The Kanji Structures (漢字のなりたち)
There are four kinds of Kanji Structure
-
象形 「しょうけい」 syoukei
-
指事 「しじ」 shiji
-
会意 「かいい」kaii
-
形声 「けいせい」 keisei
I. 象形 「しょうけい」 syoukei
This characters are written based on the formation of things.
Syoukei literally means modelled on the shape.
象る - model on
形 - shape/form
Example: What is explained in the drawing is that the Kanji for mountain “山” is basically derived from the formation of a real mountain。
Here are some exercises that you might want to try, I did not get anything right here
II. 指事 「しじ」 shiji
By using points or lines, a new form of kanji will appear.
Look at the illustrations here , by putting a vertical to connect the two horizontal it was formed into the Kanji of “UE 上” that means top.
Here’s another set of exercises I was able to get #1 and #3.
III. 会意 「かいい」kaii
Is made by combining two different Kanji, the new form character has a different meaning.
example: combing the character of mouth (口) with the character of bird (鳥) will form the character of bark ( a sound made by animals ) (鳴く).
口 + 鳥 = 鳴
Here’s another set of exercises . I got the meaning of #2 but I don’t know how to pronounce it till I saw the answers.
IV. 形声 「けいせい」 keisei
Is formed by combining the meaning of the character and its sound. There are lots of characters in this category.
There are also some characters that are combinations of meaning and characters from category III which is called as ”会意兼形声文字 「かいいけんけいせいもじ」 kaii ken keisei moji”
Here’s the example in this category: It’s combining the character of water and sheep will formed the character (sound) “you 洋”.
Here’s another exercise: I got only #1









September 22nd, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Looks like someone is getting serious with her Kanji lessons!
September 25th, 2007 at 9:54 am
lol.. there is nothing much to do lately.. so yeah