thing!) ding1
无 wu unable (picture of a lamed man as symbol of incapacity) wu2
缝 fine silk thread on the left mountain peak on the right on top of walking radical. so it’s a fine unbroken mountain range as a symbol for SEAMLESS, UNBROKEN feng4
的 de of it’s just like french or spanish DE=OF de4
蛋 dan egg. creepy crawly on the bottom upright walking man on top. What is an upright/straight/ordered creepy crawly? An egg!
So: Gray flies don’t peck unbroken eggs. dan4
S.acred sage saint
H.oly he’s
E.ternal
N.ow
G.od SAGE SAINT SHENG4
his Right Hand is once AGAIN touching Dirt.
Thats right. His right hand is right on top of dirt!
Some saint!
怪
G.rotesque
U.nusual
A.nd
I.nsane
STRANGE BEWILDERING WEIRD GROTESQUE GUAI4
The sage’s right hand is next to his heart and on top of the earth.
If a sage’s right hand is on the earth and next to his heart he is necessarily down in the dirt. WEIRDO. A STRANGE SIGHT.
快
Happy, quick
Rhymes with guai, looks a bit like guai.
K.Wik!
W.onderful
A.lacrity
I.mmediate
HAPPY RAPID QUICK KUAI4
Image: A happy rich man 夫人 with a jade pendant at his waist.
Originally was two people happily seeing each other off, making their departure quick so it would be happ since they like each other and don’t wish it to be bittersweet.
was originally the image of two people bound by the feet. The 土 and inverted 土 here were originally 大 a person and 屰 an inverted person bound by a lock. The character was simplified and standardized to this form. It’s the idea of good luck apparently because eventually the sentence terminates and they are released.
运yun4
means to transport, convey. The top part is drawn first and is a cloud 云yun2 but it was originally 军jun1， the army, which is the image of war chariots encamped i.e. under a roof. Since armies often do mass movements when you add the path/walking radical below it you get movement. It became simplified to 运 which is a bit more poetic and less violent. 幸福 is another and i think more frequent way to say lucky/fortunate. 幸运xing4yun4 = stroke of luck, stroke of good fortune. 幸福=Xingfu2 fortunate, lucky. 福 is an abbreviated/compressed form of altar 示 on the left (=shi4 vision) and a wine jar on the right fu2 富 lid on top mouth 口 is the top of the jar tian2 田 here is not field, it depict the body of the jar. Pictorial elements get reused to depict other objects.
He2 Close, Shut, Combine, Join, Fit
It’s a pictogram of two mouths kissing! Aw. 🙂 H.is E.xpression CLOSE SHUT COMBINE JOIN FIT
盒
He2 Box
Phono-semantic. It’s a picture of a pan 皿 MIN2 which is the pictographic element beneath the word for combine as its phonetic element. H.eavy E.xemplar BOX min e!
军
jun1 army
War chariot 车 che1
under roof 宀 J.ust U.nderneath N.ew ARMY war chariot
事
shi4
matter affair matter of importance S.o H.ere I.s A MATTER AN AFFAIR OF IMPORTANCE
Ideogram: Hand grasping a peg and stiring it around
演
yan3 Y.es A. N.ew DRILL DEVELOP EXERCISE
This is a target stuffed dummy huang 黄 under the roof 宀 of an archery training ground near a river. Training halls tended to be near rivers and under rooves. Water is needed for hard training both to drink and then bathe. Roof is needed for good shooting practice to avoid sun or even wind.
寅
yin2
Respect Revere Reverence Y.es I. N.ow RESPECT REVERE
习
xi2
revision review exercise H.ere’s S.ome I.ntelligence: EXERCISE REVIEW REVISION
This is the image of the wing of a fledgling learning to fly and thus also includes the idea of inversion, flapping, flipping.
合军事演习
hejunshiyanxi Joint military training exercise; joint wargame.
My interlocutors, it seems, are hopeful of bilateral training exercises as confidence building measures. I hold out no such hopes though I may be wrong and have Hedged accordingly.
會
Hui Meeting. Traditional character. H.ere U.nderneath I.t A MEETING
is the ceremonial display of a corpse post-mortem.
S.o
H.e
I.s1
A FUNERARY CORPSE ON DISPLAY
The meaning of 尸it is extended however to mean the body generally. It is sometimes also used as a pictorial image to indicate not only the body but also the backside as e.g.
屎
S.hit
H.it
I.t3
SHIT
which of course stinks like a corpse.
避
B.reak
I.nside?4
AVOID EVADE ESCAPE
辟 indicates punishment (right hand 辛， which is the image of a punitive knife handle up blade down or an upsided down person, being punished); this punishment may be by decapitation （ 口mouth here represents the head, 尸 is the remainder of the dead body) or exile. Meaning: the criminal may AVOID decapitation by Going into exile.
辟
Pi Law, Rule, Bi Monarch
P.unishment
I.s
LAW RULE
B.aron
I.s
MONARCH, RULER
This depicts the consequences of rule breaking as a symbol of the idea of law, rule, ruler. On the right is the punishing dagger. In the middle is the mouth of the victim. On the left is the person to be punishment. This may depict capital punishment as consequence of law breaking. In any case it represents the idea of LAW RULE MONARCH.
辛
Xin1 Punishment
Pictogram of a Punitive Dagger. Ideogram of an inverted person as a symbol or image of the idea of punishment.
X.
I.t’s
N.ow
PUNISHMENT
刃
ren, a sharp knife. The dot indicates the sharp edge of the knife. May also be a drop of blood to indicate the potential of the knife.
R.eally
E.xquisite
N.ife
KEEN EDGED KNIFE
勿
Wu4 DO NOT
Image of a knife shedding blood. Later by extension also scythe reaping grain.
W.aste
U.ngulates DO NOT
弃
Q.uit
I.t4
ABANDON REJECT
This is the image of a baby abandoned in a basket. The lower character 廾 gong3 is hands joined. It evokes 升 sheng1 which means to lift up. Gong3 here 廾 is a simplification; it was originally two hands holding up the basket with 𠫓 which is a stylized simplified image of an inverted fetus or baby (horizontal lines are arms, dot is the legs head s beneath as 厶 si1 which means private, personal).
shAN 山 mountain (pictogram: depicts 3 peaks of mountain range)
feng 风 wind
1) Learn Pictograms and Ideograms 2) Learn the Kangxi radicals 3) learn the various abbreviated (compressed) character forms which are used as determinants 3) LEARN PRONUNCIATION (this video and i presume Heisig ignores that entirely p.s. it’s the hard part). 4) play the word game “sounds like/rhymes with has something to do with METAL” 5) congrats, you can read.
兑 dui exchange swap trade. 八 on top means the idea of dividing brother below shows it is friendly division i.e. exchange, trade, a deal.
D.ivide
U.p
I.tems
In phono-semantic characters the elements reinforce. 君 means monarch, lord “the hand and command”. It rhymes with qun. We know this is clothing 衣, but it is also clothing which is regal, graceful, beautiful, lordly. What is a graceful lordly regal piece of clothing which rhymes with jun? 裙子！
啦 la
Hanzi originated as literal pictures about 6000 years ago. Over the course of millenia they have been stylized and simplified.
