Making Sense of Chinese Characters

Making Sense of Chinese Characters

The Chinese language is one of the oldest languages on the world. Chinese is the only language today that comes from pictures, has no alphabet and is used in the modern world. This brochure is an attempt to help a novice make sense of the Chinese Character. The Chinese Character is a symbol that can represent an idea, a single word or a group of words. There are 214 radicals which are the building blocks or foundation of the Chinese language. Chinese Calligraphy is the artistic form of Chinese writing, using the Chinese brush. In order to get a good understanding of Chinese Calligraphy, one should be familiar with the Chinese character. Chinese Calligraphy consists of controlling the Chinese brush, studying the 8 basic strokes and Chinese Character construction. Afterwards one practices writing from the various Chinese classics. A excellent web site for Chinese Characters: http://zhongwen.com. Above are the two books that I used to teach myself Chinese Characters. If you are willing to take the time, your will succeed after studying these informative books. I have attached below the web sites where you can obtain these books

READ CHINESE, BOOK ONE
FIRST LEVEL (to 300 character level (revised edition)*
Fred Fangyu Wang The basic beginning reader which covers the first three hundred characters, in both complex and traditional forms. Primarily in Yale romanization, where romanization is required, but also in pinyin romanization as well.
Includes writing and stroke order charts. ISBN 0-88710-064-3 Book: $16.95

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0887100643/002-7245269-9401628?v=glance

Chinese Characters: Their Origin, Etymology, History, Classification, and Signification

by D. L. Wieger, S.J.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0486213218/002-7245269-9401628?v=glance