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Reminder

A Kanji is made up with components : Key and Phonetic Primitive. The combination of their meanings leads to the meaning of the Kanji itself.

Why an "analytical approach" with two elements? Because combination of two series reduces the number of elements to be memorized.

There are, in practice, between 2000 and 3000 characters commonly used (thousands of others being combinations, created by scholars for scholars). In theory, to generate - let say 2,600 of them, 50 key and 50 phonetic primitives would be enough:

It is easier to remenber one hundred graphics than thousand: a principle that, two thousand years ago, Qin Shi Huang Di must have applied to rationalize the list of official characters (cf."History China").

50x50+2x50 = 2600

As far the role of the two components is concerned: for keys, no problem ; they are used as classifiers. Everyone knows them and no one challenges their meanings. The Phonetic primitives, on the other hand, raise a problem, because they are taught little.

But the situation evolves. Precursors as Wieger or now De Roo, Osaka University, some American universities... base their teachings on the phonetics primitives. The meaning of these phonetics come from the work of Xu Zhen 許 愼: the 説文解字 Setsusbunkaiji". The latter, a Chinese, analyzed 9353 characters organizing them around phonetic, in the year 96 of our era. He is doubtless less wrong than those who quibble now on interpretation. The "Kanji Handbook" is based mainly on the "Setsusbunkaiji" to define the phonetics.

The basic phonetic primitive gave originally the - Sino-Japanese - pronunciation of the members of its family and a general meaning, to be fine-tuned by the key of each Kanji.

Originally, because unfortunately, the system has evolved since its inception. In China, it was marred by errors of interpretation, transcripts, and then it was transposed in Japanese. So that at present, only half the usual Kanji can be explained satisfactorily by the principle which presided over their creation. Half full or half empty glass! You decide if you accept or not the analytical approach that can help you understand and remember a thousand Kanji.

The link between key and phonetic primitive to the current meaning of Kanji can thus raise problem. The "Handbook", requiring brevity, summarizes long analyses by a concise formula which sometimes may seem artificial. Therefore, this link can be regarded as a mere mnemonic indication, or be given a linguistic value. The "Handbook" does not decide; it proposes. From these two thousand "cases", it is up to every reader to form his opinion on the matter. If the proposed link does not suit him, he can rephrase it with its own terms to appropriate them. The important thing is that the two components are identified and, finally, the Kanji memorized .

The Method of "Handbook & Dictionary" - FransOrienT

The Handbook gives the graphic evolution of the Kanji (It's comics !), to clearly see clearly what the stylization of the drawing covers.
To see
  • It describes its two elements (Key and phonetic primitive) to fully understand its meaning.
    A well-understood Kanji is easier to remember: it is easier to memorize.
To understand
  • It lists the Kanji in its five indexes and the text (other Kanji from the phonetic family...).. Navigating between factors provides an overview. The approach, specific to the Handbook allows the reader to stand on their own two feet, to fly in Japanese writing.
To fly

A Software, accessible on the internet, completes this book. With its 40,000 links, research, study and navigation take on another dimension..