This la is the mouth on the left a hand in the middle and a stand/standing person on the right 啦
The mouth should be obvious 口. It’s square because Chinese was carved into bone at first and its easier to go with the grain, so there are few curves in hanzi. The hand character 手shou is a picture of a hand with 5 fingers (which are the three lines on top). The arm and wrist are the vertical line. The stand/standing person 立li is on the right. His head is the dot on top his two legs are the vertical line and the bottom horizontal line is the ground. the top horizontal line is his arms. You may not recognize the simplifications or reuse of characters; the kou mouth 口 character is also used to represent square things as a picture element so for example 高gao and 京jing the kou characters are windows of the building which is what those characters depict. Kou also is used to represent buildings or even an entire city.
Who is a person who walks around under your roof talking talking blablabla?
that is a guest, a client, a customer a KE4 客 ! 宀 roof mian2 夂 walkabout zhi3 口 mouth kou3
父 I was taught fu is a pair of crossed axes as a symbol of father’s power. It may be easier to think of it as a picture of a mustache. 亲 is a tougher one. It’s the idea of a dagger 辛 which cuts away the deadwood 木 to separate that which is vital (one’s family) from that which is not. I’ve not looked up the 甲骨文 on that one yet. Anyway 辛 is definitely a picture of a punitive dagger used to inflict corporeal punishment on criminals in ancient China. Trees 木 pretty much everywhere are also symbols of the family tree, so this is also the power of the elders to punish wrongful behavior of their offspring. Linkwords: father, fuqin fu qin
Jiu4 Left side is a tall tower as symbol and seat of the capitol itself!
京
jing1 is a picture of a tall tower all right but it’s used as a symbol of the Capitol.京 capitol looks much like gao1 tower
高
gao1=lid+mouth+cover+mouth. The mouths are the windows.
Right side is you2 尤 an outstanding and excellent but lame man. Why? he’s a war veteran. His right leg is was lamed in combat as you can clearly see and the dot is his badge. In oracle bone script its his right hand which is injured. The character was simplified from a hand with pointer to the injury (the dot) to its present form.
Put them together and you have the ideas of tall, surprising, excellent, outstanding, capital (a capital idea!) capitol (the capitol building).
It means THEN as in consequently.
The wounded war veteran was summoned to the capital where he JUST, THEN, recieved his medal.
This is JUST my friend JOE就jiu THEN. It may be A SURPRISE惊jing1 but he is OUTSTANDING, PARTICULARLY 尤you2优you1 EXCELLENT even though he is UNABLE无wu2 to climb up a HIGH TOWER高gao1 in the capitol京jing1
背包
beibao 北 on top is the sound clue sounds like BEI3 means North (as in Beijing, the northern capital) Bei 北 is two people sitting back to back. On the right of bei is bi3 匕 spoon. Compass invented in China is called the “south pointing spoon”. What’s the opposite or to the back of the south pointing spoon? North! 匕 => 北 => 背 this is known as the flowering of Chinese characters 汉字开花 i.e. how Chinese characters “blossom”. There is an inner logic to the characters! YOU can learn it! 月 yue on the bottom is the body/moon (moon is a luminous body); it’s the crescent moon or a side of ribs.
Put them together and the bei character is the shoulder straps the yue character is the body.
Bao means wrap/bag. 包top bits the handle bottom parts the container i.e. the bag.
From The Three Character Couplet.
“Man at birth
Is quite good
Their nature, similar
but paths diverge.”
…
“If they do not study
then they cannot know justice.”
Justice is cultivated through virtuous actions which become habitual. It is not natural, even though the fundamental nature of people is good, their character must be cultivated. Neglect of such cultivation is the cause of injustice. But this neglect is in part the fault of the society they live in.
shi3shi2ju4 xia4 矢 arrow. it’s a picture of an arrow moving from left or right going over the head of a person. The top of the arrow is a compressed sideways ren 人 person character. the rest is da 大 big. it’s a person stretching their arms wide as symbol of “big” Now you know why dada is big daddy. 石 stone. cliff on the left 厂 but compressed a bit; mouth 口 kou on the right. The mouth character here is a picture of a stone. 俱 Person on the left winnowing basket / dustpan on the top right 2 hands lifting it up beneath it. in 4th tone it means “clique, group, party”. In second tone it means “constantly” 下 Ideogram symbolizing down/below/beneath.
This means under constant fire. The best English language idiom might be “under the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune“
半冷半暖秋天 熨貼在你身邊
Half cold, half warm, autumn
Reconciled to be next to you
靜靜看著流光飛舞
Calm looking touching flowing light in the breeze
那風中一片片紅葉 惹心中一片綿綿
In the midst of this wind blow two red leaves
Vexatious heart bemidst a scene of continuity
半醉半醒之間 再認笑眼千千
Half drunk, half sober, between
Again to know the smile in a thousand eyes
就讓我像雲中飄雪
Then allow me to be the floating flake of snow in a cloud
用冰清輕輕吻人臉
Using clear ice to softly kiss a human face
帶出一波一浪的纏綿
From the belt a wave a breaker of winding silk
留人間多少愛 迎浮生千重變
To stay in the human world there is so much love
Welcome floating birth a thousand heavy changes
跟有情人 做快樂事 別問是劫是緣
With lovers make merry affairs
Do not ask if it is robbery or fate
像柳絲像春風 伴著你過春天
Willows resemble silk which resembles spring wind
Partner with you spring day
就讓你埋首煙波裡
then permit you to immerse in mist covered water
放出心中一切狂熱 抱一身春雨綿綿
give out from the heart a slice of madness
embrace as one body continuous spring rain
Amida, in the heart space, you teach me don’t covet or hate
Amida, in the heart space, throw off the dust of the human world
No matter how hard the road, I am willing to bravely stride forward.
No matter how far the journey, or when I reach the goal
I will attain the source of the heart
Amitabha in my heart, happy in the human world.
Amitabha in my heart, take away concerns of the human world
Amitabha in my heart, I hold fast to this faith.
cai2 is literally a sprout or half a block of wood. As a standalone it looks to have lost its literal meaning an retains only its metaphoric meaning of genius, talent. However, as a pictorial or semantic element of a character it may still indicate its literal meaning (sprout/sprouting) or be a pictorial element (half block of wood) What’s a door with a block of wood in front of it? It’s a closed door!
Block It CLOSED
嘴 zui3 嘴 = 口+此+角
口 is a picture of a mouth 此 means this and sounds like ci3.
此=止+匕
止 zhi3 stopped + 匕 bi3 spoon = 此 ci3 this
角 is a picture of a single bull’s horn. sharp point on top, scales in the middle. It means horn, corner. Memotechnique: This Corner of the Mouth = Zesty cItrUs
去 qu4 is a clump of earth tu3 土 on top
and an arrow below 厶 去=土+厶 去 is a symbol of an arrow flying past the earth as the idea of “to go”. It sounds like “ktchu”. This sound does not exist in English French German Spanish Estonian Dutch or Russian. In othere words we’re fucked.
