1400 Chinese Characters: Taught by Formation and Pronunciation

By James Pei

To learners of Chinese as a foreign language, the most difficult part perhaps is how to deal with the complexity of several thousands characters. Many educators and learners thus try to avoid touching them and take Pinyin as a substitute. However, pinyin is only a pronunciation tool. It is not the Chinese words per se. In fact, the beauty of the Chinese language is right found in these square characters.

To help learners of the Chinese language cracking down the barrier of characters, this book takes two approaches. The first approach is focused on the formation of the characters. Since the written Chinese is originated from ancient pictographs, we explain how Chinese characters are formed, what their original meaning have been and what are their current meanings. In Part One: Learning Chinese Characters by Formation, the formations of approximately 700 characters are discussed.

The second approach is focused on the pronunciation of the characters. About 85% of modern Chinese characters are composed of two or more components, with one indicating the meaning and one indicating the pronunciation. The later is known as the sound part, or more literally, the phonetic component.

In Part Two: Learning Chinese Characters by Pronunciation, more than one hundred sound keys and the characters they help make up are discussed. In this part approximately 700 characters are studied.

Together this book analyzes 1427 individual characters.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1999455517
• ISBN13: 9781999455514
• Release Date: January 2019
• Publisher: Jm Investment and Consultation Inc
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"