Chinese Calligraphy: From Pictograph to Ideogram: The History of 214 Essential Chinese/Japanese Characters

by Edoardo Fazzioli

An illuminating history of the 214 Chinese symbols or radicals and how they provide a unique way to penetrate a rich, mysterious world and can reflect the history and philosophy of an entire culture.

Written Chinese can call upon some 40,000 characters, many of which originated about 6,000 years ago as little pictures of everyday objects used by the ancients to communicate with each other. This book, which introduces the Westerner to a rich and mysterious world, is based on a classic compilation of the Chinese language done in the 18th century, which determined that all the characters then in use were devised from 214 root pictographs or symbols. Each of these 214 key characters, called radicals is charmingly explored by the author, both for its etymology and for what it reveals about Chinese history and culture. Chinese characters are marvels of graphic design, and this book shows, stroke by stroke, how each radical is written and gives examples of how radicals are combined with other radicals and character elements to form new characters.

Genres: Language, China, Nonfiction, History, Linguistics, Reference, Cultural

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

You cannot learn calligraphy from this book and while amusing, it's not really reference material either. I used to own a copy.

[Kam Sova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Çince karakterlerin tarihsel gelişimini öğrenmek için güzel bir kaynak.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hanzi - or Chinese characters take their meanings from shapes in the world, like shen [body:] that looks like a pregnant woman, or signify sounds or states of being. A character can have more than one part. The first part may indicate a general meaning [like the 'hand' radical:] followed by the sound character [bao:] Put them together and you have 'to read the newspaper'

My teacher Wu Hong, Jiaoshou was member of the Faculty Foreign Languages at the Beijing Language College. When Fazzioli's book came out it was a revelation to Chinese scholars who had forever taken their written language for granted - just as we almost never question the letter origin of the letter "S" and why an 'F' was substituted for it when printed for hundreds of years- they hadn't the distance to study the origin of their characters. Since this groundbreaking book, there are many scholars in China who have added to the field. It took a Westerner to shine a light on the most beautiful written system in the world. I do recommend this book if you are learning characters. There are so many and this book gives you ones most in use. It's a wonderful study tool. Knowing something about the history of what I am studying makes it so much easier to remember.

[Thieluar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing I didn't like was that it doesn't have the japanese pronunciation of the kanji even though it says "chinese/japanese characters". It doesn't mention anything about japanese in the book, it should have just said "chinese characters". The chinese/japanese aren't the only ones who have used those characters, It might as well have said "chinese/japanese/vietnamese/korean/mongolian/taiwanese characters".

Anyway, great book, I'm just adding the japanese pronuciation myself. Anyone studying japanese who liked this book should combine it with "The key to Kanji" which also has etymological explanations of the characters.

[Craig Kiessling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome look at written language of Chinese/Japanese. A look at radicals. If you've ever had trouble getting into the written language - this most definitely helps to bridge a big gap of understanding. If you've ever had to look at a Chinese-English dictionary and gotten lost - this also helps....I LOVE this book.

Although I read this years ago - I think some of the content will really sink in now.

I've only just checked it out of the library, but plan on getting my own copy - just way too valuable.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely gift from an old friend many years ago, and I used it as I learned Chinese and again as I taught Chinese at the University of Oregon. The book profiles the major Chinese characters and their evolution. It provides some character combinations, an illustration and explanation how some characters evolved from pictograph to written word, and a step-by-step guide to how to write the characters. I highly recommend it to students and educators of Chinese.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great beginning Chinese calligraphy, this book also gives the order of the strokes and the background behind 214 characters. It is a great introduction.

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Selbst ohne Chinesisch-Kenntnisse sind mir kleinere Fehler aufgefallen und einige Zeichen, die vorkommen, werden nicht erklärt, ansonsten aber ein gutes Buch.

[Sienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like looking at all of the characters and what the meant and like other Hanzi using that character but I wasn’t interested in it’s history

[Horst Walther · Rating 5 out of 5]

FA good start to understand how chinese characters are constructed and a wonderful book as well.
It is truely fun to read it.
I am not sure if it is available in English too.