What are the methods of Chinese character classification?

Liu Shu, the six structural laws of Chinese characters refer to the arrangement made by later generations according to the word formation mode of Chinese characters, rather than the rules of word formation: pictograph, signifier, phonograph, knowing, attention and borrowing, among which pictograph, signifier, knowing and expressing are mainly "word formation" and attention and borrowing are "word usage".

Six explanations

hieroglyph

It belongs to the "single word-making method". Outline the shape characteristics of the object to be expressed with lines or strokes of words. For example, the word "moon" looks like the curved moon, the word "turtle" looks like the side shape of a turtle, the word "horse" is a horse with four legs, the word "fish" is a swimming fish with a head, a body and a tail, and the word "snake" (the original word of grass) is two sokcho and the word "door". The word "sun" is like a circle with a little bit in the middle, much like the shape we see when we look directly at the sun.

Ideographic characters come from picture characters, but they weaken the nature of pictures and enhance the symbolism. Is the most primitive word formation. It has great limitations, because some things can't be drawn.

Self-evident character

It belongs to the "single word-making method". The main difference between pictographic characters and pictographic characters is that demonstrative characters contain more abstract things such as paintings. For example, the word "blade" is marked by adding a point to the sharpness of "knife"; The word "fierce" is to add a cross symbol to the trap; "Up" and "Down" are symbols painted above or below the subject "I"; "Three" is indicated by three horizontal lines. The sketches of these characters all have more abstract parts.

Pictophonetic method of word formation

It belongs to the "combined word-making method". Pictophonetic characters are composed of pictophonetic characters (also called "semantic symbols") and notes (also called "notes"). The shape side indicates the meaning or category of words, and the sound side indicates that the pronunciation of words is the same or similar. For example, the word "Sakura" has a "wood" beside its shape, indicating that it is a kind of tree, and the word "baby" beside its sound indicates that its pronunciation is the same as that of the word "baby"; The word "bamboo" next to the "basket" means bamboo products, and the word "prison" next to the sound means that its pronunciation is similar to the word "prison"; Below the word "tooth" is the shape side, drawing the shape of the tooth, and the word "stop" above is the sound side, indicating that the pronunciation of the word is similar.

Associative compound

It belongs to the "combined word-making method". A cognitive word is composed of two or more independent words, which are combined to express the meaning of the word with form or meaning. For example, combine the word "wine" with liquid "water" to express meaning; The split of the word "solution" means to separate the "cow" from the "horn" with a knife. Song refers to the sound of birds, so it is composed of mouth and bird.

Characters that explain/are synonymous with each other

It belongs to "using Chinese characters". Different regions have different names for the same thing because of different pronunciations and geographical barriers. These two words are used to mean the same thing, and when they have the same meaning, they will have the same radicals or components. For example, the original meaning of the words "Kao" and "Lao" are elders; "Top" and "top" both mean the top of the head; The original meaning of "Qiao" and "Kong" is Kong. These words have the same radical (or component) and analysis, and also have phonetic correspondence.

use

Borrowing is homophonic substitution. Some words in spoken English have no corresponding words. So I found a homophone with the same pronunciation to express his meaning. For example, "Zi" was originally the pictograph of "nose", and later it was used as the "Zi" of "Zi".