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Chinese characters
汉字结构 〔漢字結構〕 hàn zì jié gòu
Students of Chinese medicine benefit from having some familiarity with the construction of Chinese characters to understand discussions about terminology. The following discussion is intended to provide the reader with enough information to make reading of term etymologies and explanations of point name origins a richer and more satisfying experience.
This database provides useful material for those learning Chinese. The Terms section of the database includes entries for single characters commonly appearing in Chinese medical terms. Searches for a single character allows access to all the terms in which it appears, with weblinks that show how it is constructed (indicating radicals and phonetics) and how to write it (i.e., the order in which the strokes of the character are written. In the discussion below, highlighted character are linked directly to the Terms section of the database.
The simplest Chinese characters are stylized images of the things they represent. For example, the Chinese character
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The vast majority of characters are not composed of one element as in the examples above, but of two or more. For instance, the characters for an extended period,
a notion that has little or nothing to do with moxibustion. The fact that it shares the same sound jiǔ indicates that it was incorporated for its sound rather than its meaning.
It should be noted that the traditional script was replaced in the People’s Republic of China after the takeover of the country by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949. The traditional script is still used in Taiwan and Hongkong and by many communities of the Chinese diaspora. It also important for those engaged in historical research. In most cases, the simplification only involves the simplification of individual elements of characters, so that the overall construction remains the same, making the difference between the two forms easy learn. However, in a some commonly used characters, the whole composition of the character has been changed, such as
Radicals
Each character has one element that is called its radical (部首 bù shǒu), comprising the essential category of meaning. The term radical,
which means literally of the root,
is of primary importance in the discussion of the structure of Chinese characters. Radicals are also called significs.
The ability to recognize some of the more common radicals will greatly enhance the benefit that the student derives from the study of the acupuncture point names. There are 214 radicals all told. Following is a discussion of 21 radicals that occur frequently in characters relating to Chinese medicine.
It should be noted that some simplication of characters involves changes in radical. One example is the previously mentioned character ear
being replaced with the mouth.
The fire radical
The earth radical
The metal radical
The water radical
The wood radical
The hand radical
The mouth radical
The heart radical
The human being / person radical
The sun radical
The moon radical
The flesh radical
The bed/disease radical
The gate radical
The bone radical
The head radical
The bamboo radical
The grass radical
The silk radical
The ear radical
The speech radical
The rock radical
The student of Chinese medicine will find that these twenty-two radicals provide a good basis for approximating meanings or achieving general associations for unfamiliar characters.
| Most Common Radicals | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radical | Pīnyīn | Meaning | Example | |
| 1 | rén | person | 你 (nǐ) you; | |
| 2 | chì | road; walking | ||
| 3 | shuǐ | water | 河 river (hé); | |
| 4 | bīng | ice | 冰 ice (bīng); 冻 (dòng) freeze | |
| 5 | huǒ | fire / burning | ||
| 6 | rì | day; sun; time | 时 time (shí); | |
| 7 | yuè | moon; month | ||
| 8 | ròu | flesh, meat | ||
| 9 | mén | door | ||
| 10 | nǚ | female; woman | ||
| 11 | zǐ | child | 孩 child (hái); | |
| 12 | shǒu | hand | 推 push (tuī); | |
| 13 | yán | speech, language | ||
| 14 | cǎo | grass | ||
| 15 | tǔ | earth; soil | 地 ground (dì); | |
| 16 | shí | food; eat | ||
| 17 | mù | tree; wood | ||
| 18 | zhú | bamboo | ||
| 19 | zú | foot | ||
| 20 | chuò | walk; action; period of time | ||
| 21 | mì | silk; thread; string | ||
| 22 | mián | roof | ||
| 23 | kǒu | mouth; opening | ||
| 24 | wéi | boundary; enclosure | ||
| 25 | yī | clothes | 補瀉 (bǔ xiè) supplement and drain; 裙 (qún) skirt; | |
| 26 | chuāng | sickness | ||
| 27 | yì | terrain; hill; city; town | ||
| 28 | fù | mound | ||
| 29 | hàn | factory; yard | ||
| 30 | yǎn | wide; shelter | ||
| 31 | xīn | heart; feeling; mental activities | ||
| 32 | lì | strength; power; force | ||
| 33 | niú | ox, cow, bull | ||
| 34 | quǎn | dog, other animals | ||
| 35 | mǎ | horse | ||
| 37 | chē | car; vehicle; cart | ||
| 38 | chóng | bug, insect, reptile | ||
| 39 | yú | fish | ||
| 40 | niǎo | bird | ||
| 41 | zú | foot, leg | ||
| 42 | jīn | metal | ||
Character Categories
When studying Chinese characters, it is helpful to be familiar with the six categories of characters. The reader who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of the origins and relations of the various alternate names for the acupuncture points will find these categories especially useful. These include Pictograms, ideograms, compound ideograms, phonosemantic compounds, transfers, and borrowings. Each is discussed separately below.
