Questions tagged [characters]

Questions about Chinese characters, called Hanzi.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
0 votes
2 answers
89 views

Do only about 3000 Chinese characters occur in more than one word in the dictionary 现代汉语词典?

My question is motivated by the following quote: Guān and Tián, in a preliminary survey of this kind found that in the Xiàndài hànyǔ cídίǎn (see section 7.9), 1,972 characters occur in five or more ...
Becky 李蓓's user avatar
  • 16.3k
1 vote
2 answers
176 views

What other role does 四 provide in 泗 besides being used as a sound component?

Recently, I've been thinking about this but after figuring out later written forms of 四 (sì; four) in bronze scripts (see below chart from 小學堂 for reference) depict a nose breathing out air and was ...
prismcool's user avatar
  • 694
0 votes
1 answer
44 views

Does somebody know what the three characters in the image below mean?

!detail of inscription on blade of Chinese sword
Luigi Noto's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
325 views

Pronouncing two words with same pronunciation(homophones)

As a beginner, the thing I realized is there is a lot of word with the same pronunciation and Chinese is almost full of homophone words. For example: 良, 量, 凉, 粮, 踉 all have the same pronunciation: ...
user123960's user avatar
0 votes
4 answers
109 views

Memorizing Chinese words

Good afternoon, colleagues. In Chinese, many words consist of two or more characters. The question is how better to memorize words in Chinese words, breaking them down into individual characters or ...
Artur Karimov's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
3k views

Is 龘 a contender for "character with the most strokes"?

龘 dá: 龘(读音为dá、ㄉㄚˊ [7])是一个汉语汉字,部首为龍,“龖”的异体字 [8],字义指龙飞的样子 I got this character in a WeChat New Year message. It has 3 x 17 strokes, I believe. Even that made up biangbiangmian character only has 57 ...
Pedroski's user avatar
  • 18.3k
2 votes
0 answers
146 views

I have a small painting with a signature and seal which i cannot read.?

The painting is of a dragon on a vase.It is approximately 4 inches square and would be interested in knowing more about it.
Jan's user avatar
  • 21
3 votes
2 answers
263 views

How many unique glyphs do you need to know to learn Chinese?

Glyphs is probably not the right term. I'll try to explain what I mean. I often read things like: "Chinese is much harder than English: there are 50,000 characters but only 26 letters". This ...
河南宝宝's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
247 views

What is the glyph origins of 襄 and 𤕦?

Currently right now, I'm researching about the origins of the character 襄 (xiāng; to help, to assist) and the component that's presumably part of 襄 as sound component, 𤕦 (níng; unidentified meaning). ...
prismcool's user avatar
  • 694
1 vote
1 answer
153 views

How to incorporate a new region into Chinese characters?

During the history, new ethnic groups with their own languages are (or were) incorporated into China. After that they need to write their own language with the Chinese characters. (At least this is ...
horsh's user avatar
  • 113
3 votes
1 answer
484 views

Glyph origin of 咒?

Currently at the moment, I'm doing some research for the Dong Chinese's Chinese Character Wiki to fill in the entry for the character 咒 (zhòu; incantation, to curse (on somebody)), which is unverified ...
prismcool's user avatar
  • 694
0 votes
3 answers
135 views

How would I write water tiger vertically?

I was born in the year of the tiger and water element, 1962. I want a vertical tattoo of that and wanted to make sure what I wanted was correct. How would I write water tiger vertically in Chinese ...
Greg's user avatar
  • 11
0 votes
1 answer
135 views

why characters sound as they sound and mean as they mean?

挺 – ting3 - pretty/rather 庭 – ting2 – garden/court Is there any logical explanation of why these characters sound as they sound, and mean as they mean? Their core is similar (廷 – ting2 – mountain/...
George's user avatar
  • 31
1 vote
1 answer
87 views

Can I write English titles with Chinese characters?

My wife is learning Mandarin (she's on HSK 4 at the moment). For Christmas I will be buying her ebooks (not Chinese related), and to give her something to open, I always obscure the titles in some way....
xorsyst's user avatar
  • 111
0 votes
1 answer
77 views

What do these Asian Characters and Stamp Means?

Can anyone tell me what this stamp and Asian content means? Who is the author? Thank you in advance. Thanks so much! I appreciate your help.
TAH2028's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
116 views

How to input Chinese character partially?

I am looking for a method to input Chinese character partially. For example, the first three strokes of (木), or the last three strokes of (五). I would like to write an article on Wang Zhao mandarin ...
PdotWang's user avatar
  • 4,173
1 vote
1 answer
69 views

How do I know whether or not a character can be used separately?

