Category | Example | Analysis | |
Pictographic characters | “RI” (meaning “sun”) |
| |
“YUE” (meaning “moon”) |
| ||
Self-explanatory characters | “SHANG” (meaning “up”) |
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“XIA” (meaning “down”) | |||
Associative compound | “XIN” (meaning “believe”) | REN + YAN (meaning “human + belive”, people should keep their words.) | |
Pictophonetic characters | “HE” (meaning “river”) | SHUI (meaning “water”) KE (indicate the sound of water flowing) | |
Synonymous characters | “KAO” (meaning “exam”) | In Explaining Words and Analyzing Compound Characters: LAO and KAO are mutually explanatory. | |
“LAO” (meaning “old”) | |||
Phonetic loan characters | “BEI” (meaning “north”) |
| (meaning “refers to two people who are in opposite directions”). |