厶 si1 itself means private personal; it may be the image of a silkworm or a flexed arm “we can do it” style. Silk was China’s ancient secret and clothing items are personal and private. 厶 It is often used as a simplified pictorial element. When used as a pictorial element 厶 may also represent a triangle, an enclosed object，for example in liu 流 or tai 台， platform. 台 s a picture of a small tower).
睡
睡 shui4 is an eyeball on the left side mu4 目. On the right is a highly stylized picture of a fully ripe stalk of grain which is heavy with ears of grain: 垂. 垂 chui2 is most often used as a symbol for heavy, drooping, but is also still used literally to mean grain ready for harvest. 睡=目+觉
觉
觉 is a highly stylized picture of an eyeball on top of a pair of legs 见 jian beneath a roof 宀 the other two dots are either horns or the number 8 八 or accent marks from a writing system used to transcribe Korean. 觉 is a polyphone and may be prounounced jiao4 as here or jue as in juede 觉得 比如说：我觉得这个犯法不太好 Jiao 觉 means sleep: one’s eyes are closed under a roof. Jue 觉 means to feel as in perceive. It’s a person underneath a roof either sleeping or looking out the window and perceiving i.e. feeling. 见+宀+八=觉
Finally and perhaps most importantly 睡觉 can be used meaning to sleep as in sleep with. 例如:我想跟l老师睡觉 哈哈
Chinese has two words for again: you4 又 and 再 zai4
又 you4 is a highly simplified picture of the right hand, as a symbol of that which recurs, that which happens again and again. Since most people are right handed they use their right hand again and again. The fingers are on the top and left the arm is on the lower right.
You4 又is used to refer exclusively to events which have occurred in the past, and only in the past.
你又去机场! You went to the airport – again! You went once, in the past, and you went yet again, also in the past.
Yesterday Once AGAIN U REPEATED IT IN THE PAST
又 is exclusively used for recurring past events, something that happened at least twice in the past.
再
Zai’s Again In THE FUTURE
zai is used to refer to the repetition of an event in the future. The characters origins are unclear. It appeared to be a person entering a house, or a person with a hand and tool at a house. It can be decomposed into 工 冂 and 一 which all look like elements from the oracle script. It is probably the idea of a person returning home in the future or working at their home or in a workplace in the future, they will return home AGAIN they will work at the workplace AGAIN but in the future.
再 is used exclusively for things which will occur at least once in the future and have occurred at least once in the past. For example 再见 means literally “see you again”: you see the person now and probably also in the past and plan or at least hope to see them again in the future. Thus 再 and not 又。
You 又 and zai 再 are examples of context clues to tense intended in a Chinese sentence.
This fu is the nearest hill or mountain range or ridgeline outside the city. In other words, it’s the outermost line of defense of the city, a defensible position outside the city walls. I think of it as ten 十 hills. As a determinant 阝fu4 is known as the left ear (zuo3 er3 bian5 左耳边） because it’s determinant looks like an ear. However, it does not represent the human ear even though it looks like one. As a determinant 阝 on the left side of a character represents the city’s nearest foothills: suburbs, exurbs, the rural area outside the city’s walls.
阜院阜附埠
阜 fu4 abundant, mound
附
fu4
add attach F.ix U.nto =ADD ATTACH
埠
bu4 port, pier, wharf B.ridgehead U.nderwater PORT PIER WHARF
院
yuan4 garden courtyard institution
邑
Yi.
City
This character represents the city’s gates, specifically the area just outside of the city gates where public notices are posted and people are granted or denied admission into the city.
The top mouth character 口 kou3 both represents the idea of the gate of the city but also the idea of messages posted at the city gate.
The lower character ba1 巴 (desire expectation) used to be the ren2 人 person character. It was simplified to 巴 as a visual element. To my way of thought it represents the idea that those just outside the city walls Desire and even Expect and Look Forward to being admitted into the city, but also that such people are potentially as dangerous as snakes since they may be spies for the would be invaders. 巴 is the image of a snake (coBrA) and indicates desire: those Outside the city’s Inner Wall DESIRE and LOOK FORWARD to being admitted into the city. But people Outside the city are as dangerous as snakes and desire like snakes to enter the protected place.
As a determinant yi4 looks exactly like fu4’s determinant 阝but is called 友耳边 the right ear determinant not because it in any way represents the human ear but because it resembles one. When 阝is on the right it indicates urban things.
左耳胖是 外边城 (丘，山）= outer defense wall
友耳胖是 里墙 = inner defense wall
都 dou1=all 邮 you2=post office
滬 a venerated city by the sea that sounds like hu4 – Shanghai’s nickname.
ye4, Pageface, used as a stand-alone it means page of paper in modern Chinese but used as a character components still means face, which was its meaning in ancient Chinese.
Mei3 美 is a fun character. It’s a picture of a beautiful girl with her hair adorned in great style. It’s composed of goat on top and big on the bottom. This is a picture of a goat 羊 yang2. And this 大 da4 is a picture of a person holding out their arms stretched wide “that fish was this BIG” and it means big! Ok so why Goat+Big = Beautiful (woman)? Well, in Chinese you can also call a VERY beautiful woman a 大美 which means “great beauty” as in supermodel. So da makes sense here it means grand not big like fat but giant tall imposing powerful. What about goat 羊? Well， han Chinese characters get simplified and recycled for ease of writing. It really was a picture of a very stylish hair-do and had dress, not of a goat, but got simplified to goat. So just remember: Hot chinese girls?
ARE SECRETLY BIG GOATS!
Hope it gets a laugh, you will sure remember now 大 da + yang 羊 = 美 mei big+goat=beautiful.
And it applies to anything beautiful so if it helps you to think of a big plate of lamb and mint jelly who am i to argue?
mei2 is originally the image of a person drowning to death. it came to mean NOT as in DOES NOT EXIST as a metaphoric extension of the original idea of drowning person. 没 is a picture of an abbreviated river 水 on the left (three dots 2 riverbanks and a watercourse between them), and on the right is the right hand 又 you4 of the poor drowning person and above them is a stylized simplified picture of what was a whirlpool 几。Ji3 几 is a picture of a tea-table seen from the side. Like I said, it’s a stylistic simplification.
M.y
E.xistence
I.s
NEGATED DOES NOT EXIST THERE IS NO
问
wen is a picture of a gate or door 門 门 men2 on top and around a mouth kou3 口. The idea is of a person at your door ASKING if you are at home!
W.ho
E.xists
N.ow? ASK, QUESTION
题
Ti2 theme topic is To Be + the image of a persons face. To be is abstract 是 is composed of the solar disk ri 日 on top of the word for upright 正 which in turn is composed of 1 一 yi1 and stop 止 zhi3.
