In groups of different characters sharing the same phonetic, the final is the most likely to be similar, the initial is the next most likely to be similar, and the tone is the least likely to be similar. Even when the initials or finals of different characters in a phonetic series are different, they are often still phonetically related, that is, they may all be labial sounds made with the lips like [b p f]; or they may all be sounds made with the velum in the back of the mouth like [g k h]; or they may all end in the same consonant like [-eng -ing].
As for the semantics in phonetic-semantic compounds, they can provide only a hint as to the meaning of the character, for example, “related to water” or “made of metal” or “type of fish.” Sometimes the semantic seems illogical, but that may be due to changes in culture and society since the system of semantics was first devised; for example, 枕 zhĕn “pillow” is written with the semantic 木 mù “wood,” but that is because formerly Chinese pillows were indeed made of wood. The semantic element of a Chinese character is in English more commonly referred to as the radical of the character, because Chinese dictionaries have traditionally been organized based on a sequence of 214 radicals, arranged in a set order from those with the least number of strokes to those with the most strokes. The radical of a character usually corresponds to its semantic, though there are some exceptions. While the system of phonetics and the system of semantics (or radicals) of Chinese characters are inexact and involve many inconsistencies, they can still be quite useful for guessing the pronunciations and meanings of unfamiliar characters, or for learning and remembering new ones. Native Chinese readers make use of them in their reading, and we’ll be exploiting them to their fullest potential in this book.
6. 转注 (轉注) Zhuănzhù “Mutually Explanatory Characters.” The sixth category of characters mentioned in the Shuōwén Jiĕzì is termed 转注 (轉注) Zhuănzhù. These involve pairs of words that are phonetically and semantically similar, where one word in each pair already had a character associated with it but the other did not. Subsequently, a character was created for the word without a character by modifying the existing character for the other word in the pair. Most Zhuănzhù characters are no longer in use, but one commonly cited example is the pair 老 lăo “old” and 考 kăo “deceased father.” Since the Zhuănzhù make up the smallest category in the Liùshū and since not even specialists are in agreement as to their exact nature, we shall not discuss this category in more detail here.
CURSIVE SCRIPT
In addition to the types of characters discussed above, which are the Kăishū standard printed or carefully handwritten forms of characters, there also exist cursive forms of characters. In the same way that when writing English by hand we normally connect letters (i.e., we don’t usually print little but instead write the word with connected strokes as little), Chinese writers also usually connect many of the strokes of characters when writing by hand.
Depending on a number of factors such as the formality of the occasion, the educational level of the writer and person written to, the personal preferences of the writer, and how much of a hurry the writer happens to be in, there will be wide variation in the degree of cursiveness of any particular piece of handwriting. Handwritten Chinese containing a moderate degree of cursiveness is quite common and is known as 连笔字 (連筆字) Liánbĭzì “Connected Characters” or 行书 (行書) Xíngshū “Running Script.” We’ll be introducing a small amount of slightly cursive handwriting later in this course. A more extreme degree of cursiveness is termed 草书 (草書) Căoshū “Grass Script” and is, fortunately for the foreign learner of the language, much less common than it used to be. Actually, it’s often difficult to determine exactly at what point Xíngshū ends and Căoshū begins. There is a well-known Chinese proverb that says 草书三天不认主 (草書三天不認主) Căoshū sāntiān bú rèn zhŭ “After three days, something written in Căoshū will not be recognizable even by the writer.” There is an even more divergent type of cursive script known as 狂草 Kuángcăo or “Crazy Grass” but, not to worry, we won’t be dealing with anything like that in this course!
Here are some examples of characters written in Xíngshū and Căoshū:
SIMPLIFIED CHARACTERS
So as to increase literacy, the government of the People’s Republic of China began promoting the use of so-called 简 体字 (簡體字) jiăntĭzì or “simplified characters” by means of two official lists it promulgated in 1955 and 1964. By the term “simplified” was meant primarily a reduction in the number of strokes of characters, especially of high-frequency characters composed of a higher than average number of strokes. Actually, the history of character simplification in China is a long one, most of the characters on the two lists having been used informally for centuries, much as we in English have long used abbreviations like “nite” for “night” or “thru” for “through” in informal writing. In Chinese, the main difference from before is that, in mainland China and Singapore, the simplified characters have now been standardized and given official status.
There is no doubt that simplified characters, having a reduced number of strokes, can be handwritten more quickly than the traditional characters (though in the past most adult writers did their rapid writing in Xíngshū, which is even faster). However, precisely because of the reduction in strokes, the number of points of contrast among characters has been reduced, resulting in an increased number of similar-looking characters. Take the two expressions shèyŏu “has established” and méiyou “does not have.” Written in traditional characters (設有, 沒有), the distinction is clear; but written in simplified characters (设有, 没有), they are easily confused, especially when handwritten rapidly. Other examples of such simplified character look-alikes include 活话 (cf. traditional 活話), 向问 (cf. traditional 向問), and 刷剧 (cf. traditional 刷劇). It could be argued that character simplification has made writing easier, but has in some instances actually made reading harder (not to mention that most readers must now become familiar with two sets of characters).
Roughly half of the three thousand or so characters necessary for literacy in Chinese has been affected by the simplification process. Of the 288 characters introduced in Basic Written Chinese, a total of 197 are the same in their simplified and traditional forms, with only 91 being different—and a number of those involve very small differences that are hardly noticeable. Learning the distinctions between the simplified characters and the traditional characters is not as burdensome a task as it may at first seem, since in many cases the simplification of one character component—for example, that of the so-called “speech radical” from 言 to 讠—has affected dozens of characters that contain it.
The main methods by which characters were simplified include:
1. Simplified characters already in popular use were given official status. Examples:
2. Simpler forms that were originally the standard form of the character but which had later been replaced by more complex forms were reinstituted. Examples:
3. Simpler characters were borrowed to write more complex characters with the same pronunciation, according to the Jiăjiè principle of borrowed characters. While this occasionally creates ambiguities, the context usually makes the meaning clear. Examples:
4. Cursive forms of characters were regularized into Kăishū style. Examples: