Chinese Calligraphy: Learning to Read and Write Hieroglyphs

Chinese hieroglyphic writing is the oldest form of writing still in use today, with at least 3,500 years of history. Moreover, it is one of the most widespread writing systems in the world in terms of the number of users,... as Chinese is the most spoken language in the world. Chinese characters are used in writing not only in Chinese but also in Japanese. In the past, other languages, such as Korean and Vietnamese, also used Chinese characters. Chinese characters are an important part of the culture of East Asia. Chinese calligraphy can be called painting - so strongly does it impress viewers with its aesthetics, variety of styles, and richness of forms. Hieroglyphic writing is very different from the alphabetic writing we are accustomed to. Each hieroglyph signifies a specific concept and corresponds to an entire syllable, not a sound. Modern Chinese uses approximately 5,000 hieroglyphs. How do you remember them? In fact, there are about 300 basic Chinese characters that trace back to pictographic images-drawings. They can be combined with each other, forming the entire variety of complex characters. By knowing the basic characters, one can easily remember the complex ones. In this guide, we have selected 35 of the simplest hieroglyphs to write and remember. They have a small number of strokes and are easy to learn, as for the most part they are intuitive. Besides the scripts, you will find a detailed etymology of each hieroglyph, a list of main complex hieroglyphs in which they are included as components, as well as a list of main phrases with them, which will provide insight into the logic of Chinese writing. Let these hieroglyphs be your starting point in learning the Chinese language. I wish you good luck! 2nd edition.