The Intricate Classification of Chinese Characters
Traditional Chinese lexicography divided characters into six cate- gories (Six Writings): pictograms, simple indicatives, compound indica- tives, phono-semantic compounds, borrowed characters and derived characters. Some categories are not clearly defined, nor are they mutu- ally exclusive: the first four refer to the structural composition, while the last two refer to the usage. For this reason, some modern scholars view them as six principles of character formation rather than six types of characters, the term Liushu might therefore be translated as the Six- Principles Theory of Character Formation.
The Building Blocks: Components of Chinese Characters
Most Chinese characters are made of strokes and radicals. These basic strokes combine to produce all others.
Radicals are called “Bushou” in Chinese. They are the basic charac- ters that form a certain character in Chinese writing. All Chinese charac- ters are made up of radicals. (They are somewhat similar to the alpha- bets in English. ) And the meanings or pronunciations of the derived characters usually have something to do with their radicals at the same time.
The Indispensable “Four Treasures of the Study”
The “four treasures of the study” (writing brush, ink stick, paper, and ink slab) are regarded as the indispensable tools when writing. The accessories include penholders, brush pots, ink boxes, paperweights, seals and seal boxes.
Lanting Xu: A Masterpiece of Chinese Calligraphy
Lanting Xu (also known as Lanting Ji Xu) is the “Preface to the Lanting Collection of Poems”, composed and hand-written by the great Chinese calligrapher, Wang Xizhi, in which he described a summer out- ing at a place called Lanting, on the outskirts of the town of Shaoxing, which is about 90 minutes by train from Hangzhou. Lanting is a small roadside shelter, like the modern day bus stop, originally built during the Han Dynasty. The word “Lan” means orchid, and “Ting” means pa- vilion; so the structure is also known as the “Orchid Pavilion”.
