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The methods of creating Chinese characters (1)

A few days ago, I saw someone here complaining about the difficulty of Chinese characters. I thought perhaps I could write something to show you guys how I learned those characters as a mother tongue.

At the beginning of my first step, I was taught that there are six sources of characters. Four of them were the ways of our ancestors in creating, and the rest two were the ways of using to extend the meanings.

I will explain them one by one in the next six days.

The initial one is pictographic. The source of the original characters is pictures. According to the current archaeological discoveries, the origin of Chinese characters dates back approximately 6,000 years. If you come to visit China, you can find some painted pottery artifacts from that period in museums in Xi'an and Taiyuan. These potteries are the earliest writing medium that we can see currently.

Here are several typical pictographic characters: 日(sun)、田(field)、人(person)、口(mouth)、山(mountain)和门(door).

After thousands of years of development and change, we can still observe a picture from each of these Chinese characters.


几天前,我在这里看到有人在抱怨汉字难写。我想或许我可以写点东西,向大家展示作为一个中文母语者学习汉字的过程。

我的第一位语文老师教了我,有六种汉字造字法。其中四种是我们的祖先创造汉字时所采用的方法,另外两种则是用于拓展字义的方式。

接下来的六天里,我会逐一为大家解释。

最初的汉字是象形字。原始汉字的来源是图画。根据目前的考古发现,汉字的起源可以追溯到约 6000 年前。如果您来中国旅游,可以在西安和太原的博物馆里看到那个时期的彩陶制品。这些陶器是我们目前所能见到的最早的书写媒介。

以下是几个典型的象形文字:日(太阳)、田(农田)、人(人)、口(嘴)、山(山峰)和门(门)。

虽然经过了数千年的发展与变迁,我们仍能从每一个汉字中看到一幅画面。

Corrections

The methods of creatingby which Chinese characters were created (1)

When I first read your original title, I thought the post would be about how people write Chinese characters nowadays. Changing to past tense clarifies this a bit, although I would suggest something simpler, such as “How Chinese Characters were Created” or “The Sources of Chinese Characters.”

A few days ago, I saw someone here complaining about the difficulty of Chinese characters.

I thought perhaps I could write something to show you guys how I learned those characters as a mother tongunative speaker of Chinese.

Your original wording means that the characters are your mother tongue —you learned to read & write before you learned to speak.

{At the beginning of m, I was taught | My first step, I wasacher taught me} that there are six sources of characters.

{At the beginning, I was taught | My first teacher taught me} that there are six sources of characters.

Four of them weare the ways ofmethods used by our ancestors into creatinge Chinese characters, and the restother two weare the ways of usingmethods used to extepand their meanings.

Four of them are methods used by our ancestors to create Chinese characters, and the other two are methods used to expand their meaning.

I will explain them one by one inover the next six days.

“In” isn’t wrong, but “over” sounds more natural to me.

The initial one is pictographic.

According to the current archaeological discoveries, the origin of Chinese characters dates back approximately 6,000 years.

If you come to visit China, you can find some painted pottery artifacts from that period in museums in Xi'an and Taiyuan.

Theseis potteries arey is the earliest writing medium that we can see currently.

Here are several typical pictographic characters: 日 (sun)、田, 田 (field)、人, 人 (person)、口, 口 (mouth)、山, 山 (mountain)和门 and 门 (door).

I just corrected punctuation and spacing:
Here are several typical pictographic characters: 日 (sun), 田 (field), 人 (person), 口 (mouth), 山 (mountain) and 门 (door).

(Even) After thousands of years of development and change, we can still observediscern a picture fromin each of these Chinese characters.

• Adding “even” emphasizes how amazing this is.
• “Observe” is fine, but I thought you might like “discern.” 😀
• “From” seems wrong to me.

Feedback

Well done! I’m looking forward to the next installment in this series. :-)

The methods of creating Chinese characters (1)

A few days ago, I saw someone here complaining about the difficulty of Chinese characters.

I thought perhaps I could write something to show you guys how I learned those characters as amy mother tongue.

At the beginning of my first step, I was taught that there are six sources of characters.

You could simply say "At the beginning/start, ..." or "The first step that I was taught...". It's a little redundant to use both "beginning" and "first step".