- Pictograms (象形 xiàng xíng): Characters that resemble in form the thing that they represent are called imitative symbols. Examples are:
木 mù, tree/wood;门 mén, door; and山 shān, mountain;日 rì sun. - Ideogams (指事 zhǐ shì): Characters that that express an idea diagrammatically. Examples are:
上 shàng, up;下 xià, down. - Compound ideograms (会意 huì yì): These are characters that represent concepts or actions. For example, the character
旦 dan, meaning sunrise, is a picture of the sun,日 rising over the horizon. The character男 nán, meaning man, is a good example. It is made up of the characters田 tián, meaning field, and力 lì, meaning strength.男 nánthen comes to mean man through the idea that a man uses his strength working the fields. The characters林 lín, which is formed of two tree/wood (木 huǒ) radicals side by side and meansforest,
and炎 yán, two fires (火 huǒ), meaningburn,
flame.
- Phonosemantic compounds (形声 xíng shēng): These are characters that combine a meaning component with a phonetic component, such as
河 river, where氵 suggests water and可 provides pronunciation. Note that a single phonetic element may indicate different sounds in different characters. Thus, while河 is pronounced hé,可 itself as an independent character is pronounced kě. A common phonetic component is昜 yáng, meaningbright
orglorious.
In扬 (trad. 揚) yáng, to lift, raise, it has the same sound as 昜, while汤 (trad. 湯) tāng, soup, decoction, and肠 (trad. 腸) cháng, intestine, the initial sound is different. - Transfer (转注 zhuǎn zhù): Characters that share similar meanings and evolve from one another, such as
考 kǎo and老 lǎo. - Borrowing (假借 jiǎ jiè): Characters borrowed for their sound rather than original meaning, such as
来 lái, originally meantwheat,
but borrowed to meancome.
Characters and Meaning
Certain aspects of the Chinese language make the interpretation of ancient Chinese writings, including the point names, particularly difficult. The two aspects of Chinese that prove most troublesome in this respect are the many grammatical roles that single characters can assume and the multitude of meanings inherent in a given character. In Chinese, unlike European languages, parts of speech are not clearly distinguished. Take, for example, the charactercentral treasury,
center's treasury,
center of the treasury,or even
strike the treasury.While the last possibility can be eliminated due to illogic, plausible explanations can be offered for each of the other three.
A character can take on not only numerous grammatical roles, but numerous meanings and nuances as well. This is a result of the long history of the Chinese language and the tendency of the characters to take on extended meanings. The looseness of Chinese syntax and the wide range of meanings associated with a given character mean that almost any point name could be rendered in a host of different ways in English. Take again the example of LI-1, 中府 zhōng fǔ. The character house,
denoting a place where important official activities, specifically storehouse
or treasure house,
This name could be rendered as Central House, Central Treasure House, Central Storehouse, etc.
In many cases, it is difficult to decide which rendering comes closest to the meaning originally intended. It is sometimes impossible to find a phrase in English that will cover more than one of the completely different possible interpretations. For example, in the Chinese point name for LR-5, 蠡溝 lǐ gōu, the character a (pronounced both lǐ and Ií) can represent either a wood-boring insect or a gourd, and the character
Since innumerable interpretations of the point names are possible, the reader is encouraged to explore the various possibilities and create renderings that meet his or her own needs. By no means should the renderings given in this or any other text be taken as the only correct interpretations. Attempts to translate or to learn a one and only
rendering will result in the loss of insight, information, and understanding.