Note: This question exists, which is asking a similar question—but the accepted answer is not what I'm looking for (nor do I think it actually answers my question), indicating that the OP's intent in ...
AmagicalFishy's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
690 views

Glyph origin of 皆?

Currently at the moment finding out the origin of character 皆 (jiē; all, every, everybody). Just from reading it's entry on 說文解證 and according to 漢語多功能字庫, it states that the oracle bone script ...
prismcool's user avatar
  • 694
0 votes
2 answers
75 views

I need help: how to describe a Chinese LOGO without the picture

I am helping a liquor(baijiu) brand translate some materials for design competitions in UK, and I met difficulties when describing the details of the LOGO design. In the picture is a part of the ...
rinn玲's user avatar
  • 260
1 vote
1 answer
251 views

How did 發 and 髮 got written as 发 in simplified form?

Came across the character 发 (fā/fà; issue, dispatch, send out / hair) recently and I checked their traditional forms 發 and 髮. I wanted to know more about how 發 (fā; issue, dispatch, send out, emit [...
prismcool's user avatar
  • 694
3 votes
2 answers
475 views

When years are (or were) written using Hanzi numerals, what are the usual variants/options?

I believe that these days, years would be written almost all of the time using Western/Arabic numerals in the Gregorian calendar. But they must sometimes be written using the Hanzi numerals, e.g. in ...
hippietrail's user avatar
  • 4,025
2 votes
1 answer
221 views

Explanation for 士 character form: axe or farming hoe?

One popular explanation for the origin of the 士 character is that it originally shared virtually the same form as the 王 character (see forms circled in red below), where 王 depicts a broad axe and ...
JJ W's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
1 answer
233 views

Glyph origin of 平?

I am currently doing my research right now for the glyph origin of the character 平 (píng; flat, even, level; peaceful) (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*breŋ/) and I would like to know what the origin of this ...
prismcool's user avatar
  • 694
0 votes
1 answer
77 views

Can anyone help me translate the inscription located on the back of my Chinese coin?

I have not been successful in my search to find another coin with an identical matching inscription. What is the interpretation?
AOD's user avatar
  • 123
1 vote
1 answer
249 views

What exactly is the difference between 哲 and 喆?

I'm also interested in knowing the connotations and whether those terms are associated with specific dialects. Would the average mainland speaker know 喆?
Qwokker's user avatar
  • 127
6 votes
1 answer
618 views

Glyph origin of component 龺?

Recently after I've happened to come across the component 倝 (gàn; sunrise, dawn) (Baxter-Sagart OC: *[k]ˤar-s), I was curious about the left component, or 龺, since I've also seen this component in ...
prismcool's user avatar
  • 694
0 votes
1 answer
119 views

Teapot signature/symbol/character

Could anyone tell me what this symbol at the bottom of a teapot stands for? Thank you![This is a tea set I found in my mother’s house a few years ago]
Kathleen Adams's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
209 views

Could this kind of a component-based null cipher be possible in Chinese?

I'm writing a story set partially in historic China, and it involves a network of secret agents who seek to communicate over the mail in innocuous-looking letters. So I need a description of a pen-and-...
KeizerHarm's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
88 views

Where can I find a database of all recorded 姓?

I can't read or write Chinese well, so this question is perhaps easy to search for if you do. So far I have had no luck. I am looking for a list of all recorded Chinese last names (or at least the ...
Qwokker's user avatar
  • 127
3 votes
2 answers
428 views

Glyph origin of 蝠

Wiktionary states that 蝠 was originally a pictogram in the oracle bone and bronze scripts before changing to a phono-semantic compound (semantic 虫 + phonetic 畐). In a case like this, are the ...
Quppa's user avatar
  • 133
-2 votes
4 answers
248 views

Who created Chinese Characters? (for facts or historical records)

Who created Chinese Characters? This question is for facts or historical records, not opinions. It may not be created by one person at one time, because if so, why are there so many repeated ...
PdotWang's user avatar
  • 4,173
4 votes
3 answers
809 views

How to type this character from 汉字大字典 in my computer?

Today I was looking at 汉字大字典 and found this character in page 2000. I wanted to type that character in my computer. I used this page to look up the character through its radical (in radical 毛), ...
rdrg109's user avatar
  • 233
1 vote
1 answer
63 views

Chinese character, wa in pinyin, meaning to jump

In the martial arts form known as Liuhebafa, there are eight external methods. The seventh method is Wa Qian “Jumping and Bridging.” The Chinese character for “bridging” is, I think, 橋. But I can’t ...
Hyatt's user avatar
  • 11
6 votes
4 answers
1k views

Characters with only one possible next character

In English, when one encounters "q", it is almost certain that the next letter will be a "u". I am looking for a similar situation in Chinese. Is there a character A which is ...
John L's user avatar
  • 63
1 vote
1 answer
195 views

Help finding the artist

I was given a painted scroll and would like some help in identifying the artist and finding out if it is of any value.
Maddy Nielsen's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
145 views

I'm an artist/writer and I need to know if this name is okay?