To be is the abstract idea of a person stopped standing upright underneath the sun. But if you put another persons face 页 ye4 in the picture it turns into a dialogue of two people talking beneath the sun and thus becomes THEME TOPIC.
页 alone in modernity means a page of paper, a sheet of paper but it originally is a picture of a persons face (chopstick in the hair on top square is the outline of the head and the two lines are their eyes). When 页 is used alone it is a piece of paper, a page; but when used as a character component like in 问题 it still means face.
T.i
I.ndicates TopIc, Theme
Breakdown of characters used to form 没问题 = 水几又， 门口， 日正页。
On the left we see the abbreviated form of KNIFE, BLADE as the determinant (key). 刀 dao means knife. So we know this word has something to do with a sharp object, likely made of metal. Here, dao represents the master’s sword.
On the right we see a strip of cloth 巾 （fabric is represented with jiong 冂 which is a covering symbol for covering; support of the fabric is with gun a vertical line 丨）。
A master is a person with a sword and scabbard. Who has A SWORD and a SCABBARD? The Master.
Qiu 求 to bid for help is a hard and important one so I took my time. Let’s start with BANG instead 棒 bang means stick club cudgel. Let’s break it down!
丰 is our friend feng1 丰 Feng1 is the image of a FErtile floweriNG plant as symbol of that which is fertile productive and keen.
https://hanziyuan.net/#%E5%A5%89
We see FENG1 reduplicated in 奉, first below abbreviated as 1 丨 choice of two sticks 二
On top of abbreviated feng1 and in the middle of bang are two hands clasped together 廾 raising up a second image of the fertile plant 丰 which is twisted left a bit and on top. This feng 奉 is the idea of OFFERING from one’s own Abundance.
https://hanziyuan.net/#%E4%B8%B0
棒 stick club cudgel BANG looks like a simple phono-semantic character. Wood radical on the left, “sounds like” on the right.
What’s MADE OF WOOD and
SOUNDS LIKE FENG?
BANG! a Wooden Stick!
Qiu 求 to beg for help is a hard and very important wprd. qiuming means to beg for one’s l球命的球 is hard But SPHERE, GLOBE, BALL 球 is a fun and easy one! So let’s analyze globe to get to beg.
This 球 qiu means Sphere Globe Ball. On the left we have the KING 王 One theory is 王 is a royal ax, another is the crown but personally I think it’s the imperial jade seal. Wang 王 if a picture of a tablet of jade says something like “empowered by the King”. Wang goes to royal things, precious metals and gems, it indicate solid structured and precious things.
So， 球 is the King on the left on on the right is ONE 一 DROP 丶 of WATER 水. 求， ONE DROP of WATER， means to beg for。 Why? Because ancient China sometimes had droughts! You would BEG for ONE DROP OF WATER 求 begging for your life。But when you put One Drop Water next to the King? 王+求=SPHERE GLOBE BALL We beg for our lives before the god, before the king, before the emperor. The oceans on the globe are but a drop of water to the emperor – the GLOBE 球 is the EMPERORS 王 TOY 玩。
The essence of information warfare is to infiltrate the enemy’s decision making; to change the way the enemy views the world. Information warfare seeks to win a war not necessarily through armed struggle but by ideas and information.
Information warfare can be waged at the tactical or strategic levels. At a strategic level the objective is to deflect or distract to reframe issues and constrain possible answers thereby. At a tactical level it is to mask movements, to attain surprise through secrecy, to deceive through disinformation. Tactical and strategic information warfare actions and goals should be complementary such that the tactical and strategic actions and goals support each other. Deception warfare actions include masking, secrecy, disinformation, provocation.
Information warfare tends to be used by weaker states because it requires fewer resources and promises great benefits for few risks. Information warfare also tends to be waged by dictatorships rather than democracies due to a lower commitment to the idea of truth. Information warfare can however be waged by democracies and powerful states as well as by weak rigid dictatorships.
This character series consists entirely of words which have the sound WU.
勿无乌物午五武舞误务雾
Mouseover the characters below to see the meaning of each word.
Click the characters below to see the pronunciation of the word.
Double click the word for an explanation of the word.
Mouseout to restore the definition back to the hanzi character.
勿
无
乌
物
午
五
武
舞
误
务
雾
勿无乌物午五武舞误务雾 Arranged in a logical progression.
乌1. 无2? 午五武舞3~ 物勿误务雾4! Arranged by tone.
Try to form a sentence or sentences using all this vocabulary.
Remember Chinese sentences are formed in STPMVO:
Subject time place manner verb object.
吠 barking dog fei4
肺 lung fei4
非 don’t no negation fei1
飞 fly fei1
肥 fat fei2
费 fee fei4 a cognate! hug it. it is VERY lonely!
菲 ancient radish fei3 now used as a metaphor for poor and not used literally anymore
废 aboilition fei4 kinda like a certain Bill which shalt remain nameless
匪 fucking bandit fei3
翡 kingfisher fei3
霏 falling snow fei1
Pictogram of the spine (backbone); two 二 characters are the shoulder-blades or ribs. 人 character is like an arrow pointing up to show the spine going up the back. 月 character is the two legs and two vertebrae. It’s a stylized picture of the human bones from the back.
当月光洒在我的脸上 when the moonlit dew fell on my face 我想我就快变了模样 i wished then i’d quickly change form 有一种叫做撕心裂肺的汤 there is a type of soup called torn heart split lung 喝了它有神奇的力量 i drank it to have it’s magic power 闭上眼 看见天堂 close your eyes look to the sky 那是藏着你笑的地方 that’s the storehouse where you where your smile 我躲开无数个猎人的枪 I dodged from countless hunters’ guns 赶走坟墓爬出的忧伤 Drove from the tomb and climbed out of sorrows 为了你 我变成狼人模样 Because of you I became a werewolf 为了你 染上了疯狂 Because of you went insane 为了你 穿上厚厚的伪装 Because of you I wore a heavy disguise 为了你 换了心肠 Because of you – I changed my heart
我们还能不能再见面 We can or cannot return and see each other again 我在佛前苦苦求了几千年 I bid bitter tears before buddah since 1000s of years 愿意用几世换我们一世情缘 Willing to trade some of my lives for our one world of love 希望可以感动上天 Hoping to move heaven’s heart 我们还能不能能不能再 We cannot return or can we see each other again 我在佛前苦苦求了几千年 I bid bitter tears before buddah since 1000s of years 当我在踏过这条奈何桥之前 when i stepped on this bridge before 让我再吻一吻你的脸 let me kiss your face again
闭上眼 看见天堂 close your eyes and look to the sky 那是藏着你笑的地方
that’s the storehouse where you where your smile 我躲开无数个猎人的枪 I dodged from countless hunters’ guns 赶走坟墓爬出的忧伤 Drove from the tomb and climbed out of sorrows
为了你 我变成狼人模样 Because of you I became a werewolf 为了你 染上了疯狂 Because of you went insane 为了你 穿上厚厚的伪装 Because of you I wore a heavy disguise 为了你 换了心肠 Because of you – I changed my heart 我们还能不能再见面 We can or cannot return and see each other again 我在佛前苦苦求了几千年 I bid bitter tears before buddah many 1000s of years 愿意用几世换我们一世情缘 Willing to trade some of my lives for our one world of love 希望可以感动上天 Hoping to move — heaven’s heart 我们还能不能能不能再见面 We cannot return or can we see each other again 我在佛前苦苦求了几千年 I bid bitter tears before buddah many 1000s of years
当我在踏过这条奈何桥之前 when i stepped on this bridge before 让我再吻一吻你的脸 let me kiss your face again 让我再吻一吻你的脸 let me kiss your face again 让我再吻一吻你的脸 let me kiss your face again
备 and 奋 look alike but are different. You will most frequently encounter 备 in 准备 which means: get ready, be prepared.