The following represents a rough explanation of Mandarin Chinese pronunciation (汉语发音 hàn yǔ fā yīn). Plenty of pronunciation videos are available online to help students develop their skills.
A general feature of Chinese pronunciation is the absence, with very few exceptions, of liaison between syllables. In other words, the airflow between syllables is stopped by a closing of the glottis before any syllable beginning with a vowel sound, giving the onset of the vowel a distinctly sharp quality often referred to as “hard attack.” Chinese syllables only end with a vowel sound or consonants in Mandarin are n and ng. The stop heard before a syllable starting with a vowel sound is generally easily detectable. The final n tends to be a pure nasal sound without the tongue touching the ridge behind the upper teeth, the absence of liaison is as clearly heard by the absence of the initial alveolar quality if the n.
Vowels
- a as in English father (but more like French or Spanish a); before n, as English a in pan.
- e as English “uh”; after i or y, as e in Eng bed.
- i as ee in English see (but more like French or Spanish i). After c, ch, r, s, sh, z, and zh, it is barely pronounced so that ci, chi, ri, si, shi, zi, and zhi, are little more than the consonant sounds with the mouth in the position to produce the short i in bit. Because of this, c, ch, r, s, sh, z, and zh are often described as “syllabic consonants” or “sibilant consonants.”
- o as in ou in British thought.
- u as in oo in English food (but more like French ou or Spanish u); before vowels, as English w.
- ai as in English i pine.
- ao similar to ow in English cow (but more like Spanish ao in Bilbao).
- ei as ay in may.
- ou similar to o in English pose.
- ua similar to English wah as in wah-wah.
- ui similar to English way.
Consonants
- b as in English bed (but more like p in spy).
- c as ts in intelligentsia.
- ch as ch in cheap but with the tongue curled so that the sound approaches in the tr in trudge.
- d as in English dad (but more like the unvoiced t in stop).
- f as in English.
- g as in English, but more like the k in sky.
- h like the English h, but approaching the Spanishj. After c, z, and s, it represents the retroflex sound. See ch, sh, and zh.
- j similar to English j in jingle, never as g in beige.
- k like English k, but highly aspirated.
- l as in English, but more like French or Spanish l.
- m as in English.
- n before a vowel, as the English n; after a vowel, nasalized so that, for example, àn approaches the in of the French fin. Note that when the final n is followed by a vowel, there is no liaison that would make it sound like a pre-vowel n.
- p similar to the English p, but highly aspirated as in “You pig!”
- q similar to the ch in cheap.
- r similar to the American r. Similar to an American r. In the initial position, it is produced by this r sound being pronounced with the sound of y sound, resulting in the hint of the sound of a g of beige.
- s similar to s in soup.
- sh similar to English sh but with the tongue curled so that it approaches the sound of shr in shrapnel.
- t similar to the t in top, but more like a Spanish t with great aspiration.
- w as in English.
- x between the sh in shake and the s in size, but never like the s in leisure.
- y as in yes.
- z as ds in sods.
- zh as j in judge but with the tongue curled so that the sound approaches in the dr in drudge.
The retroflex sound: Note that the Chinese j and zh are both close to the English sound of j in judge. But the two sounds differ by the addition of the retroflex (curling of the tongue) in the latter. Similarly, q and ch are differentiated by the latter’s retroflex, as are s and sh. The similarity of the Chinese sh to the English sh is a result of the retroflex to s. Compare this to the Sri of Sri Lanka, which most English speakers tend to pronounce as Shree.
Tones
Chinese monosyllables are mostly pronounced in one of four tones (四聲 sì-shēng), or pitches, which in some cases convert to a neutral tone. Tonality provides a further dimension of phonemic variation that enables syllables otherwise pronounced the same way to be distinguished. The existence of a large vocabulary of words composed of monosyllabic words is possible only when a high level of phonemic variation is maintained.
- The first tone is a high flat tone, marked in Pīnyīn by ̄ .
- The second tone is a high rising tone, marked by ´ .
- The third tone is a low dipping and rising tone, marked by ˇ .
- The fourth tone is a high falling tone, marked by ` .
- The neutral tone is more or less in the middle position. It is unmarked in the standard form of Pīnyīn, although this text retains it.