The first thing you need to know if you want to learn Chinese from scratch.
There are 56 nationalities in China, each with its own dialect. Some dialects differ in sound to such an extent that they should rather be considered different languages. But there is one official state language, in which radio and television channels broadcast, and it is taught in schools and universities in China. This official Chinese language, common or "Mandarin" Chinese, is called Putonghua. The one that, according to the Chinese government, every person with Chinese citizenship should know.
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Chinese characters: history of origin
People have been using Chinese writing since ancient times. The first surviving mention of it dates back to 1400 BC, which falls during the reign of the Yin dynasty. Writing characters has become a kind of calligraphy art in China, passed down from generation to generation from the very beginning of their appearance. This business requires great concentration and skill, knowledge of all the rules and basics. For example, all parts of a hieroglyph must be written from left to right and from top to bottom, first vertical lines, and only then horizontal ones.
Features of the Chinese language - tones
Chinese differs from many Western languages in that it is a tone language.
Depending on the tone, the meaning of the word changes dramatically. In total, there are 4 tones in Chinese: the first is high, even; the second tone is rising from medium to high; third tone - falling, then rising; fourth tone - falling from high to low. There are 5 more tones - neutral or zero. It has no special intonation and is pronounced neutrally. Depending on the tone in which you pronounce this or that word, its meaning may completely change, for example: “death” and “four” will sound the same to our ears - “sy”, but for the Chinese this phrase, depending on the pronunciation of the third the tone will be death, and the fourth will be four.
Or the words “mother” and “horse” will be “ma”, if we want to say mother, then we say it in the first tone, and the horse in the third.
Chinese characters - what they are and what they represent.
Many people are very frightened by these small, incomprehensible icons with many dashes.
But in reality, everything is not that difficult. Chinese characters are made up of keys or graphemes. There are a limited number of these graphemes. There are 214 basic Chinese keys (graphemes) from which all hieroglyphs are composed. Keys, in turn, consist of traits, there are not very many of them - only 24 traits. Let's look at an example right away:
The character tea is 茶. It consists of three keys. The topmost key is “grass” 艹, under the grass “man” is 人, under the man is “tree” 木. As we know, a hieroglyph is an element of Chinese writing. A Chinese character is a written sign, but in no case is it a letter, but a whole syllable that implies a word.
Chinese characters - pictograms
These are the oldest simple icons that look like drawings (for example, 木 “tree”, 山 “mountain”, 上 “top”, 下 “bottom”) These are the simplest hieroglyphs, with the study of which it is strongly recommended to begin the journey of comprehending Chinese writing.
Second type of Chinese characters ideogram
These are hieroglyphs that usually consist of several elements.
Each of these elements carries a specific meaning. For example, the hieroglyph 好 hǎo - “good” consists of the grapheme 女 nu “woman” and the grapheme 子 zi “child”. If a woman has a child, then that's good.
Another example: 明 míng “clear, bright” consists of the key 日 rì “sun” and 月yuè “moon”. It turns out that two luminaries - the moon and the sun - give us clarity and brightness. Or, for example, 休 xiū - “rest” consists of the simplest hieroglyphs 人 rén “person” and 木 mù “tree”. Here we see the man on the left leaning against a tree and resting. 众 zhòng - “crowd”. Three people 人 rén. Here, in my opinion, it is clear and without explanation.
Evolution of Chinese characters
Each individual element of a hieroglyph can influence the meaning of the main hieroglyph. Most of all Chinese characters consist of ideograms, almost 80%.
And also, in some corners of the Middle Kingdom, namely in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the traditional version of Chinese writing has been preserved. These hieroglyphs are complex in their writing and consist of dozens of strokes.
How words are made from several hieroglyphs:
All Chinese words are made up of hieroglyphs; each hieroglyph is, in fact, a separate word. But most words in Chinese consist of several characters. Let's look at an example: The modern word computer, this word appeared relatively recently, but hieroglyphs that are several thousand years old are used to denote it. It is written as 电脑 and consists of 2 characters - 电: lightning, electricity and 脑 brain. Adding these 2 words, we get – electronic brain, computer. Or, for example, the word train 火车 - 火 fire, 车 - cart.
History of Chinese hieroglyphic writing
All Chinese characters are collectively called 文 wen. In modern Chinese there is a division into 文 wen - simple signs, the most ancient, and 字 zi - compound signs.
♦ Read more: Wen - pattern, writing, culture
Legendary Cang Jie
In Chinese traditional historiography, it is believed that the oldest form of Chinese writing was knotted writing, which was later replaced by hieroglyphics. Its founder was Cang Jie仓颉, who, “observing the outlines of mountains and seas, the traces of dragons and snakes, birds and animals, as well as the shadows cast by objects,” created 540 simple signs - wen 文. They became the oldest system of classification of objects and phenomena in the world.