准
zhun3 means allow grant permit. Ice determinant on the left, short tailed bird on the right.
biNg1 冰 + ZHui1 隹 = zhun3 准
frozen (ideograph of 2 dots for frozen) + water (pictograph seen from the sky two banks and river between) + short tailed bird (pictograph) = ALLOW GRANT PERMIT zhun3 When the ice freezes the water you GRANT the short tailed bird some food and ALLOW it to eat the stuble from the land you walk on otherwise it would starve and you would have insects all summer long and a poor harvest.
Zealous Harlot’s Uniform Now PERMITTED ALLOWED GRANTED
Short tailed bird but cold as ice
PERMITTED to do as she likes.
备
bei4 means to prepare to get ready 准备的备
备 = on top is 夂 zhi3, the image of a man walking around on his 田 tian2 field. He is walking around PREPARING his field for planting harvest or construction. This is an ideogram, not a phono-semantic character. There is no phonetic clue to the pronunciation of 备.
GET READY in German is BEreIt
Bellicose Exhortations Impel PREPARATION, GET READY.
The top character is not 一 yi1 which means 1. It is the falling left stroke as an ideogram of one of the two objects which are tied together by the middle character yao 幺1 which means one, small, and is an ideogram from a silk thread (the one small silk thread as the symbol of ONE and TINY, that is 幺 yao1). The bottom character 小 is an image of a bird as a symbol of the idea of small. yao1 幺 and xiao3 小 together make mi4 糸 which means silk.
Mnemonics
Xistem
single silk string small SYSTEM TO TIE
一幺小糸系
Hierarchized Systematic Information = SYSTEM, TO TIE， DEPARTMENT
Mu means curtain. let’s break it down! we see jin 巾 below which is a pictogram of a cloth on a rack. The rest of the character is simply “mo” 莫 a compound character which means “not yet”; mo is an ideogram of the great big 大 sun 日 which is still below the line of the grass 艹 i.e. the dawn, the sun has NOT YET risen. So this is “not yet” “curtain” i.e. a stage curtain, but also a drape. Here in 字幕 it is a curtain of text i.e. subtitles. 字 of course means glyph character hieroglyph i.e. the zi of hanzi. It’s the image of a child beneath a roof with a book on his mind which s/he is learning to read (which is why 字 and 学 xue study are related glyphs)U
In modern Chinese you will most often see this as 参加 can1jia1 to participate.
This character literally means ginger shen1 and is apparently also an ancient term for clique, party, fringe element. It thus can also carry the connotation of radical extremist fringe element depending on context. The shadow character at the bottom 彡 shan is the image of light beams and shadows. The middle character is a stretched out 大 da which means big. The top character is 厶 si which means personal private secret. So the character’s idea may be private persons secretly assembling into a large shadowy group.
The three lines on top are the feathers of three birds living in the nest which is represented by the field character tian 田 which is on top of the tree character 木
只因为在人群中多看了你一眼
this is because once in a crowd i caught you by the eye
再也没能忘掉你的容颜
and because I can’t forget your face
梦想着偶然能有一天再相见
in my dream by chance we can see ourselves again
从此我开始孤单地思念
since then i began to feel so alone
想你时你在天边
i miss you, you’re in the sky
想你时你在眼前
i miss you, you’re ‘fore my eyes
想你时你在脑海
i miss you, you’re in my mind
想你时你在心田
i miss you, you’re in my heart
宁愿相信我们前世有约
I prefer believing in our past life.
今生的爱情故事不会再改变
The love story of this life will never change.
宁愿用这一生等你发现
I would rather use this one life to wait for you to see
我一直在你身边
I am always right by your side
从未走远
never going far
A politico named Steve Miller has recently come into the limelight. Purportedly he ate glue as a 9 year old child.
Some people think it’s ok for teachers to divulge confidential information about their former students who were minor children. In fact that’s an abuse of confidence, a betrayal of trust and quite unfair. Divulging such stories by a person entrusted with guardianship shows a lack of good judgement and is evidence why such a person ought perhaps not be entrusted with small children.
But it gets worse. Do you know why children eat paper, glue, matches? Not boredom. Not gourmandise. Not to shock their elders. Children eat such things due to malnourishment.
The hypocritical false idealism and elitism of the U.S. political class explain why you have Trump as a backlash. People got tired of being sent to die and be broken in wars of choice. They got tired of seeing their friends or family die of opioids. And they got tired of being mocked by their self-appointed betters.
So: Although you *can* write TSPMVO you ought not to and this sentence shows why. Chinese people already have to put up with our incorrect tones and wrong measure words. Adding a potential grammar error by varying sentence order for style is foolish.
Chinese has no declensions or conjugation and so sentence order is fixed. STPMVO.
Also time is from most general to most specific, and place also is from largest to smallest. ALWAYS. Because: no declensions, no conjugation.
Wait, was that a non-sequitor? Something something.
hand+pick up object together + already already = COMPILE COMPOSE Zillion Holdings University Anthology Notes = COMPILE COMPOSE
The abbreviated hand determinant is on the left. A pair of si4 snake symbols 巳 on top. In the oracle bone script these were clam shells representing the collected valuable objects. Beneath and to the right is the gong character which means 2 hands of at least 2 people picking up 1 object together. That gong means collective cooperative work. Compilation is the Collection of Works which have Already been realized.
This character series consists entirely of words which have the sound WU.
勿无乌物午五武舞误务雾
Mouseover the characters below to see the meaning of each word.
Click the characters below to see the pronunciation of the word.
Double click the word for an explanation of the word.
Mouseout to restore the definition back to the hanzi character.
勿
无
乌
物
午
五
武
舞
误
务
雾
勿无乌物午五武舞误务雾 Arranged in a logical progression.
乌1. 无2? 午五武舞3~ 物勿误务雾4! Arranged by tone.
Try to form a sentence or sentences using all this vocabulary.
Remember Chinese sentences are formed in STPMVO:
Subject time place manner verb object. >
How to learn Hanzi: 1) Learn the Kangxi radicals first. They are the alphabet (syllabry). then
2) Learn the pictograms and 3) learn the idograms. These are your base.
