Lesson 2 Intact Pictographs: Pictographic Characters Introduction 象形字简介

Lesson 2 Intact Pictographs: Pictographic Characters Introduction 象形字简介

The Intact Pictographic method of character construction is based upon the depiction of an object’s shape — drawing a picture of it. To express the concept “sun”, one draws a sun; to express “tree”, one draws a tree, and so on. This was the earliest method of character construction, which is obviously the culmination of the evolution of pictorial recording and pictograms.

The Intact Pictographic method of character construction is based upon the depiction of an object’s shape — drawing a picture of it. To express the concept “sun”, one draws a sun; to express “tree”, one draws a tree, and so on. This was the earliest method of character construction, which is obviously the culmination of the evolution of pictorial recording and pictograms.

Intact Pictographs are different from pictograms, and even more different from pictorial recordings. Pictographic characters can express directly the individual words of a language. Moreover, Intact Pictographic characters are simple in form, far simpler than pictures of pictograms.

Pictographic characters have the great advantage over other types of characters of having a direct visual appeal: it is often easy to remember what object a character represents just by looking at it. Below are a few examples of pictographic characters in Chinese.

Ancient Character

Modern Character

Definition

pictograph0101 

{Play}

sun: a depiction of the sun

pictograph0102 

{Play}

moon: a depiction of the moon

pictograph0103 

{Play}

water: water flowing in a curve

pictograph0109 

{Play}

mountain: mountain peaks

pictograph0134

{Play}

rain: rain falling from the sky

pictograph0111 

{Play}

field: rice fields and their irrigation ditches

pictograph0164

{Play}

cow: a cow’s head with horns

pictograph0122

{Play}

sheep: a sheep’s head with horns

pictograph0125

{Play}

horse: side view of a horse, showing legs, tail and mane

pictograph0127

{Play}

bird: side view of a bird, showing its beak, claws and wings

pictograph0131 

{Play}

fish: side view of a fish, showing its fins, scales and tail

pictograph0113 

{Play}

person: side view of a person, showing head, hands and legs

pictograph0116 

{Play}

eye: a person’s eye, with the eyeball

pictograph0115

{Play}

mouth: an open mouth

齿 {Play}

tooth: an open mouth with a row of teeth

{Play}

boat: a small boat floating down-stream

pictograph0118 

{Play}

door: a door with two swinging panels under a crossbeam

{Play}

dagger-axe: an ancient Chinese weapon

pictograph0106

{Play}

tree: a tree, showing branches and roots

{Play}

melon: a melon hanging on the vine

Pictographic characters have the merit of conveying meaning directly, but this method of character construction has severe limitations. Among the millions of objects in the world, there are many which cannot be depicted according to any shape and there is no way to depict abstract concepts directly, so the pictographic method was only employed during the early stages of character evolution, and was later gradually phased out of use. From the Qin Dynasty to the present, only a handful of new pictographic characters have been devised — 伞([sǎn] umbrella), 凸([tū] convex), 凹([āo] concave), and few others. Nonetheless, pictographic characters remain the foundation of the whole edifice of Chinese characters; they are all simple single-element characters 独体字 which cannot be analyzed into smaller meaningful components. They can be used as building blocks in creating new characters. They are, however, few: among the 9,353 Chinese characters found in the 说文解字(Shuo Wen Jie Zi), only three hundred or so (4 percent of the total) are pictographic characters.


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