According to tradition, Tsang Jie was the court historiographer of the legendary Emperor Huang Di (XXVII-XXVI centuries BC). He is usually depicted with four eyes, which symbolize his special insight. In the treatise “Xun Tzu” (III century BC) it is said about him: “There were numerous experiments in creating writing, but only the signs created by Tsang Jie were accepted and exist to this day.”
Cang Jie
Neolithic signs and Yin pictograms
Hieroglyphs go back to images - pictograms, which over time became more and more complex and formalized, gradually transforming into a system of signs. However, even with minimal knowledge, a hieroglyph can be “read” and see various meanings in it.
Transformation of pictogram drawings into hieroglyphs
The earliest pictographs in China were discovered in the Jiahu settlement of the Neolithic Peiligan culture, located on the Yellow River (Henan Province). 16 artifacts date back to the 6th millennium BC. It turns out that Jiahu writing is older than Sumerian cuneiform. However, now most researchers believe that although some signs from Jiahu superficially resemble modern Chinese characters for “eye” and “sun,” this similarity is deceptive, and the signs found cannot be considered the ancestor of Chinese writing.
Some Jiahu script characters
Other examples of early Chinese writing have been discovered at the Neolithic sites of Banpo (east of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province) and Jiangzhai (Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province). However, they also appear to have no genetic connection to Chinese hieroglyphic writing.
Pictographs on pottery from Banpo
The first examples of Chinese hieroglyphic writing itself date back to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The earliest ones are from the 17th century. BC. These are Yin* divinatory inscriptions on animal bones (often buffalo) and turtle shells. They are called 甲骨文 jiaguwen (lit. “inscriptions on shells and bones”), “fortune-telling inscriptions from the capital of Yin” 殷契卜辭 yinqi buti and “inscriptions from Yin ruins” 殷墟文字 yinxu wenzi.
The symbols, which were applied with pointed sticks, turned out to be angular. Basically, these were simple pictograms - schematic images of the most universal concepts: parts of the human body, natural phenomena, household supplies, etc. A single, standard writing of hieroglyphs did not yet exist; several variants of writing the same sign were in circulation. However, due to the small number of people who were literate, this did not cause any particular problems. To date, out of more than 5,000 signs, about 1.5 thousand have been identified.
* Yin (Shang-Yin dynasty) XVII century. BC. 1045 BC is the earliest confirmed dynasty in Chinese history.
Fortune telling inscription
The first inscriptions on bones and shells were discovered in 1899 near the city of Anyang (Henan Province). However, as it turned out, local residents had been familiar with them for a long time and called them “dragon bones.” They handed over the “bones” to pharmacies, where they were ground into a powder that supposedly had medicinal properties. It is difficult to calculate how many Yin inscriptions were destroyed in this way.
♦ Read more: The origin of ideas about the dragon
The Yin believed that hieroglyphs provided a connection between people and their ancestors who had gone to Heaven, primarily between the ruler and the supreme ancestor Shang Di 上帝. Three people took part in the fortune-telling ritual: the ruler himself, the priest and the scribe. The ruler asked questions, which the scribe carved into bones with a chisel: whether the hunt would be successful, whether the harvest would be rich, whether to start a war, whether to marry, whether an heir would be born, etc. Then the bone was burned with hot sticks and the answer was guessed from the cracks that appeared.
♦ Read more: Cult of Heaven in Chinese culture: Heaven, Son of Heaven, Mandate of Heaven
Thus, in the Shang-Yin era, writing had a sacred character. The ritual-magical attitude towards the text was preserved in later eras: even a century ago in China one could meet people who collected paper covered with hieroglyphs in order to burn it in ovens specially designed for this purpose.
Hieroglyphic writing in the Zhou era
During the Zhou era (1045-221 BC), Chinese hieroglyphic writing was already quite developed. With the advent of bronze casting technology, “writing on metal” 金文 jinwen appeared - inscriptions on ritual bronze vessels. They are sometimes called "tripod and bell writing" 鐘鼎文zhongdingwen. Zhou script is found on meat tripods, grain vessels, bells, bronze wine and water vessels, as well as steles, stone drums, slabs and ceramics.
The hieroglyphs of the Zhou era became significantly more complex compared to the Yin script. Phonoideograms appeared - hieroglyphs consisting of two parts: a phonetic, which conveys an approximate reading, and a key, indicating belonging to a certain class of objects, phenomena or properties. Now more than 90% of all Chinese characters are ideograms.
