In this video, I will introduce six methods of formation and usage of Chinese characters, namely 六书 Six Writings. We will learn example characters and their radicals, components, pronunciations and the relationships among them.
Traditionally, there are six methods of formation and usage of Chinese characters, known as liushu-六书 Six Writings, including: pictograph-象形, simple ideograph-指事, compound ideograph-会意, phono-semantic compound-形声, phonetic loan-假借 and derivative cognate-转注.
The first four methods refer to formation of characters, and the last two refer to usage of characters.
Pictographs and simple ideographs are single-component characters. Compound ideographs and phono-semantic compounds are formed by two or more components.
Xiangxing 象形 Pictograph
象形 literally means "form imitation". There are more than 230 pictographs in a total of 3000 HSK characters. They are often used as radicals or components to form many other characters.
Zhishi 指事 Simple Ideograph
指事 literally means "indication". Simple ideographs, also known as self-explanatory or indicative characters, convey abstract meanings by means of indicators or abstract symbols. There are only around 30 simple ideographs in HSK.
Huiyi 会意 Compound Ideograph
会意 literally means "joined meaning". Compound ideographs can express associative meanings through two or more semantic parts. Pictographs and ideographs （simple or compound） do not have phonetic properties.
Xingsheng 形声 Phono-Semantic Compound
形声 literally means "form and sound". Phono-semantic compound is a combination of phonetic and semantic components. Some semantic components also serve as radicals of characters. Most of Chinese characters are phono-semantic compounds.
Jiajie 假借 Phonetic Loan
假借 literally means "borrowing; making use of". Phonetic loans were borrowed to express abstract meanings. Different semantic radicals can be used with the same phonetic loan to generate new characters.
Zhuanzhu 转注 Derivative Cognate
转注 literally means "reciprocal meaning". It is rarely used in modern Chinese, and has very few example characters. The derivative cognate characters may have the same etymology, radical, and/or similar pronunciations.
Understanding the formation of Chinese characters can help us improve the efficiency of learning.