The core aim of this book
is to help Chinese language learners master the rules for writing Chinese
characters and write Chinese characters correctly. The book includes more than
3,600 characters, covering characters required in various Chinese teaching
syllabuses. The book is divided into: 1) List of strokes, which provides the
names, constituents, and examples of basic strokes and compound strokes, the
writing rules of strokes, and things that need to be paid attention to when
writing strokes; 2) List of non-character-forming characters (mainly the
phonetic or semantic components of compound characters), which explains the
stroke order of each component and its variants as well as its position and
shape (narrower, slimmer, flatter, etc.) in characters; 3) List of simple
character-forming components (single-component characters), explaining the
stroke order of each component and its position and shape (narrower, slimmer,
flatter, etc.) in characters; 4) List of the structures and component order of
compound characters, providing the pinyin, number of strokes, formation method,
component order, common position and shape in characters, etc. of each
character.
Lu Jianji, professor in Beijing Language and Culture University, has been engaged in teaching Chinese as a foreign language since 1960. Lu is now a special-term professor of Chinese as a foreign language in many universities, including the Renmin University of China, a CFL textbook consultant for The Commercial Press, and an expert reviewer of CFL academic journals. His research focuses on applied linguistics, especially language teaching theories such as interlanguage, Chinese-English comparison and CFL teaching history. His works include textbooks and dictionaries such as Modern Chinese Beginner’s Course, The Commercial Press Chinese Learning Dictionary, Learn to Read Chinese Characters: A Study Guide, etc.
The 3,600-plus
characters cover all the characters in Graded
Chinese Words and Characters of the Outline of Chinese Proficiency (Revised
Edition), Syllabus of Chinese Specialty
for Foreign Students in Institutions of Higher Learning, and International Curriculum for Chinese
Language Education (Revised Edition).
2. Normative
The author has referred to a wide
range of authoritative reference books on the forms of Chinese characters when
writing this book. The book embodies the author’s own conception of L2 pedagogy
of Chinese characters and gives an accurate and concise demonstration of the structural
patterns and writing rules of Chinese characters.
3. Practical
The four
character lists classify and sort out the pronunciation and structure of each
character in a progressive way to help foreigners learn the structures of
Chinese characters and master the writing rules fast and steadfastly.
4. Convenient
The correspondence with
other Chinese character syllabuses, the character index, and the ways the lists
are arranged and the page numbers of components are given all facilitate
learners’ use of the book.