Learning the Characters by Components

In the eighties, 蘇靜白 Su in 河北滄州 Cangzhou, Hebei suggested to organize the training of the characters systematically from simple to compound characters (i.e., the essence of 部件識字(learning the characters by component)).

To do this, Su thoroughly analyzed a total of 3755 characters in such a way as to decompose the character 韶[sháo] into 音[yīn] and 召[zhào], and in turn into 立[lì], 日[rì], 刀[dāo] and 口[kǒu], as depicted below.

韶                      復雜合體字 complex compound characters

音       召           簡單合體字 simple compound characters

 立 日  刀 口     獨體字 simple characters

The analysis of the character 韶

According to this, teachers were recommended to teach the characters in the reverse order, i.e., going from the simple characters 獨體字 (i.e., 立 and 日), through the simple compound characters 簡單合體字 (i.e., 音) finally to the complex compound characters 複雜合體字 (i.e., 韶). Taught in this way, children not only can make use of the familiar characters to learn the unfamiliar ones but also can revise on what has been learned while learning the new.

Verbally describing the composition of the characters. Through careful analysis, Su obtained a set of basic components. Every one of the basic characters was then given a name, including those that are not characters on its own. By so doing, the composition of any compound character can be orally described, as a mnemonic device for memorization. For example, the description of the character 掌([zhǎng], hand) is 尚字頭, 手字底(尚 at the top and 手 at the bottom). Similarly, that of the character 握([wò], handle) is 提手旁, 屋字邊(手 on the left and 屋 on the right), and that of the character 露([lù], dew) is 雨字頭, 路字底(雨 at the top and 路 at the bottom). This is conceived to be a systematic way for children to learn the written forms of the compound characters.

Undeniably this attempt is a painstaking linguistic analysis of the characters for the learning of children. Moreover, done in this way, the characters are unavoidably decomposed into piecemeal, thus making the components void of meaning to the characters. For example, the meanings of 立([lì], to stand), 日([rì], sun), 刀([dāo], knife) and 口([kǒu], mouth) have nothing to do with 韶([sháo], ancient melody), thus the composition of 韶([sháo], ancient melody) can only be memorized as a collection of unrelated parts.

  In the same vein, 黃沛榮 Wong in Taiwan analyzed the traditional written forms of 4808 commonly used characters into 440 basic components and recommended teachers to teach these basic components in junior grade levels.