Pictograms are pictures of real things. Ideograms are abstract symbols.
a) The same picture element can be used to represent different visual things! 月 is a picture of the moon. It is ALSO a picture of a side of ribs! 厶 is a picture of a clenched fist and flexed arm. It is ALSO a picture of a silkworm!
b) phonetic and pictorial elements are mutually reinforcing. Phonetic clues are also semantic clues! Picture sound and meaning reinforce each other in complex characters! The phonetic clues are NOT arbitrary. No character is arbitrary.
c) Chinese is a RHYMING WRITING SYSTEM. So instead of spelling its a) syllables which b) RHYME. FINALS not Initials are what matter.
d) learn the six methods of forming characters (pictogram ideogram associative idea character, phono-semantic character, indicative transfer character, transliteration）
Learn characters in series of similar ones and relate them to each other. Example: 人认仁从众 Learn them as a group, much easier.
Use mnemonics. CAI collect all images 彩 pluck a some shade and light beside a tree!
There is no royal road to learning; you can’t buy knowledge. The hammer to hammer characters and vocabulary into your brain is repetition.
But Repetition doesn’t have to be boring! In fact, the more interesting the repetition the more likely it is to be remembered. We don’t remember boring experiences well, and certainly not gladly.
We remember music best because of rhythm and rhyme, because of emotional intensity, and also because of repetition. Watch Chinese movies. Listen to and learn Chinese songs.
Keys to remembering vocabulary and characters:
Repetition
Exposure – immerse yourself as much as possible in the language you are learning.
Meaning – information which is significant is likelier to be remembered.
Emotion – link words to feelings
Music – music raises emotional intensity augmenting likelihood of memory. Mnemonic
Biography – relate that which you wish to remember to that which you have personally experienced
Eselsbruecke – use mnemonics, limericks, witticisms and jokes as memory hooks
Relate new words to known words, new characters to known characters.
Associate characters with biographical, spatial, and social experiences.
Relate new information to known information.
I personally don’t use memory palaces or biographical memory. I link new information to known information. Rhythm rhyme and repetition and relating new to known are how I remember best it seems.
It may be useful to study characters in sets which look alike but are in fact quite different. For example:
匝 闹
za1 on the left is the idea of a winding bucket carried up from a well on a spool of rope. The cloth character in the middle represents the cloth rope and the spindle (tambour) on which the rope is wound. The idea in modernity is around, round, circumference.
On the right is nao4 which means noisy. It’s the market character at the door character.
As a character set za1 recurs in
砸咂 箍
gu1 to bind with hoops
It’s also useful to learn characters which are antonyms. My favorite is qu to go and zhi to arrive
去
Qu4. it’s an arrow being launched into flight from earth 土
至
zhi4 it’s an arrow which has plunged from above and dug into the dirt 土. It’s arrived
It’s also useful to distinguish similar looking but different characters like 土 tu3 clump of earth (sideways x marks the spot) and 士 shi master (he is sitting with his arms stretched wide head on top). The arms of shi are much wider than tu. Tu’s upper horizontal line is shorter than the width of the lower horizontal line. In contrast shis upper horizontal line is always longer than the lower horizontal line.
At this time with similar hopes but dissimilar news Willing to chase the moonlight, flowing flashing lord the swan goose spreads, flies, limitless light the sea serpent sinks, leaps – water becomes word
莫呼洛迦莫呼洛迦揭谛摩诃
莫呼洛迦莫呼洛迦揭谛摩诃
别叹息色是空空是色色变空空变色
末世摩登伽此刻不变色
是美色出色生色问谁可以不爱惜
唱出惜色的歌摩登伽女正是我
莫呼洛迦莫呼洛迦揭谛摩诃
莫呼洛迦莫呼洛迦揭谛摩诃
天龙之女一曲婆娑心眼仿佛中魔
尽我角色意识美色来请你多爱惜
良夜又逢末世人珍惜今晚记住我
No one dares speak his name! Is there any who dare speak his name? The divine god protects and reveals!
Do not gasp desire is empty empty is desire desire changes empty space empty space becomes desire!
The end of an era is this moment of unchanging desire
This beautiful desire emerges, desire births desire asks who cannot love and cherish
Sing forth the song of cherished desire, the end of this era, the upright woman is me!
Do not dare speak his name! None dare speak his name! The divine god protects and reveals!
The divine dragon's daughter, a swirling song of the great mother, her heart's eye appears bewitched!
Exhausted my role, consciousness of beautiful desire comes bidding you all to cherish and love
A good night again falls on the end of this world. man, treasure and cherish this night, remember me.
laobaixing means “the people”. Laobaixing literally means “old 100 family-names” i.e. the denizens.
要求
yaoqiu means request require ask demand. bid in the sense “i bid thee”. It literally means “want seek”
政治
政
zheng means government (noun): it is 正 upright+armed hand on the right. i.e. the right use of force. Politische Gewalt.
治 zhi means to govern (verb)
government-to-govern is the literal translation of 政治
compare:
老 Lao means old. It is a highly stylized form of an old person using a cane. The cane is the horizontal slash. The old persons lousy legs are beneath. The cross is their head the horizontal line is their shoulders.
开kai means to open. 放 fang means to release, to let go. It is a prisoner in stocks on the left, and a hand holding a hammer on the right.
Plaintext:
THE PEOPLE DEMAND POLITICAL LIBERALIZATION
On the left is the image of the crescent moon 月yue4. Yue is also the image of a side of ribs. It means moon, body, meat: The moon is a luminous body. 月in this character is a semantic element. 月 here is the goddess of the moon, 嫦娥.
On the right is the image of a sprouting plant. 生 sheng1whichis the phonetic element in this character. Phonetic elements and semantic elements are mutually reinforcing! The characters were NOT arbitrarily chosen: they were selected by scribes with a view to the picture, the sound, and the meaning. All three elements are meant to be mutually reinforcing, so there is a purpose to careful scrutiny in deciphering Chinese characters.
生is the image of the seed which has been planted and is now is sprouting: Thus, 生means birth. 生also means life. 生also means growth.
We see 生here by moonlight: or beside the human body.
胜 is the victory of a woman giving birth. It is victory which has emerged after careful planning, planting, and patience.
胜! Sieg sheng de sheng! 申胜的胜! Fourth tone sheng!
Athena sprang forth fully formed from the brain of Zeus clad in armor crying VICTORY!
Feng4 huang2 is the Chinese phoenix. It looks like this
凤凰
Let’s break it down! The hand character 又is a stylization of an owl from oracle bone script. Owls are symbols of wisdom, vigilance, 360 vision, with vision penetrating the blackest night. The 凡 fan character means ordinary and is related to feng wind风, Feng1 in this character is both phonetic and semantic This is the bird that sounds like the wind itself! IT’S SONG IS THE WIND.
And let’s talk about this NOT ordinary bird! (凡人fan ren means ordinary person i.e. everyman). We know it is BRILLIANT BLINDING AND WHITE 白bai white is the sun itself with a ray of light. IT’S EYE IS THE SUN.
And it is NOBLE and ROYAL 王 means king.
So? What bird is blindingly brilliant as the sun, with a song like the wind, and noble?