At the beginning of the 8th century. BC. The court historiographer Shi Zhou compiled a list of hieroglyphs. The style in which these characters were written is called 大篆 da zhuan - "Great Seal".
Sample letter "da zhuan"
During the Zhanguo period (475-221 BC), China found itself divided into various kingdoms. Xu Shen in the preface to the hieroglyphic dictionary “Shuo wen jie zi” 說文解字 (“Explanation of simple signs and interpretation of complex ones”, turn of the 1st-2nd centuries) Fr. Several regional variants of writing were formed, among which the three largest stood out:
- the writing system of the Qin kingdom based on the Zhou script Da Zhuan;
- the script of the six major kingdoms “ancient scripts” 古文 Guwen based on the Yin and Zhou scripts;
- written language of the southern Chinese kingdom of Chu.
Reform of Chinese writing during the Qin era
With the coming to power of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who united the country under the rule of a single centralized Qin Empire (221-206 BC), a reform of writing began: “all chariots with an axle of the same length, all hieroglyphs of standard writing.” Based on the Qin letter da zhuan, the letter 小篆 xiao zhuan (“small seal”) appeared. The “official letter” 隸書 li shu also became widespread, which, with some modifications, formed the basis of modern writing.
Sample letter "li shu"
Xu Shen in the preface to the dictionary “Shuo Wen Jie Zi” describes this time as follows:
At that time, Qin […] raised subjects and soldiers on a large scale and developed military service and forced labor. Job responsibilities in departments and courts became more complex, and the style of “formal writing” appeared for the first time, as standardization and simplicity were sought.
During the Qin era, the official list numbered 3,300 characters. At the same time, there was a process of unification of pronunciation.
Chinese characters from Han to Song periods
During the reign of the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), a list of 540 keys was formed. Since ancient times, text was written on bamboo tablets. This is probably partly why the Chinese wrote in columns from top to bottom and from right to left until the 20th century.
Sun Tzu's treatise "The Art of War", written on bamboo tablets, Han era. Copy. National Museum, Beijing
In the first centuries of our era, paper appeared, which replaced the silk and bamboo strips on which texts had previously been written. Now the brush, which has been known since the Yin Dynasty, has become increasingly used to write down hieroglyphs. The “four treasures of the cabinet” 文房四宝 wen fan si bao appeared: brush 笔 bi, ink 墨 mo, paper 纸 zhi and ink pot 砚 yang.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, Liu Deshan, based on the “official letter” of li shu, created a semi-cursive “running letter” 行書 xing shu, in which the features of the character were partially written without lifting the brush from the paper.
Sample letter "xing shu"
Liu Deshan's students created the "statutory letter" 楷書 kai shu, which was distinguished by the absence of the characteristic thickenings inherent in Han official writing. Around the same time, the cursive “herbal script” 草書 cao shu appeared, which was widely used in Chinese calligraphy.
♦ On topic: Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy in Moscow (Sokolniki Park)
Sample letter "cao shu"
During the Song era (960-1279), with the advent of woodblock printing, writing was further standardized.
♦ On topic: Gateway to Calligraphy: Eight Principles of the Yun Character 永 Wang Xizhi
Reforms to simplify hieroglyphs in the 20th century
Over time, writing hieroglyphs became much more difficult. Some signs consisted of several dozen features, which made them difficult to remember. At the end of the 19th century, it was proposed to simplify hieroglyphic writing. It was believed that complex writing of hieroglyphs interfered with the acquisition of literacy and, as a result, exacerbated China's economic and social lag behind the Western powers. In the 1930s, the first list of simplified hieroglyphs appeared, numbering 2,400 characters. However, it did not take root.
They returned to the problem of simplifying hieroglyphs again after the formation of the People's Republic of China. In 1956, the "Character Simplification Program" 汉字简化方案 Hanzi Jianhua Fang'an was adopted. In 1964, the Summary Table of Simplified Characters 简化字总表 jianhua zi zongbiao was published, which included 2,238 simplified characters. An additional list of simplified characters was adopted in 1977, but was canceled in 1986.
Simplification of the hieroglyphic writing 简化字 jianhua zi was based on the following principles: adherence to customs and simplicity; standardization: elimination of different variants of hieroglyphs; highlighting phonetic properties; if possible, preservation of ideogram properties; stability; practicality; proper artistry. The hieroglyphs were simplified according to the following scheme: reducing the number of features of the sign, cutting off part of the hieroglyph, using cursive styles, replacing a complex sign with a simpler one.
