独体偏旁：四点水

 The Four Drops radical is four dots on the bottom of a character.

Originally, it was character Fire.

The big seal script of character Fire

People simplified the above character to four dots when it is at the bottom of a compound character in clerical script.

Let us see character of Fish

From left to right: shell bone, small seal, and clerical script.

We see that the clerical script of Fish has four dots on the bottom,

is called Four Drops radical, which is from the tail of the fish.

Let us see character of Horse

From left to right: shell bone, small seal, and clerical script. 

The clerical script has four dots, which are from the legs of horse.

Let us see the character of Bird

similarly, the four dots in the clerical script are from the claws of the bird.

2, Fire

Let us see the character of Burnt

From the left to right: shell bone, small seal, and clerical script

The top is a bird, and the bottom is Fire, which becomes to four dots in clerical script.

Let us see character of Black

From left to right: big seal, small seal, and clerical. The top ones are faces with black dots, and the bottom are Fire. In clerical script, the Fire is four dots. 

Conclusion:

The four dots are either the tail or legs of animal in the first group, or the Fire in the second group. 

However, in the simplified characters of Fish, Horse, and Bird, the Four Drops become one line

The Four Drops radicals from the Fire keep in four dots.

独体偏旁：三点水

 The shell bone script, big seal and small seal script for Three drops are just character Water

or 

for example,

or

The left is Liquor, the right is Oil, both are small seal script. Both have Water character on the left.

So there is no Three drop radical or Three drop radial is same as Water character in shell bone, big seal, and small seal script.

When clerical script was used, people wrote Water like the following,

But people had never used it as side radical in character, instead people first tried to turn the small seal script Water to horizontal

The character became like 

which has problem: is it one character or two?

Therefore, people simplified the left horizontal Water to 

which is narrowed the Water, so people could write Oil as

It could be put in a square of the same size with any other characters, people are sure that it is one character, not two.

Because it is so different from the character Water, so people call it Radical Water, which is really from character Water. The three drops standard script, song typeface later on have the similar form.

独体字：禾

 Rice Crop or Grain radical comes from character Rice Crop - 禾字旁

The big seal script for Rice Crop is

The big seal script for Fire is

If we put the above big seal Rice Crop and Fire together

which is Autumn or Fall. Each character is independent.

The small seal script for character Rice Crop is

The small seal script for character Fire is

We put small seal script Rice Crop and Fire together,

Which is Autumn or Fall. Each keeps its own form.

The clerical script of Rice Crop is

The clerical script of Fire is

If we put them together, we got

Two strokes are across to each other. If we exchange the positions of the two characters, put the Fire on the left, and the Rice Crop on the right, we would have the same problem: two strokes are across each other.

In order to avoid the problem, ancient people drew the right-falling stroke of left character shorter to give room for the left-falling stroke of right character. We could have

Then we have the left as

Which is called Rice Crop or Grain Radical.

Later, standard script, and song typeface Wood have the similar radical.

Now we know that the Rice Crop radical actually is Rice Crop character. There were no Rice Crop radical before clerical script because the two characters could keep their original forms. It is changed to avoid the across of the two strokes in late clerical, standard scripts, and song typeface.

独体字：木

The original shell bone script for Wood is

If we put two shell bone Woods together

which is Forest of shell bone script. Here the two Wood are equal.

The small seal script for Wood is

We put two small seal script Woods together,

which is the Forest of small seal script. The two Wood are equal too.

So far so good.

The clerical script of Wood is

The difference from the clerical script is the left-falling and right-falling strokes are outward or stretch out, not inward like the old scripts. Because clerical script was popular in Han Dynasty when people could make papers, so people could draw the strokes horizontally very wide. In contrast, people could only drew shell bone script and small seal script on bamboo slips in the earlier time, so the strokes of characters are inward.

If we put two clerical script Woods together, we got

People faced a problem, two strokes are across each other which is not acceptable. So people drew the right-falling stroke of left Wood shorter to allow the left-falling stroke of right Wood to have room to stretch out. It becomes like the following

The left part 

is called Wood radical because it is different from Wood character but actually it is from Wood and means Wood. Wood radical is only on the left of the character, because it is a rule that when the across happens, the left part should give space for the right part. The above 林 has the right part keeping no change from 木 character.

Later, standard script, and song typeface Wood have the similar radical.

So we know now that the Wood radical is actually from the Wood character. There were no Wood radical before clerical script. It is changed to avoid the across of the two strokes in late clerical, standard scripts, and song typeface. 

汉字的演变与纲目汉语教学法

 乐维

8/10/2025

很多年前，在一次汉字象形的讲座时，一位白人老先生问：“汉字有字母吗？”。我从来没有想到会有人提出这样的问题，以至于我开始不确定他的问题，再问了他，确认他就是问的“汉字有字母吗？”。第一反应就是，“怎么会有这么不靠谱的问题？”，然后诚实地告诉他：“汉字没有字母”。

但这个问题，迫使我回去想“汉字为什么没有字母？汉字有没有与字母类似的东西？”

什么是字母？字母就是拼写文字里的最小单位，由它们组成words。汉字不是拼写文字，当然没有字母。但汉字有最小的独立单位吗？就是和字母一样，不能再分割的结构？经过思考，我认为汉字有最小的独立单位，那就是不可再分割的独立体。比如，日，月，火，土，人，水，牛，马，山，女，口，门，目，田，心，木，等等。

