Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/328

320 :2. Kotau, or the imitative symbols derived from the appearance of shrimps and frogs.
 * 3. Tachuan, or the characters that were improved by Tai Sze Liu in the reign of Hsuen Wang (827 B.C.), of the dynasty of Chow.
 * 4. Hsiaochuan, or the improved seal characters which were invented in the dynasty of Ching.
 * 5. Tishu, or the documentary characters which were used in the reign of Chi Huang Ti, of Ching dynasty.

The Tishu characters are still used in China and Japan on signboards and monuments.

Through twenty-six dynasties the Chinese characters have been absolutely changed in appearance and largely increased in number.

The modern Chinese characters are forty-one thousand in number, but about one-half of them are obsolete, being found only in ancient Chinese philosophical and poetical works. With a quarter of this number, that is to say, with ten thousand characters, all kinds of essays and writings can be composed, and styles can be varied without limit.

The characters are now arranged in six classes, and under each of these, the supposed number is stated below with information about the origin of the characters and the changes they have undergone.


 * 1) Imitative symbols like 月  moon.
 * 2) Indicative symbols like 二  two.
 * 3) Symbols combining ideas like 泪  tear.
 * 4) Inverted symbols like 正  straight.
 * 5) Syllabic symbols like 鯉  a carp.
 * 6) Metaphoric symbols like 心  heart.

Each of the modern Chinese characters is composed of a "radical" and the "primitive." The radicals, of which we have said there are two hundred and fourteen, are like the alphabet in European languages. No pronunciation of Chinese characters, however, can be indicated. The only way to obtain a knowledge of Chinese characters is to study their meaning and acquire "tones" by memory. Anybody who has forgotten the pronunciation of any Chinese character is obliged to consult a dictionary. Thus, many Chinese scholars would be unable to pronounce the characters which they employ to express their ideas.

Some Chinese characters are very easy to understand, owing to the primitive and radical of which they are formed. For instance, the character 明  is constructed by the radical  日  (sun) and the primitive  月  (moon), the whole word meaning "light." The character 泪  is composed of the radical  氵  (water) and the primitive  目  (eye), and means "tear."

A large number of new characters have been invented recently by Chinese scholars and business men, in order that the language may become the vehicle of ideas which were unknown in former ages.