Translation of hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphics. Elemental Traits. Basic rules of calligraphy in Chinese

In this article, we will touch on the spelling rule Chinese characters- this is the base that every novice Sinologist should know. behind. Now you know what sounds Chinese speech can consist of. It's time to learn how hieroglyphs look and are written. And we will start with the rules for writing hieroglyphs. Let's get started!

In today's lesson we want to tell you how to write hieroglyphs correctly. Hieroglyphs are not written in a chaotic manner, as we ourselves would like. Eat certain rules that must be followed. So here they are:

Rules for writing Chinese characters

All characters are written from left to right.

Top down.

First you need to write horizontal elements, then vertical ones, and lastly descending ones.

First the outer contour, then the inner element, and lastly the bottom closing stroke

First descending to the left is written, then descending to the right

First the central line, if it does not intersect, then the side lines

The lower horizontal is written after all the lines, if it does not intersect, except for the dot on the right, which is written last.

Hieroglyphs should be the same size, regardless of how many strokes they have. For convenience, you can take a simple notebook in a box and practice writing one character per square centimeter. By the way, our article: "" will help you in this not difficult matter.

I think it makes no sense to tell you that writing hieroglyphs is a whole art, which is called calligraphy. Of course, if you wrote one hieroglyph, this does not mean that you were engaged in calligraphy. The art of "beautiful writing" in China is embodied with the help of canvas, brush, ink, ink (ink vessel) and, preferably, a teacher. People involved in calligraphy develop a very beautiful handwriting of writing hieroglyphs. On this moment calligraphy classes in China cost from 100 yuan (about 1000 rubles) for one hour with a more or less good teacher.

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One of the main difficulties facing every Chinese language learner is mastering the Chinese characters, which have been the accepted writing system in China for at least three and a half millennia.

What are hieroglyphs? What is their specificity that distinguishes Chinese characters from other scripts of the world? To answer this question, you need to know that any writing system can be classified into one of two main types.

The first of them (phonetic) includes systems whose signs serve to record the sound of certain language units. These include alphabets, which include letters and record individual sounds (an example is the Chinese alphabet), and syllabaries, fixing whole syllables (this variety of phonetic scripts includes, in particular, Japanese katakana And hiragana).

The second type of writing (ideographic, or hieroglyphic) is characterized by the fact that signs serve to record the lexical meaning of speech units - syllables or words. The Chinese writing system is of this type.

Hieroglyphic writing differs from alphabetic or syllabic in that it includes significantly more signs. There can be two or three dozen letters in the alphabet, hundreds of characters in syllabic systems, and several thousand or even tens of thousands in hieroglyphic systems.

IN Chinese each significant syllable (morpheme) is conveyed by a separate hieroglyph; To write a word, you need as many characters as there are syllables in it. In total, the Chinese language has about 400 syllables that differ in sound composition; the presence of tones increases this number by three to four times. The number of different morphemes is many times greater, which is explained by the presence of homonyms. This is why there are so many characters in Chinese writing.

In the official list of only the most commonly used characters, there are 3000 of them. In order to read, for example, the People's Daily newspaper, you need to know at least 4 thousand characters, and in order to understand special or literary texts- and even more. In The Big Chinese-Russian Dictionary, ed. prof. Oshanin more than 40 thousand hieroglyphs; in Chinese explanatory dictionary"Kangxi zidian" - there are about 48 thousand of them.

The need to remember a large number of signs is one of the main difficulties associated with mastering the Chinese writing system.

At the same time, most Chinese characters are complex in structure, which makes them difficult to remember.

If you don’t remember something from this lesson, it’s okay, just move on to the next one (you don’t need to do this with the next ones!)

Elementary Traits

Main features

For all their apparent diversity, modern Chinese characters are combinations of a certain number of strictly defined elementary characters. crap. There are only eight main features:

In the first column - the trait, in the second - its name, in the third - examples.

Traits with a hook

Some traits have spelling variations. So, horizontal, vertical and folding to the right can end with a slight bend - "hook". There are a total of five such traits with a hook:

broken lines

In addition to the main features and their variants with a hook, in hieroglyphs there are continuous spellings of several features, which we will call broken lines. There are six such traits:

The name of a broken line (horizontal, vertical, folding) is given by its initial part.

Broken lines with a hook

Broken features can also be combined with a grappling hook. There are only five such traits:

These 24 features make up all Chinese characters in their modern spelling.

The number of strokes that form modern Chinese characters can vary greatly. If in the most simple hieroglyphs in their structure there are one or two lines, then in the most complex there can be two or three dozen or even more. For example, the sign "bright" consists of 28 lines, and "stuffy nose" of 36! However, such examples are by no means isolated.

It is very important to learn how to quickly and accurately identify the constituent features of the hieroglyph and correctly count them. total number, because in many dictionaries, library catalogs, etc., hieroglyphs are arranged in ascending order of the number of strokes.

