The Chinese Character Decomposition: The Technological Process

The Chinese character decomposition is very understandable in its nature and serves for the purpose ‘make simple from complicated’.

If we take the Chinese character 门 mén ‘gate’, consisting of 3 strokes, everyone can easily break it down to simple radicals:

丶 zhǔ dot,

丨 gǔn line,

㇆ yǐ second,

What if we have to decompose a more complicated character, for example 齉  nàng ‘snuffle, twang, speak through one's nose’, consisting of 36 strokes?

Nothing difficult. We keep again the main principle of the Chinese character decomposition process ‘make simple from complicated’!

A quick review of the character 齉  nàng ‘snuffle, twang, speak through one's nose’ shows that it consists of a radical and a character:

1. Radical - 鼻  bí ‘nose’ - 14 strokes

2. Character - 囊  náng ‘bag, pocket’ - 22 strokes

We have to take into consideration that the Chinese radical鼻  bí ‘nose’ includes one rare component - 畁  bì ‘give, allow’.

The Chinese character 囊  náng ‘bag, pocket’ also includes one rare component - 吅  xuān ‘sue, argue’.

Having done such structural analysis of the Chinese character 齉  nàng ‘snuffle, twang, speak through one's nose’, the rest we have to do is to decompose each component into simple Chinese radicals and components. I repeat not into strokes but into the Chinese radicals and components.

Thus, the overall decomposition of the Chinese character 齉  nàng ‘snuffle, twang, speak through one's nose’ looks like the following:

齉  nàng ‘snuffle, twang, speak through one's nose’,

鼻  bí nose,

自 zì self,

丿 piě slash,

目 mù  eye,

冂 jiōng down box,

三 sān three,

一 yī one,

二 èr two,

畁  bì give, allow,

由  tián field,

囗 wéi enclosure,

冂 jiōng down box,

十 shí ten,

一 yī one,

丨 gǔn line,

一 yī one,

兀  yóu lame,

一 yī one,

儿 ér boy,

丿 piě slash,

乚 yǐ second,

囊  náng bag, pocket,

一 yī one,

中  zhōng centre,

口 kǒu mouth,

冂 jiōng down box,

一 yī one,

丨 gǔn line,

冖 mì cover,

吅  xuān sue, argue,

口 kǒu mouth,

冂 jiōng down box,

一 yī one,

口 kǒu mouth,

冂 jiōng down box,

一 yī one,

井  jǐng well,

一 yī one,

廾 gǒng two hands,

一 yī one,

丿 piě slash,

丨 gǔn line,

衣 yī clothing (reduced radical without丶 zhǔ ‘dot’),

亠 tóu lid,

丶 zhǔ dot,

一 yī one,

匚 fāng right open box,

一 yī one,

丿 piě slash,

A lot of components, isn’t it? Now we understand all the components. And writing of the Chinese character  齉  nàng ‘snuffle, twang, speak through one's nose’ is not a problem for us any more: we just need to remember the sequence of the components!

The Chinese character decomposition saves a huge amount of time learning how to write a Chinese character!

Medium Chinese Language Blog

Medium Chinese Language Blog

https://medium.com/me/stories/public

The Blog publications include but not limited to: Chinese commercial correspondence, Chinese marketing correspondence, Chinese financial correspondence, business writing Chinese, Chinese characters decomposition, Chinese numbers, addition in Chinese, subtraction in Chinese, multiplication in Chinese, division in Chinese.

Decomposition example of the Chinese character 话 huà ‘speech’

讠  yán speech

舌  shé tongue

丿  piě slash

古  gǔ ancient

十  shí ten

一  yī one

丨  gǔn line

口  kǒu mouth

冂  jiōng down box

一  yī one       

讠舌丿古 十一丨口冂 一

Decomposition of the Chinese Character 三 sān ‘three’

三 sān three

一 yī one

二 èr two

NB. Synonyms: Structural analysis of the Chinese characters, Breakdown of the Chinese characters, Chinese characters split.

Decomposition of the Chinese Character 小 xiǎo ‘small’

小 xiǎo small

亅 jué hook

八 bā eight

NB. Synonyms: Structural analysis of the Chinese characters, Breakdown of the Chinese characters, Chinese characters split.

Keep Complicated Things Simple!

There are the Chinese characters and the Chinese radicals in the Chinese language. A set of radicals form a Chinese character.

Quite often a radical itself can be a Chinese character as well.

The Chinese characters can be decomposed (or broken down, split) into radicals for the sake of making the Chinese characters learning process simple and understandable.

That is why Chinese character decomposition is a very effective tool for teaching, learning and memorizing the Chinese characters.

Please see below how Chinese character decomposition makes learning simple, indeed.

The Chinese characters 口 kǒu ‘mouth’ and 日 rì ‘sun’ both include the radical 冂 jiōng ‘down box’.  

In addition, the Chinese character 口 kǒu ‘mouth’ also includes the radical 一 yī ‘one’. The Chinese character 日 rì ‘sun’ also includes the radical 二 èr ‘two’.

So, the overall decomposition of the both Chinese characters looks like following:

口 kǒu ‘mouth’

冂 jiōng ‘down box’

一 yī ‘one’

日 rì ‘sun’

冂 jiōng ‘down box’

二 èr ‘two’

Simple, isn’t it? Now we understand that any Chinese character can be decomposed into the Chinese radicals.

You can find more information about the Chinese character decomposition in all Polina Shinkina’s textbooks and in “The Chinese Character Decomposition Guidance” on http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/polina985 and in http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/the-chinese-character-decomposition-guidance/18847104

Chinese Language Resources

Chinese Language Resources

https://del.icio.us/nicolayshinkin

A perfect collection of the Chinese language resources disclosing the topics: Chinese commercial correspondence, Chinese marketing correspondence, Chinese financial correspondence, business writing Chinese, Chinese characters decomposition, Chinese numbers, addition in Chinese, subtraction in Chinese, multiplication in Chinese, division in Chinese and others.