The phoenix!
凤凰 Flying hand, bright white bird-king! 就是凤凰!
Flies Eternally Nine Heads Guardian
FLYING PHOENIX
又风的凤
Hovering Underneath Alabaster: Noble
!gnaW
Brilliant White Royal PHOENIX
白 王 的 凰
ji1 chang3 means airport. It literally means “machine threshing-field”. Let’s break it down!
On the left we have the tree determinant 木 mu which is a picture of a tree. This character as a determinant (=concept key) designates structured, patterned, and/or wooden things. 木 is next to ji 几 the table character. 几 is a picture of a table seen from the side (2 legs and flat table top).
How does wood+table= machine? Well, the first machines were made of wood! And tended to be weapons. This particular machine is a crossbow, particularly its trigger. The crossbow is depicted here disassembled – unlike 尔 er, which is a picture of an assembled crossbow. Why? Because the idea of ji 机 here isn’t the weapon itself but rather the idea of a machine: a thing with parts which can be assembled and disassembled. So why “machine” for airplane? Basically it’s an abbreviation of 飞机 fei ji which means flying machine. 飞机 is a picture of a flying bird on the left (2 wings head on top tail below) next to machine. What kind of machine flies? An airplane! Well, you might know that German for airplane is “flying man-made thing”: Flugzeug. Chinese and German here are similar, just like the Flugzeug is the Germany flying machine so also is fei ji the Chinese flying machine.
飞
Flies Everywhere Internationally FLYING
机
Jointed Instrument= MACHINE.
Ok, what about 场? The plus on the left which looks like a grave marker means “dirt clump, dirt wall, DIRT. It’s pronounced tu3. 土 On the right is yi 易 which means easy amiable, and is the image of the sun and moon in their mutual orbital relation which conveys the idea of mutuality and amity and also the exchange (of light of positions). The top part is the sun the lower vertical lines are the shadows or rays of sunlight cast onto the surface of the moon.
Why does it sound like Chang and nothing like tu or yi? Because this is an associative idea character NOT a phono-semantic character. It’s an associative idea character: earth (indicating field)+exchanging changing (of wheat from chaff): two ideas are brought together to express a third different idea.
Why chang? Well, Chang E is the Chinese Goddess of the moon so perhaps that may help us remember the yi 易 amiable easy orbital exchang component of chang
From the idea of “threshing floor, threshing field” 场 the word chang extended its meaning to indicate fields and open spaces generally.
场
Cropland Heath Acreage Now Grassland THRESHING FLOOR, THRESHING FIELD, FIELD
Character decomposition: let’s break it down to it’s components to figure it out. 试
yanzipang on the left is the abbreviated form of 言 which is a mouth sending out sound waves and means to say and looks like the western letter i in the simplified form of writing. This determinant tells us the character involves speaking or talking or words somehow, the idea of communication. When we TRY things we must talk about them both to learn the proper form and then to produce the proper form.
工 Gong1 is a work tool 工. It’s a picture of a Chinese two pronged pitch-fork with the handle on top and the tines below.
弋 yi4 is a retrievable throwing dart attached to a line.
working tool + retrievable throwing dart = form pattern style
式 shi4 mean form, pattern, style: I suppose it is a combined concept word (会议字) where two pictures/ideas come together to express a third.
Namely: Working with one’s hunting tools requires good form, proper pattern, a selective style.
式 is the phonetic element of 试. 试 is evidently a phono-semantic character.
small silk selection collects attention catches the eyes it’s the perfect size. Link It All Now
PRACTICE TRAIN DRILL PERFECT
Practice makes perfect!
In the oracle bone script the right character is an eye; selecting silk, which is on the left. Selecting silk requires training and practice to make it perfect.
弋戈成或 This character series deals with weapons of war. :/ China, like Europe, had a bloody feudal history of war after war. This is reflected in Chinese characters (hanzi) The following characters are all pictograms: pictures of literal objects.
弋yi4 is a picture of a retrievable throwing dart on a sling: the throwing dart could be drawn back by a rope. The dot is the dart’s head. The horizontal line is the retrieval rope. The vertical line is the sling bow or launcher.
Yes
It’s a
RETRIEVABLE DART
戈ge1 is a pole-arm, halbred, i.e. a long handled war ax. The vertical line is the ax pole. The bottom line is the pommel the top line and dot are the forward edge and backward edge of the two-edged pole-arm. Giant Enormous POLE-ARM My big brother (哥哥 gege) the half-breed has a Giant Enormous HALBRED A DOUBLE-EDGED LONG AX.
成cheng2 is pole-arm plus ding nail 丁. Ding1 here is pictographic, it is a simplification of the city conquered by the ax-men on the right. Cheng2 originally meant conquest of a city. It has since been extended metaphorically to mean achievement, achieve, become: the metaphore has come to mean more than the original literal meaning.
或huo4 means “or”. It is a phono-semantic character. The left hand kou 口 is the phonetic element: in oracle bone scripts the square sign was used to indicate dwellings, enclosed spaces, i.e. buildings or even villages.. The right hand ge1 戈is the semantic idea of city from cheng2 成. Either you defend the city or it falls!
Here’s
Uniforms OR A CHOICE
I at first found these characters quite difficult: they are HIGHLY stylized and simplified pictures but are indeed pictures. I took solace in that they seem to follow a logical development and do in fact: we are looking at the evolution of the simplest of war-weapons, the slingshot, into more complex ones, axes and pole-arms resulting finally in the emergence of the greatest achievement of civilization: CIVITAS, The CITY
城市
Cheer His Exquisite New Grand ACCOMPLISHMENT ACHIEVEMENT COMPLETED
或huo4 means “or”. It is a phono-semantic character. The left hand kou 口 is the phonetic element: in oracle bone scripts the square sign was used to indicate dwellings, enclosed spaces, i.e. buildings or even villages.. The right hand ge1 戈is the semantic idea of city from cheng2 成.
I at first found these characters quite difficult: they are HIGHLY stylized and simplified pictures but are indeed pictures. I took solace in that they seem to follow a logical development and do in fact: we are looking at the evolution of the simplest of war-weapons, the slingshot, into more complex ones, axes and pole-arms resulting finally in the emergence of the greatest achievement of civilization: CIVITAS, The CITY
Chinese characters exhibit a powerful attractive and compelling logic. E.g. 乂中史吏更
Let’s look at how this character series unfolds for it is logical, and thus memorable.
乂
yi4 regulate govern control
Mnemonic: Yes It looks like x. X Marx the spot for government control!
中
zhong1/4 middle, within, centerbullseye (it is the image of an archery target as symbol of “middle”)
Mnemonic: BULLSEYE! Zap! Hit it! One New Goal!
史
shi3 history: history is the record of governance of the middle kingdom. China is the middle kingdom. Stories? Here It is! HISTORY Stories? Hear It! HISTORY
吏
li4 minor government official – for example a recorder of legal instruments, of official records, a historian, the recorder of history! Official government records are a central part of history.
