excerpt : " Chinese Etymology " 漢字辨原 by Fung Sze Yue

廣州音字彙 ,馮思禹 ,香港 : 世界, 1971

校正國學常識精選 , 馮思禹,香港 : 右文, 1972

漢字辨原 , 馮思禹, 香港 : 右文, 1974

說文解字新編 , 馮思禹, 香港 : 右文書局, 民國55[1966]

部身字典 : 新訂國粤注音, 馮思禹 ,香港 : 右文, 1967

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excerpt : " Chinese Etymology" 漢字辨原 by Fung Sze Yue


1. The formation of English and other modern languages, mostly includes roots to which are added prefixes and suffixes and other modifications to make a beautiful language.


2. If the basic rules and roots of that country's writing be absorbed, then it is not difficult to get hold of a word's meaning and pronunciation. If Chinese is very deep and comparatively hard to learn, it is because a good way of studying it has not been obtained.


3. My teacher, Mr. Fung Sze Yue, after twenty years of ceaseless study and digging out of the inheritance of an ancient civilization, has already several publications to his credit. Now after spending four years of his leisure, he has compiled this up-to-date book of "Chinese Etymology 漢字辨原 ."


4. This book contains the root characters of the basic structure of Chinese writing. Using this book, the study of Chinese characters is not at all difficult.

In 1955, Mr. Fung compiled a "Dictionary of Pictographs 部身字典 ", opening a new era in the investigation of Chinese characters and the present book describes in more detail the formation and changes that the structure of Chinese characters have passed through.


5. Every basic character form is included in the radicals to form 9,420 different shaped characters and the basic character forms are only 1,820 and they form a good method of getting from the simple to the expanded.


6. This book will be an invaluable work for westerners studying Chinese characters. Chinese students can add a deep individual knowledge of Chinese characters and reduce mistakes.


7. For instance, on Page 26, look up the basic character form No.1224 "ku " =old. This character is made by apply " shih " = ten to " h'ou"= mouth. This makes a character combining the meaning of "ten mouth", handing down traditions and so leads to the meaning of " ku"= old.


8. After the explanation of "ku" are set the characters which include the radical. e.g. add "jen" = man, to make "ku " = value, and so forth.


9. If a student have any doubt about a basic character, then he need only tuen the pages of this book and resolve his difficulties.


10. The method of looking up characters is the same as was used in " Dictionary of Pictographs 部身字典." First, all radicals must be removed from the character and the first four strokes of the remainder taken in order.


A horizontal stroke is 1, a vertical is 2, a slanting stroke is 3, a bent stroke is 4, and a dot or downward brush stroke is 5. In the " ku " character, there is a horizontal making 1, then a vertical making 2, another vertical making 2, and a bent stroke making 4. So "ku " comes under 1224.



11. Other special features are the small-seal and great-seal chacracters in comparison to make clear the modern writing and the changes through which the common characters have passed. Characters wrongly written are pointed out one by one.


12. A very useful feature is the last column, which shows the current form of a character as used for quick writing.


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