(Apologies if the question is inappropriate I did try and find an answer myself but I kept being lead back here to ask) I'm creating a Chinese character with the Cantonese dialect and I've named her ...
Cherry's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
0 answers
114 views

Why does「远」have difficulty displaying?

I have noticed that「远」often has difficulty displaying in Chinese subtitles. It is usually replaced with □ - a white box used for a missing or unsupported Unicode character. If the character was part ...
Mou某's user avatar
  • 36k
1 vote
1 answer
147 views

What is the most complex Chinese character? [duplicate]

Several years ago, I worked for a firm where I needed to show Chinese characters, and apparently the more complex ones were not clearly displayed. While solving that problem, I needed a test character ...
Dominique's user avatar
  • 111
2 votes
0 answers
135 views

What is 冎's history and its relation to 骨 and 剮?

I am currently studying the character 冎 and I found two interesting facts about it (reference): It is the pictographic protoform of 骨 It is an ancient form of 剮 So from the facts above, I made a ...
mawgumelar's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
49 views

What are the two original bigrams for 拥戴 if the do exists

"拥戴" is probably a condensed version of two other bigrams, however I couldn't figure them out. Maybe someone out there can help me with this. 谢谢
user137313's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
200 views

Sequence of Chinese characters for keeping track of days of the year

I wonder whether anyone has knowledge of any sequence of Chinese characters used for describing such a list (one character for each of the 365 days in a year). Such a list could be memorized by people ...
Joselin Jocklingson's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
49 views

Does 纬哲/纬喆 mean 'threads of wisdom', 'weaving widsom' or something similar?

纬 seems to mean latitude or weft/woof but I am not sure if it would work in this way with the second meaning As an additional question, would 炜喆 mean brilliant wisdom? Is the character 炜 a character ...
Qwokker's user avatar
  • 127
0 votes
1 answer
87 views

Is 那 often used as a conjunction?

Still forwarding on my lexicon, i am wondering about the use of 那 as a conjunction meaning " then, in that case ". Is it really often used in that usage in modern Chinese ? There are other ...
faure's user avatar
  • 540
2 votes
6 answers
535 views

I am trying to understand 写

冖 + 与 = 写。how does mi and yu become xie? Mi is the cover radical and Yu means and; with; to; for; give, grant according to Pleco.
Ralph Bacolod's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
92 views

Is there a list of normalized character decomposition (𧾷 to 足, 龰 to 止, etc.)?

I tried .txt of each files in CHISE IDS (https://www.chise.org/ids/) but it seems that most of the components are not normalized. Is there any work that has normalized the characters in IDS?
làntèrn's user avatar
  • 113
1 vote
1 answer
282 views

PY, JP, and HZ in Pleco dictionary

I was wondering what PY, JP, and HZ stand for in the Pleco dictionary for Android. I think, PY probably stands for pinyin. HZ probably stands for hanzi, but I don't understand, why sometimes HZ ...
Joselin Jocklingson's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
49 views

Why 瞋 displayed different than its components sometimes

The description says it's 目 + 真 But in places the same unicode rendered the character next to 目 into nothing like 真. The other form is like the drawing in this screenshot. Anyone knows why?
HoaPhan's user avatar
  • 137
3 votes
3 answers
663 views

Can't understand the character used in manhua (Character identified: 啪)

Please help me recognise the character used in this screenshot! It's so hard for me 😭 I'm reading "夫人她成了大佬们的团宠" if anyone will be interested 😊 Thanks everyone in advance!
Laliru's user avatar
  • 33
1 vote
1 answer
92 views

Pronounced 麼 as mo?

In Taiwan, how common is it to pronounce 麼 as 'mo', in words like 什麼, 怎麼, 那麼, etc... I know 麼 means small or tiny when pronounced as 'mó' in Standard Mandarin, and when in the words above, it's ...
Tosaku's user avatar
  • 185
1 vote
2 answers
81 views

What is with the characters 覆, 復, 複, 复? Are they all the same ? They appears to have overlapping meanings in dictionaries but not 100% equivalent

What is with the characters 覆, 復, 複, 复? Are they all the same? They appears to have overlapping meanings in dictionaries but not 100% equivalent for some reason. Normally characters may have 1 ...
HoaPhan's user avatar
  • 137

1
2 3 4 5
14