In addition, when prescribing hieroglyphs, it is necessary to strictly observe the sequence of strokes.

Basic rules of calligraphy

The sequence of writing strokes as part of a hieroglyph is subject to strict rules:

It should be borne in mind that a hieroglyph of any complexity, regardless of the number of its constituent features, must fit into a square of a given size. It is recommended to write hieroglyphs on squared paper, allocating four cells for each hieroglyph and making a gap between the hieroglyphs. Graphic elements in signs with a small number of strokes should be written enlarged, and in complex signs - compacted.

For example:

口 器 讓 聲 敬 句

Tasks and exercises

The art of calligraphy

When we talked about calligraphy above in connection with the analysis of Chinese characters, we had in mind, first of all, the observance correct sequence their constituent elementary features. But the term "calligraphy", as you know, has another meaning - the ability to write not only correctly, but also beautifully. In China, calligraphy has long been one of the traditional types high professional art, along with painting.

It is impossible to imagine the traditional Chinese painting without virtuoso hieroglyphs written on it; and inscriptions in a variety of handwritings still adorn the study of a scientist in China or are hung on the doors of houses on major holidays.

And this is no coincidence. Hieroglyphs provide abundant food for the perception of them not just as signs of writing, but as certain artistic images containing no less diverse information than the text itself, and capable of delivering aesthetic pleasure.

The high standards that were traditionally set for everyone who sat down at the desk required the obligatory mastery of special skills, and they were given by years of hard training.

It is not surprising that in China the ability to write hieroglyphs correctly and beautifully has always been considered and is still considered an essential sign of intelligence. It is known that many famous European writers and statesmen there was a disgusting handwriting, which, apart from themselves, few could make out. In China, where the cult of learning was associated with the art of calligraphy, this was simply not possible.

Anyone who has taken up the study of the Chinese language should pay close attention to hieroglyphics - the most valuable cultural heritage China, its invaluable contribution to the treasury of world civilization.

Hi all! According to the search queries of those in need, in this article I want to talk about the order and whether it exists at all.

First, let's figure out whether we are talking about some specific hieroglyphs here or about all possible hieroglyphs. In Chinese, there are two main types of characters: traditional and simplified. There are, of course, quite ancient writing, but it is not used now, and, therefore, the order writing Chinese characters this type is of little interest. So let's focus on simplified writing.

In modern Chinese, all hieroglyphs can be written using, having studied which, you can easily put any hieroglyph on the shelves and write it correctly. However, at there is a certain sequence that makes the process smoother and more convenient. Below are the rules of calligraphy.

Rules writing Chinese characters:

1. The hieroglyph is written from top to bottom.
2. The hieroglyph is written from left to right.
3. First, horizontal lines are written, then vertical and folding ones. The lower horizontal line, if it does not intersect, is written after the vertical one.
4. First, it is written folding to the left, then folding to the right.
5. First, the lines that make up the outer contour of the sign are written, then the lines inside it, the line closing the contour below is written last.
6. First, the vertical line is written, located in the center, if it does not intersect the horizontal one, then the side lines.
7. The dot on the right is written last.

I don’t remember after what period of time I stopped paying attention to the order of writing strokes in the hieroglyph, either mechanically I got used to it, or it somehow fit in the brain, and such a need disappeared by itself.

The more you write, the better it gets. Over time, you will stop thinking about writing Chinese characters, just like you move your feet while walking or brushing your teeth. Knowing from my own experience, I can say that the rules writing Chinese characters not so strict. Due to the fact that I am left-handed, I often write strokes in the wrong order and in the wrong direction, but this does not interfere with learning the language.

However, correct writing Chinese characters plays an important role in their search for online dictionaries at handwriting, because Not correct writing leads to a misunderstanding of the hieroglyph by the dictionary, and does not give out its translation. Although in Lately I did not notice that the dictionary did not understand me, and I think that modern dictionaries, probably, already overcame this problem.

Another question when writing Chinese characters is their similarity and, at the same time, diversity. So, a hieroglyph that differs by only one dot has a completely different meaning. Therefore, at the very beginning of learning Chinese, many people face such a problem as the unreadability of hieroglyphs, when, having met an unfamiliar hieroglyph, you do not know how it is read, and, accordingly, cannot translate it. Knowing all 24 traits and order will not help here. writing Chinese characters, another method is used here.

Many dictionaries first have a table in which the characters are grouped by keys or graphemes. By determining the correct key in the character, you can find the correct pinyin and the translation of the character itself.

This approach will help not only writing Chinese characters, but also with the study of the Chinese language and will give you the opportunity to comprehend the secret of one of the most ancient writing systems, the history of which dates back more than 5 thousand years ago!

Good luck in learning Chinese!