The Chinese Language 2015 PP2 compressed

Chinese Writing
Alphabet or Characters: Is One Better?
What is a Chinese Character?
酒
• Chinese characters are logograms： visual
symbols representing words;
• Each character is a single spoken syllable with
a distinct meaning;
• Most Chinese words are of two or more
characters;
• To read a newspaper, one needs to know
3,000+ characters;
• Let’s look at some examples:
Syllable 1: míng
• Character Pronunciation Meaning
冥
明
míng
dark; obscure
míng
bright; brilliant; clear
(the NBA player Yao Ming
has this character)
名
míng
name
Syllable 2: bào
Character
Pronunciation
Meaning
报
暴
爆
bào
announce; declare
bào
sudden and violent
bào
explode; burst
趵
bào
leopard; panther
包
bào
hold or carry in one’s arms
Words of two or more characters
Characters
Pronunciation
口水鸡
kòu shǔi jī
Meaning
mouth-watering chicken
(from a menu)
废话
fèi hùa
nonsense
酒鬼
jǐu gǔi
drunkard
Random Page of a Chinese Book
Using pinyin to type a sentence…
Imagine that I want to write—in Chinese-to my Facebook friend the following sentence:
“I don’t want to ask for trouble!”
Using the pinyin alphabet, I would type as
follows:
“Wobuxiangzhaomafan!”
From this six-syllable sentence a drop-down
menu would give me some number of choices,
from the most to the least likely:
“我不想找麻烦!”
Bilingual Keyboard (with Chinese
character strokes in yellow)
Cang Jie,
legendary
inventor
of writing
An interesting cultural difference…
• The English word “civilization”
derives from the Latin word civilis,
meaning civil, related to the Latin
civilis, meaning citizen, and civitas,
meaning city or city-state.
• The Chinese word for “civilization” is
wenhua, which literally means “the
transforming power of writing.”
Ground
Calligraphy
Teahouse Named
“Walking Along and
Thinking About Rain”
Any Chinese City Today
“People
healthy and
long-living;
everything
the best”
“Entire
family
blessed;
whole life
peaceful”
Bei
jing
Shi
Fan
Da
Xue
Beijing
Normal
University
Carved Sign at
Campus Main
Entrance
Modest Place but
a Grand Sign
Entrance to
Forbidden
City
Learn
From
Lei Feng
“Slender Gold” Calligraphy of Emperor Huizong (1082-1135)
President Jiang Zemin Presenting his Calligraphy
Poem and Calligraphy by Mao Zedong
Pictographic
Characters
Example of “Indicative Characters”
Knife
Blade
Indicative Characters
Tree
Root
“Bright” – Example of a Semantic
Compound Character
Bright
Sun
Moon
“Trust” – Semantic Compound Character
Trust
Person
Words
Four Treasures of the Study
Character Stroke Sequence
A Famous
Example of
Regular
Script
Calligraphy
by Liu
Gongquan
(778-865)
Preface to The Orchid Pavilion Collection
by Wang Xizhi (353 CE)
This Calligraphy Exemplifies The Running Style
Cursive Style Written by Zhang Shu (“Crazy Zhang”)
Cursive Style Showing Gradations of Ink
Main Text
+
Inscriptions
+
Seal(s)
Single
Character
Calligraphy
(“Long” =
Dragon)
Shi Jing Lan Xiang
(literally: Room Quiet Orchid Fragrant)
The size of the home does not matter, as long as it’s
graceful. A flower’s fragrance does not depend on the
number of flowers.
Buddhist Sutra
Scroll in
Cursive
Style with
two artist
seals, one
in relief,
the other
intaglio
Seal in
Relief
Seal in Intaglio
Calligraphy with Many Owner’s Seals
“Bland”
Landscape
with
Calligraphy
by Ni Zan
(14th c.)
From the “Bloodline” Series by Zhang Xiaogang
Painting
by Yue
Minjun
b.1962