I was asked that Chinese characters are pictography, characters are pictures from the physical shapes, how could people express the abstract meanings, like verbs, adjectives, adverbs which don't have physical shape?
It is very good question.
Original, Chinese created the pictography characters, all from picture of physical shape of objects. But people need to express verb, adjective, adverb, etc. How did they do?
After ancient Chinese had enough pictography characters, they used them to create new characters.
E.g.
is Door (shell bone script)
The top is Hand (small seal script), the middle is Eye (small seal script), the bottom is See (small seal script). Put your hand over your eye, you are seeing, or watching something with a distance.
There are much much more.
Two or more pictography characters could form a new character, which could be a verb, adjective, or adverb, without physical shape. These kind characters are called ideogram characters.
If we independent characters first, then formed characters, it would be much easier for people to learn Chinese characters.
Note: Update information
1, Amazing Chinese Characters blog has changed name to Learn Chinese with Pictography, and changed its URL address too, the new URL is
Learn Chinese with Pictography.blogspot.com/
2, Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy blog has changed name to Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy, and the new URL is
Chinese Pictographic Calligraphy.blogspot.com/
You are welcome to access the new sites for Chinese learning. Please update your bookmarks.
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