Four of them were the ways of our ancestors in creaancient methods of creating (or writing), and the restmaining two were the ways of using tomethods for extending the meanings (of the characters).

I will explain them one by one in the next (or following) six days.

The initial one is pictographic.

The source of the original characters is pictures.

Or: "The original characters are based on pictures."

According to the current archaeological discoveries, the origin of Chinese characters dates back approximately 6,000 years.

If you come to visit China, you can find some painted pottery artifacts from that period in museums in Xi'an and Taiyuan.

These potteries are the earliest writing medium that we can see currently.

Here are several typical pictographic characters: 日(sun)、田(field)、人(person)、口(mouth)、山(mountain)和门(door).

After thousands of years of development and change, we can still observe a picture from each of these Chinese characters.

Feedback

Well done, Tammy! I'm looking forward to this series on Chinese characters.

At the beginning of my first step, I was taught that there are six sources of characters.


At the beginning of my first step, I was taught that there are six sources of characters.

You could simply say "At the beginning/start, ..." or "The first step that I was taught...". It's a little redundant to use both "beginning" and "first step".

{At the beginning of m, I was taught | My first step, I wasacher taught me} that there are six sources of characters.

{At the beginning, I was taught | My first teacher taught me} that there are six sources of characters.

I will explain them one by one in the next six days.


I will explain them one by one in the next (or following) six days.

I will explain them one by one inover the next six days.

“In” isn’t wrong, but “over” sounds more natural to me.

The methods of creating Chinese characters (1)


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

The methods of creatingby which Chinese characters were created (1)

When I first read your original title, I thought the post would be about how people write Chinese characters nowadays. Changing to past tense clarifies this a bit, although I would suggest something simpler, such as “How Chinese Characters were Created” or “The Sources of Chinese Characters.”

After thousands of years of development and change, we can still observe a picture from each of these Chinese characters.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

(Even) After thousands of years of development and change, we can still observediscern a picture fromin each of these Chinese characters.

• Adding “even” emphasizes how amazing this is. • “Observe” is fine, but I thought you might like “discern.” 😀 • “From” seems wrong to me.

A few days ago, I saw someone here complaining about the difficulty of Chinese characters.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

This sentence has been marked as perfect!

I thought perhaps I could write something to show you guys how I learned those characters as a mother tongue.


I thought perhaps I could write something to show you guys how I learned those characters as amy mother tongue.

I thought perhaps I could write something to show you guys how I learned those characters as a mother tongunative speaker of Chinese.

Your original wording means that the characters are your mother tongue —you learned to read & write before you learned to speak.

Four of them were the ways of our ancestors in creating, and the rest two were the ways of using to extend the meanings.


Four of them were the ways of our ancestors in creaancient methods of creating (or writing), and the restmaining two were the ways of using tomethods for extending the meanings (of the characters).

Four of them weare the ways ofmethods used by our ancestors into creatinge Chinese characters, and the restother two weare the ways of usingmethods used to extepand their meanings.

Four of them are methods used by our ancestors to create Chinese characters, and the other two are methods used to expand their meaning.

The initial one is pictographic.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

This sentence has been marked as perfect!

The source of the original characters is pictures.


The source of the original characters is pictures.

Or: "The original characters are based on pictures."

According to the current archaeological discoveries, the origin of Chinese characters dates back approximately 6,000 years.


According to the current archaeological discoveries, the origin of Chinese characters dates back approximately 6,000 years.

This sentence has been marked as perfect!

If you come to visit China, you can find some painted pottery artifacts from that period in museums in Xi'an and Taiyuan.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

This sentence has been marked as perfect!

These potteries are the earliest writing medium that we can see currently.


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

Theseis potteries arey is the earliest writing medium that we can see currently.

Here are several typical pictographic characters: 日(sun)、田(field)、人(person)、口(mouth)、山(mountain)和门(door).


This sentence has been marked as perfect!

Here are several typical pictographic characters: 日 (sun)、田, 田 (field)、人, 人 (person)、口, 口 (mouth)、山, 山 (mountain)和门 and 门 (door).

I just corrected punctuation and spacing: Here are several typical pictographic characters: 日 (sun), 田 (field), 人 (person), 口 (mouth), 山 (mountain) and 门 (door).

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