Meaning of 六书
六书 means the six categories of Chinese characters; the six principles of Chinese character formation (self-explanatory, pictographic, phono-semantic, associative, mutually explanatory, and phonetic loan). Pronounced liù shū.
- the six categories of Chinese characters; the six principles of Chinese character formation (self-explanatory, pictographic, phono-semantic, associative, mutually explanatory, and phonetic loan)
Definitions & Examples
Xué学
xí习
liù六
shū书
yǒu有
zhù助
yú于
shēn深
rù入
lǐ理
jiě解
Hàn汉
zì字
de的
gòu构
zào造
yuán原
lǐ理
。
Studying the six categories of characters helps in deeply understanding the structural principles of Chinese characters.
Xǔ许
Shèn慎
zài在
《
Shuō说
wén文
Jiě解
zì字
》
zhōng中
xì系
tǒng统
chǎn阐
shù述
le了
liù六
shū书
lǐ理
lùn论
。
Xu Shen systematically expounded the theory of the six categories of characters in 'Shuowen Jiezi'.
Xíng形
shēng声
shì是
liù六
shū书
zhōng中
zào造
zì字
néng能
lì力
zuì最
qiáng强
de的
yī一
zhǒng种
jié结
gòu构
fāng方
shì式
。
Phono-semantic compounding is the structural method with the strongest word-creation capability among the six categories.
Xiàn现
dài代
xué学
zhě者
duì对
zhuǎn转
zhù注
hé和
jiǎ假
jiè借
shì是
fǒu否
shǔ属
yú于
zào造
zì字
fǎ法
réng仍
yǒu有
bù不
tóng同
kàn看
fǎ法
。
Modern scholars still hold different views on whether mutually explanatory characters and loan characters belong to character formation methods.
Measure Words
种/ zhǒng
Primary
部/ bù