The Nature of the Chinese Character

by Barbara Aria, Lesley Ehlers (Illustrator)

Examines the history of forty ideograms, demonstrates how they are formed, and looks at what they reveal about Chinese culture

Genres: China, Language, Nonfiction

96 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Bethany Tucker]

Published in 2001, this book is beautifully designed and gracefully written. It would make a peaceful coffee table type embellishment. To a student of the Chinese language though, it will be somewhat disappointing. The transliterations of the character sounds contain no tone markings and are often written in non-Pinyin forms, making them almost useless in terms of oral/audio practice.

On the whole, I would agree with what is written in terms of introducing the history of the Chiense language, though a few minor things differ from what my language teachers in/from China have told me. I enjoyed the mythology, which was quite standard, but beautifully written.

This is an art book, and in that it does well. It is not a language book, which is what I thought it would be when I held it at the library.

[Winterwhisper]

Short, fascinating look at the history of Chinese Calligraphy. Chinese calligraphy is a poetic art reflecting the natural world. I just love the insight I got from this book!

[Sheri Fresonke Harper]

Very simple list of characters documented--which is a bit disappointing. What's helpful is the history at the start and the many different meanings that are related to the root character. Makes an easy to copy set of characters.