美 汉 CHINESE 寿 CHARACTERS 吉 财 福

1 CHINESE CHARACTERSL earn &Remember2,178 Charactersand Their MeaningsAlan Hoenig, #PE Z C h i n e s e y )WKFG CHINESE CharactersLearn & Remember 2,178 CHARACTERS and eir MeaningsHow to Retain the Meanings for More an2000 of the Most Common Charactersin Mandarin ChineseAlan Hoenig, an Innovative Memory MethodTo Put Ease Into CHINESE !S C E BOX 2346, HUNTINGTON, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK 117432 0 0 9 About the design by Jim Hannan. Cover photo shows thepanda couple Mei Xiang (female, le ) and Tian Tian (male, right) and appearscourtesy of Ann Batdorf/Smithsonian s National Zoo. e red CHINESE aracters are symbols of good lu and fortune.

2 Readingdown, here are their meanings and official pinyin phonetic transliteration:beautiful (m i), longevity (sh u), lu y (j ), wealth (c i), good fortune (f ),harmonious (h ), love (a ), virtue (d ), happiness (x ), and emolument (l ). e aracter on the spine is h ng (large, vast), the author s CHINESE surname. e interior body types are drawn from the family of Linux Libertinefonts, designed by Philipp H. Poll. e typese ing was done by means of theXeTEX program of Jonathan Kew, itself an extension of Donald Knuth s TEXtypese ing by Alan HoenigGBS..V .F .f All rights reservedPrinted in the United States of AmericaFirst EditionLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataHoenig, CHARACTERS : Learn & Remember , CHARACTERS and eir Meanings/ Alan Hoenig.

3 CHINESE language.. Mandarin language.. CHINESE aracters.. HanZi aracters..EZC . , , , 2009 Dr. Alan Hoenig. All rights , Page-2(part // unit // pane // page // part name // unit name //)topmark: 0//-2//0//-1//Front Matter////firstmark: 0//-2//0//-1//Front Matter////botmark: 0//-2//0//-1//Front Matter////Page -2 Jun 24, 2009 1:19pm to the memory ofB H loving mother, iconoclast, woman of valor 2009 Dr. Alan Hoenig. All rights , Page-3(part // unit // pane // page // part name // unit name //)topmark: 0//-2//0//-1//Front Matter////firstmark: 0//-3//0//-3//Front Matter////botmark: 1//-4//0//-3//Front Matter////Page -3 Jun 24, 2009 1:19pm 2009 Dr.

4 Alan Hoenig. All rights , Page-4(part // unit // pane // page // part name // unit name //)topmark: 1//-4//0//-3//Front Matter////firstmark: 1//-5//0//-4//Front Matter////botmark: 1//-5//0//-4//Front Matter////Page -4 Jun 24, 2009 1:19pm aracters have been in use for thousands of years, and despite ar-guments that have probably raged for about the same amount of time, theChinese people have never bothered to reform these aracters in any mean-ingful way. Oh, sure, in the mid- s, the People s Republicdidrevamp acouple of thousand of them, thereby providing us with the so-called simpli-fied aracter set (the subject of this volume), but youcouldargue that thisstep only made the situation at least for us poor foreign students ever moreburdensome.

5 For now, it has become necessary to learn not one system, butboth systems (traditional and simplified) in order to cope with mainland andoverseas documents, as well as with the oceans of legacy documents thatremain older material printed before , the very fact that these aracters have persevered for su a long time must mean something. It means that in some allegorical andmystical sense they want to be learned, and indeed in my strictly empiricaland anecdotal resear , I ve not run into a person brought up in China whocomplained about all the work it took to learn them. at s cold comfort forus non-native speakers, and the purpose of this book is to advance a methodwhi makes this daunting task mu less so for us.

6 Please see the ReadMe First! introduction for a fuller, far more expansive discussion of thisinnovative will conclude this section with a plethora of a nowledgments. Firstoff, I must point out that many of my ideas in this presentation drew upon theearlier work of James W. Heisig and Mi ael Rowley dealing with old college um Chris Rider possesses critical acuity that I swearis second to none. She graciously proofread the entire text, not only keepingsilly errors to a minimum, but also ensuring that my li le stories stay onpoint, remain consistent, and maintain their pedagogical integrity a far moredemanding endeavor. I am grateful beyond ers artistic were the province of Jim Hannan, who performed yeo-man service in the design of the cover.

7 If you don t agree, you can blameme, for I m the one who transformed it (as best I could) to electronic media. anks to Web-meister (and Meistersinger) Mit Clarvit for his expertisein se ing His bemused patience in the face of myfearsome naivety had to be seen to be believed. 2009 Dr. Alan Hoenig. All rights , Page-5(part // unit // pane // page // part name // unit name //)topmark: 1//-5//0//-4//Front Matter////firstmark: 1//-6//0//-5//Front Matter//Preface//botmark: 1//-6//0//-5//Front Matter//Preface//Page -5 Jun 24, 2009 1:19pm CHARACTERS : REMEMBER 2178 CHARACTER MEANINGSI fear that errors remain in this book, despite the scrupulous care I took(or a empted to take).

8 Most of them are mine and mine alone, but not all. Irelied heavily on a small handful of remarkable reference works, but they didnot always agree, and not knowing whom to follow in those instances mayhave led me down the wrong path. e three books in this personal canonare the Oxford Concise English- CHINESE CHINESE -English Dictionary (I usedthe second edition); Ri Harbaugh s CHINESE CHARACTERS : A Genealogy andDictionary ( , published by ; mine is the fourteenth print-ing); and the CHINESE -English Comprehensive Dictionary, edited by JohnDeFrancis ( , University of Hawai i Press). ese books, especially the lasttwo, should be at hand to every serious of errors, I hope that I can rely on you, gentle reader, to assistme in ruthlessly rooting them out.

9 If you find any mistakes, or if you havesuggestions for improving the stories in any panels, or any suggestions forimprovement whatsoever, and if you include permission for me to use thismaterial in any and all subsequent editions and printings, then I will eerfullylist the name of the first person who finds an error, and the names of allreaders whose suggestions are incorporated into the volume. Many thanks my kids Hannah and Sam, this book would have been wri enin half the time! anks, kids. Hey, Max, thank you, too. My wife, Jozefa,has been, as she has so frequently in the past, my bulwark against stupor,discouragement, crankiness, and lassitude, the four horsemen of the authorialapocalypse.

10 More positively, she has supported and encouraged this venturewith good eer, great advice, and unstinting deeply regret my mother not living to see this volume in print. eexample of her endlessly inventive creativity, nurturing care, and maternallove was a remarkable role model for myself and my siblings and, indeed, foranyone who knew her. I therefore dedicate this book to her. is one s foryou, Ma. Alan HoenigHuntington, Long Island, New York August , : 2009 Dr. Alan Hoenig. All rights , Page-6(part // unit // pane // page // part name // unit name //)topmark: 1//-6//0//-5//Front Matter//Preface//firstmark: 1//-6//0//-5//Front Matter//Preface//botmark: 1//-6//0//-5//Front Matter//Preface//Page -6 Jun 24, 2009 1:19pm Table of ContentsPreface.