Understanding the Ancient Chinese System of Writing

The Chinese language has evolved and changed over the thousands of years of its existence, from ancient pictograms to an extensive system of characters. The earliest Chinese writing is said to have come from divination, with symbols used on oracle bones representing words, ideas and events. As time progressed, these symbols became abstract, leading to the modern, complex system of written Chinese. While some of us may think of it as a mysterious and difficult language, Chinese writing does have a certain degree of order and regularity, making it possible for us to learn and understand it.

What makes Chinese writing unique is its logographic character. What this means is that each written character represents one syllable, one word or even some meaning; in other words, one single character stands for one concept. This differs from alphabetic written language, which breaks up words across multiple letters and syllables. Because of its logographic character, a relatively small number of characters allow Chinese to describe a large arsenal of ideas and concepts. The Chinese character set currently stands around 44,830 characters according to statistics, although only around 8000-10,000 are necessary in daily life.
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A major characteristic of the Chinese language is its subtlety and inherent beauty in conveying meaning. The number of homophones, or words that sound the same, is much higher in Chinese compared to Western languages. Many characters are fashioned in such a way that their shape communicates both their pronunciation and meaning. This kind of visual pun is called rebus. There are plenty of phrases and expressions in Chinese that were created entirely through the pictographic representation of the words. These characters are the result of the long history of Chinese language and culture, with many characters representing cultural artifacts, ancient myths, and famous people.
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Chinese writing is divided into two parts; traditional and simplified Chinese. Traditional Chinese, also known as Traditional Chinese characters, is what was used for centuries before the Chinese government decided to simplify the writing system for practical reasons. As literacy rates got higher, so did the number of characters used for its written language, making it harder for a lot of people to learn and read. In approximately 1956 the Chinese government decided to make the writing more accessible to the general populace, creating a system of “simplified” Chinese characters. These simplified characters are easier to write and read, but they also sacrifice some of the complexity of the traditional characters.

It is clear that understanding the complexity of the Chinese written language takes a bit of research and practice. The language is steeped in mysteries, oldest beliefs and ancient culture; it is able to communicate deeper and although abstract, carries a wide range of concepts and thoughts. The rest, of course, is up to us.