Chinese Character Card

Selected insights from Shuowen Jiezi — through explanation and interpretation, you can understand the same Chinese character more deeply than others.

• Returning to the roots to trace the origins of Chinese culture
• Understand the same Chinese character more deeply than others
• Fully narrated — every character explanation feels like listening to a story
• Many people today can “recognize” Chinese characters but do not truly “understand” them. Recognizing means knowing the pronunciation, writing, and surface meaning; understanding means grasping the origins, evolution, and underlying system of thought behind the character. This product is designed to help people truly understand Chinese characters.

1. Suitable for:

2. Beginners who have not yet learned Chinese characters, helping them build a solid foundation.

3. People who already know Chinese characters but want a deeper understanding of their meanings and etymology.

4. Foreign learners interested in studying Chinese characters.

5. Product Features:

6. Breaking through the difficulties of learning Chinese characters: Learning Chinese requires mastering around 5,000 characters and over 60,000 combinations of characters. These characters are often complex, filled with many strokes, and appear to lack clear logic.

However, we discovered that once you understand how a character gradually evolved from its original structure, along with its original meaning and symbolic interpretation, the logic behind every stroke suddenly becomes clear. Learning Chinese characters then becomes far simpler and more intuitive.

1. No comparable products on the market: Many products today advertise “learning 600 characters,” “800 characters,” or “1,000 characters,” but they rely heavily on rote memorization. This makes learning uninteresting for beginners and prevents deep understanding.

2. Highly condensed and systematic content: Based on the “General Design Theory” teaching philosophy of Professor Lü Bisong from Beijing Language and Culture University, and refined through years of research and teaching practice, this product identifies 137 core Chinese roots, standalone characters, and radicals. More complex characters are all formed from combinations of these 137 foundational elements.

Each character is explained through its etymology, combined with the original intention behind its creation by ancient people. Illustrations are included to make concepts intuitive and beginner-friendly.

Once you master these 137 characters, you effectively grasp the core building blocks of the entire Chinese writing system. Learning additional characters becomes easier, more enjoyable, and far more memorable.

1. Includes the origins of Chinese radicals: For example: “廴 (yǐn),” “彳 (chì),” “阝 (fǔ),” and “冫 (bīng).”

Many of these origins are surprising and lead to sudden insight into why characters containing these radicals carry their meanings.

For instance, many people think “阝 (fǔ)” is related to the ear, but it is not. It is actually a pictograph resembling a cliff. Therefore, characters containing this radical are often associated with cliffs. For example, the original meaning of “阻” was being blocked by a cliff, while “防” originally meant using a cliff as a defense.

1. A more intuitive understanding of the product’s essence: The product screenshots demonstrate how each character is interconnected. For example, once you learn the character “人” (person), you gain a better understanding of “从” (to follow). After learning “女” (woman), you can understand “母” (mother) more deeply.

User review from talklikeit: This was one of the earlier apps I downloaded, and it has many impressive features. The highlight is its focus on “etymology.” It presents over a hundred commonly used Chinese characters, explaining their original meanings and how they evolved into their modern forms. From this alone, it is clear that the creators are both insightful and talented. At least before encountering this app, I had never really paid attention to or reflected on this aspect of Chinese characters.