Mnemonic: Licensing Inspector
Licensing Librarian
更
geng4 furthermore: this character is the records of history. Furthermore, The minister adds one more mark to the official record. In first tone is the Night watchman of the state. Given Even Newer Grants MORE, STILL MORE, EVEN MORE research is possible.
ku3 means “bitter”: on top is the grass determinant, below is 10 mouths. The ten mouths symbolize ten generations and is the idea of old, ancient. gu 古。 Apparently in ancient Chinese “old plants” meant bitter; the plant dries out and loses its sweetness with age.
辛
xin1 is the image of a dagger which was used to inflict punishment for crimes: branding or scarring the criminal in ancient societies is common, in China cutting of the nose e.g.. The top is li4 the standing man character
立
head is the dot on top line on the bottom is the dirt two vertical lines for legs and the top horizontal line is the arms。 beneath li is 10
十。
This is the same as Roman numeral X but is tilted on it’s side in Chinese！
Xin is a pictogram; it’s a picture of a dagger but the pictogram is composed of two other characters, the standing man+ten=dagger.
shi li 十 立
Ku is a symbol: this is called an associative idea character – two ideas are brought together to express a third grass+old=bitter.
kou shi cao 口十草
Mnemotechniques: 万事开头难
literally: thousand matters begin head hard
wan4 shi4 kai1 tou4 nan2
wan thousand, as in wan thousand 1000What A Number
shi So Here Is MATTER
kai Kick At It OPEN – the gate
tou tete french latin testus english HEAD
nan it’s Not Anything Nice or easy in fact it’s TOUGH to catch a BIRD WITH YOUR HAND
Slurred speech trick: “when she can too, n.a.n.”
(nan is an acronym for not a number; inane).
万事开头难 Aller Anfang ist Schwer. Iga Algus On Raske All Beginnings Are Hard
计划 jihua44 and ji hui 机会14 are both important terms. they are high frequency and decisional connectors. one means plan, the other means opportunity. let’s not screw this up. how to remember them?
Let’s start with ji as in strateJI becase that’s what it is. Strategic thinking requires sharp timing. And what do we know that’s sharp and precise? A needle! 针 zhen1 means needle.
什 ren2 人+shi2 十 =shen=what.
But ji is 计。
yanzipang on the left tells us this is about speaking. shi ten十on the right. speaking+10=calculating.
jihua 计划
划 hua on the right means plan.
Mnemonic: Judge It Here Upon Another
calculated plan = strategy.
jihui then means plan 机 this ji means trigger, as in trigger of a gun, specifically a crossbow and thus the idea of MACHINE. 会 on the right means an assembly or gathering; it is specifically the idea of a temple-county fair. The top ren is actually a mouth eating food pac man style (the food is the dot). The bottom arrow indicates the idea of motion movement arrival. also the top ren (which is really a mouth) may be seen as a roof. This shows that hanzi are sometimes polysemic but their polysemicity is reinforcing.
Mnemonic: Join In Under Anonymous Identity
Look alike characters are another way to think of hanzi. Today’s characters are kang4
亢,
which means arrogant, haughty, high and mighty; kang is powerful, knows his power, likes the thought of his power, and may abuse his power. 亢 can be a positive or negative word depending on context, like so many other Chinese words. There is also the sense of the joy of power, joy in the sense of awareness or memory of one’s capacities.
Kang is the image of a mounted KNiGht.
Rong3
冗
in contrast means superfluous, extraneous. 冗 rong’s image is of a table covered with a cloth. The cloth is superfluous.
Notice that a cloth has no handle.
But a cloth covering can have sides.
So rong has no dot but does have sides.
In contrast kang has a dot, which is the knight’s helmet.
The line under it are the knights arms.
His mount is the table character.
Mnemonics:
KANG
Knight’s Arrogant, Now Grand
arrogant, powerful, the joy of power.
Red Orange Needless Garment
SUPERFLOUS
There is a SUPERFLUOUS Red Orange Needlepoint Gilded cloth冖 mi4 on the table! 几 ji1
请保重
Chinese characters are fundamentally built out from pictures. So for example bao3 保 indeed IS a picture of a guard！（人person口mouth木tree） Qing 请 is a pictophonetic compound character. On the left is the yanzipang which means to say or speak: in simplified yan is a mouth with sound waves 言. In modern it is the english letter i！ because I the worker （工人） want to say something, something revolutionary. The phonetic element 青 is on the right that is a compound character. on top right is zhu 主 which is a column with a torch on it symbolizing the lordly manor. beneath that is the moon character yue 月 which here is symbol of that which is changeable （moon goes through phases). Qing itself is the shifting shade of blue-green which may be seen in the sea water or in the flame of a candle (see also zhu above). So qing is the idea of a color, then changeability, and thus by metaphore emotion (情）. This Qing 请 exactly means the same as German “bitte”, I bid thee，
So “I bid thee guard”
guard what? Heavily!
Zhong 重 is a tougher one. On the bottom is tu3 土 the dirt character it means a clump of earth (in jia gu wen it is the clay wall of a primitive cave-house). Above tu3 is tian 田 the farmer field / rice paddy character. Tu3+Tian in that combination means 里 li, the hometown, the home village, your neighborhood, which is obviously something important.
But above 里 are 2 additional lines! What could they mean? qian 千 1000. It is the number 1000. I guess 1000 home-villages 1000 farmers houses and fields would be mighty important!
Chinese characters are combinations of pictures, symbols, some of which may also be phonetic clues as to pronunciation.
So： literally 请保重 means “I bid thee guard thy neighbor hood and they neighbors’ hoods”!
走吧
ba 巴 is a picture of a coBrA snake. It symbolizes the idea of alterity, the other. Here it is used as a phonetic element 吧 means ok.
zou 走 is a clump of earth tu3 土 on top of 正 zheng which means upright just or tu3 土 on top of 止 zhi which means stop. zhi 止 is a picture of a foot though i found it easier to think of it as a person on the left forced to stop by a tall high tree or wall on the right 上 shang means tall.
foot+dirt = go rhymes with zou
foot but no dirt means stop because you can’t walk without something to walk on, i guess.
hanzi are pictures and symbols which in turn are used as phonetic clues for more complex compound characters which are comprised of highly stylized pictures with abstract symbols and sound clues.
li4 on the top left it means standing it’s the image of a person standing. and that person is right on top of han/chang3
厂
a cliff. together
产
chan3 means production it’s the image of a factory on a cliff building standing on a cliff. there are shan shadows
彡
cast onto that cliff. Beside the man on the cliff standing over shadows on the cliff is the image of a persons face ye4
页
（chopstick as a hair-tie).
This is the idea of color: colors on one’s face, the colors cast by shadows.
页 on the left is the phonetic clue to the initial sound Y shan 彡 on the left is the phonetic clue to the final sound. Imagery: A man standing on a cliff stroking his beard as shadows fall onto the cliff, we can clearly see the COLORS of his face the COLORS on the cliff.
Mnemonic: Yet Another Nuance = COLOR
520.