Currently, simplified characters have become widespread in China, Singapore and Malaysia. A number of regions have retained traditional characters: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Chinese diasporas in the USA and Canada. They are called “complex characters” 繁體字 (繁体字) fantizi, “complete characters” 全體字 (全体字) quantizi, or “old characters” 老字 laozi. Japan also has its own simplified hieroglyphs, which borrowed Chinese writing in the Middle Ages. In Korea, hieroglyphs are almost completely replaced by the phonemic writing Hangul.
Calligraphy is a special genre of art. Painting in Great Hall of the People, Beijing
Pinyin phonetic alphabet
In 1958, the Chinese Pinyin phonetic alphabet 拼音字母 Pinyin Zimu was adopted and is widely used for educational purposes. It consists of letters of the Latin alphabet with diacritics to indicate tones. However, due to the widespread use of homophones, the transition from hieroglyphic writing to phonetic writing is impossible. Therefore, pinyin plays only a supporting role, indicating the reading of syllables in accordance with the normative spoken language of Putonghua, accepted as the official language.
Is it worth learning Chinese? 8 reasons “for”!
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How to find a word in a Chinese dictionary?
This question interests everyone who has already had at least a little experience with the study of Chinese characters. After all, it is quite logical that in a text in Chinese there may be a word whose reading you do not know. What to do then? How to find out the pronunciation and translation of an unfamiliar hieroglyph? The answer suggests itself - look it up in the dictionary.
There are several ways to search for a word in the Chinese-Russian dictionary. Let's look at the most classic of them, search “by key”. For example, you don’t know how to read the character “均”.
Searching for a hieroglyph in a dictionary is significantly different from the process of searching for a word in a dictionary, for example, in English. If in the English-Russian dictionary we just need to find an unfamiliar term based on the alphabetical arrangement of the letters in it, then in the Chinese-Russian dictionary we need to carry out three steps before getting to reading and translating an unfamiliar hieroglyph.
So, the first thing you need to do is highlight the main key in the hieroglyph. Usually the main key is located either on the left or at the top of the hieroglyph. However, there are exceptions to this rule. The secret to accurately identifying the main key in a hieroglyph is still practice. Over time, identifying the main part becomes easier and easier.
In our example, the main key will be土 “ earth”.
Now you need to count the number of traits in the main key. There are three of them in the “earth”: horizontal, vertical and also horizontal.
Here we cannot fail to mention that we should not neglect either the order of writing the features in the hieroglyph or their number. In truth, you often want to write a hieroglyph in a way that seems logical, and not in a way that many rules dictate. Sometimes it’s tempting to draw 口 with one line, and 回 with two, for example, a square and another square. However, such disregard for writing rules can have costly consequences in the future. The keys in a table that opens many dictionaries are arranged in order of increasing strokes, and 口 will be placed in a row with keys that have three strokes, not just one. Without knowing the number of features in the key, you will have to spend much more time searching for an unfamiliar word in the dictionary.
So, having determined how many traits are in the main key, you need to find it in the key index table. Here it is worth noting that the numbers indicating the number of features in the main key are traditionally indicated in the table with hieroglyphs. That is, under the number一（yī one） there are all keys in which there is only one line, under the number二(èr two) there are keys in which there are two lines, and so on.
There are two numbers to the right and left of each key in the index. The number on the left indicates the number under which hieroglyphs with a given key sign (in our case, “earth”) are located in the “hieroglyphic index” table. The number on the right indicates the dictionary page on which all hieroglyphs with a given key are located (the fact is that the “hieroglyphic index” table can be quite voluminous and the page number helps to navigate it faster).
In our case, all hieroglyphs with the sign “earth” are located on page 15 under number 49.
After we have opened the required page and found the number we are interested in, the next task arises: - count the number of strokes in the remaining part of the hieroglyph (the number of strokes of the key no longer needs to be counted). The character均 has four strokes on its right side. Now we need to find the hieroglyph we need in the second tablet “hieroglyphic index”. In this table, the hieroglyphs are also arranged in increasing order of the number of strokes; our hieroglyph will be under the number 四 (sì four).
Having found our hieroglyph, we finally get the page number on which it can be found in the dictionary, see the reading and translation. The character均is on page 495 of the dictionary.
Our hieroglyph reads jūn and translates as “equal, even, equally.”
You can safely skip the first two steps if you know how to read a hieroglyph, but don’t know how it is translated. All characters are arranged in the dictionary in alphabetical order of their Pinyin transcription. That is, first come all the hieroglyphs, the reading of which begins with “a”, then “b” and so on. Good luck to everyone in finding unfamiliar hieroglyphs!
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