Chinese Writing System - Part 2

The graphic representation of Chinese characters, rather than being truly pictorial, takes a diagrammatic approach which reveals not the outline, but the meaningful structure of its object. (Shirakawa, 105)

Linguistically, Chinese words are categorized as one of six types – pictogram, ideogram, semantic combination, extended meaning, phonetic borrowing, and semantic-phonetic combination. Pictograms are literal representations of living things and objects. The character for “broom” (fu - 帚) is a conventionalized diagram of a ceremonial broom used to splash wine over the altar. Ideograms are characters that symbolize an idea or action; one is able to discern a disposition from the character’s appearance. The word for “up” (shang－上) and “down” (xia－下) respectively show a upward pull and a downward push. New characters can result from an arrangement of pictograms and ideograms. The word for “return” (gui - 歸) is a combination of the ceremonial “broom” (帚), the word “stop” (zhi - 止)and a diagram that represents the meat offering used prior to the troops’ departure. “Return” not only describes an action but is synonymous with ritual. There are groups of characters that have different configuration and pronunciation but share a common semantic root. Therefore these words by extension of a common symbol also share a similar logic of meaning. When “broom” (帚) is used as a symbolic root, words such as “clean” (sao - 掃) or “soak” (jin - 浸) expand their meaning to describe the tools used and the ritual context they were created from. Some characters are made when the sound of one word is applied to another without consideration for meaning. The first person “righteousness” (yi - 義) is a borrowed homophonous of the word for “meaning”(yi﹣ 意). Ninety percent of Chinese words are made by phonetic-semantic combinations. A word relies on one component to indicate sound and the other to symbolize meaning. The word “ant” (yi﹣蟻) combines “righteousness” (yi-義), the phonetic root with a diagram that means insect. Letters used in European languages are phonetic symbols, and meaning is carried by sound. The Chinese chose to condense sound and meaning into a visual construction. The language retained its visual format:

The fact that Chinese characters not only developed from but retained through time their pictorial / diagrammatic forms indicates just how central the element of visual form is in the Chinese character.” (Nakata, 10)

It is important that one writes correctly and legibly, but historically, it was paramount that one writes beautifully.