独体字与字母的区别在于独体字有意思，字母没有。但在组成语言词组上的功能是一样的。另外字母一般就是20-30多个，但汉字大约有400多个独体字，比字母多出十几倍，但这些独体字组成了几万个，或者超过十万个合体字。比如，明，看，灶，妈，吐，炎，休，森，林，泪，思，相，等等，这些由两个或两个以上的独体字组成合体字。

合体字的出现，让汉字的表达从只能表示有形状的物体，到可以表达没有形状的意思：比如，明，看，休，好，思，等，都是没有具体形状的动词，或形容词。汉字的表达能力极大地增强了。

但当时汉字仍然还不够用，比如，还有数词，代词，还有不断涌出的意思，等等。怎么办？于是老祖宗发明了假借，转注。假借就是我有个意思没有汉字表达，先借一个字代替一下。比如，它，原意是蛇。但它（代词）的意思没有汉字表达，就把它（蛇）拿来做代词的它用。但做代词的它用得远比原意的蛇更多，大家反而只记得它的代词意思，而不知道原来蛇的意思了。怎么办？加一个虫子旁，新造一个蛇字，还回去表示它的蛇的原意。但还的不是原来的字，所以叫假借。

转注就是一字多义，比如，乐（le4, yue4）， 重（zhong4,chong2 ）, 省（sheng3, xing3）, 行（hang2,  xing2）, 恶（e4, wu4）, 觉（jiao4, jue2）,等等。这个乐（快乐）的意思没有字表达，那就把乐（yue4）拿来，你能者多劳，也表示乐（le4）吧。与假借不同，转注不另外造一个字还回去，更加省事，但也造成了今天说的“望文生义”的常见错误。可以理解，你本来就是一字多义，学生怎么可能一次把所有的意思都搞清楚？

有人可能问：你怎么知道是先有yue4, 还是先有le4? 我可以肯定的是：先有yue4.

看看甲骨文就是知道了。

这就是一架编钟，上面是铃铛，下面是支架。编钟当然就是奏乐用的，所以乐字的原意是乐器。

当然很多情况确实不知道先有的谁，后有的谁。但不管先有谁，反正最后的结果是一样的：一字多义。

凡是一字多义的，99%就是转注造成的。

即使这样，后来汉字仍然不够用。造字很难，也很慢。怎么办？于是老祖宗又发明了词组：两个或多个汉字组成词组来表达意思。比如电脑就是由电和脑两个字组成的词，不再需要重新造一个汉字来表示电脑。如果要造，还真不好造。

计算机，打印机，割草机，拖拉机，推土机，洗碗机，订书机，不管你什么机器，我都可以给你组一个词来表示。马车，牛车，汽车，火车，面包车，轿车，卡车，云霄飞车，班车，板车，自行车，三轮车，只要是有轮子的车，我都可以用两三个汉字组词来表达。胃病，肺病，心脏病，糖尿病，用词组很方便，但你要每一个病造一个字，那会难上几百倍，还不一定造得出来。

词组的发明，让汉语彻底告别了需要不断造新字的巨大压力，而词组表达的意思更细腻，更准确，更全面。另外词组还大大减少了同音字造成的问题，比如单字：地，与弟，第，帝，蒂，迪，递，等发音非常相近，很容易引起误会。但词组“土地”就很明显能与比较清楚地表达了土的意思，两个字都同音的情况比一个字同音的要少很多。老祖宗还发明了词组重叠，比如，清清楚楚，干干净净，漂漂亮亮，马马虎虎，上上下下，等，基本解决了同音字带来的困惑。

受到上面思考的启发，我最近构思了一个汉语教学的新思路：学汉字应该从独体字学起，一共400多，不算多，而且不需要都学。它们都很象形，引入汉字象形和演变，学起来很容易，不需要死记硬背。比如上面提到的独体字，日，月，水，火，土，山，女，口，牛，马，门，目，木，人，等。日就是一个圆圈，中间一点。山就是三个山峰。口就是一个四方。学会了，就学合体字，都是独体字组成的，很容易懂，也不要背，就像拼积木，你拼就是了。日月一拼就是明，门口一拼就是问，女马一拼就是妈， 火土一拼就是灶，水目一拼就是泪。简单易懂。最后学词组，也是拼积木，很容易。泪水，土灶，好马，妈妈，儿子，好人，门口，明月，等等。

我把它称为纲目汉字教学法。独体字就是纲，合体字就是目，词组就是次目。纲举目张，抓住独体字这个纲，一提就把合体字这个目提起来了，再一提，则把词组这个次目提起来了。

比如，

日，（甲骨文）

日是独体字，是纲。下面的合体字则是目。

早 – 早晨，早饭，早操，早退，早茶，早自习，等。

明 – 明天，光明，明显，明月，发明，聪明，等。

星 – 星光，星火，星辰，零星，卫星，明星，等。

春 - 春天，春节，春季，春风，春雨，春联，等。

时 – 时间，时代，时差，时钟，临时，倒计时，等

日竖着往下一提就是一大摞合体字，是目，纲举目张。

合体字横着往右一提就是一大摞词组，是次目，次级的纲举目张。

归结起来，汉字表达形式的演变为

独体字 à 合体字 à 词组

这样就容易学，激发联想，字与字的联系一目了然，举一反三，反四，反N。学得快，理解深，记得牢。

然后配上简单的汉语语法，丰富的汉语就形成了。

写于2025年8月11日

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