{"id":6706,"date":"2016-01-18T10:25:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T10:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/?p=6706"},"modified":"2024-07-20T09:01:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T09:01:41","slug":"chinese-characters-for-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html","title":{"rendered":"A Thematic Learning Approach &#8211; Chinese Characters about Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Learning <a href=index-22.html>Chinese characters<\/a> can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the symbols. One effective approach is the <a href=index-14.html>topic-oriented characters learning method<\/a>, which focuses on specific themes to make the process more efficient and engaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This time, we continue our thematic learning with twelve characters representing animals!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Origin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These animal characters are among the most ancient Chinese words. Similar to body parts, many of these characters visually resemble the animals they represent.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"mp3jWrap_0\" class=\"mjp-s-wrapper s-graphic unsel-mjp \" style=\"font-size:18px;\"><span id=\"playpause_wrap_mp3j_0\" class=\"wrap_inline_mp3j\" style=\"font-weight:700;\"><span class=\"gfxbutton_mp3j play-mjp\" id=\"playpause_mp3j_0\" style=\"font-size:18px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>&nbsp;<span class=\"group_wrap\"><span class=\"bars_mp3j\"><span class=\"loadB_mp3j\" id=\"load_mp3j_0\"><\/span><span class=\"posbarB_mp3j\" id=\"posbar_mp3j_0\"><\/span><\/span><span class=\"indi_mp3j\" style=\"font-size:12.6px;\" id=\"statusMI_0\"><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div><span class=\"s-nosolution\" id=\"mp3j_nosolution_0\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/span><script>\nMP3jPLAYLISTS.inline_0 = [\n\t{ name: \"post 7\", formats: [\"mp3\"], mp3: \"aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGlnbWFuZGFyaW4uY29tL3dwLWNvbnRlbnQvdXBsb2Fkcy8yMDE2LzAxL3Bvc3QtNy5tcDM=\", counterpart:\"\", artist: \"\", image: \"\", imgurl: \"\" }\n];\n<\/script>\n\n<script>MP3jPLAYERS[0] = { list: MP3jPLAYLISTS.inline_0, tr:0, type:'single', lstate:'', loop:false, play_txt:'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', pause_txt:'&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;', pp_title:'', autoplay:false, download:false, vol:100, height:'' };<\/script>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6707\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"685\" src=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese.jpg\" alt=\"animals chinese\" class=\"wp-image-6707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese-300x257.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese-768x658.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, the ancient glyph \u7f8a (y\u00e1ng) resembles a sheep&#8217;s head with curved horns, with even the lower lip clearly indicated. Similarly, \u725b (ni\u00fa) looks like an animal\u2019s head with visible horns and ears. The ancient form of \u9c7c (y\u00fa) depicted a fish with a head, scales, and fins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese-characters.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6708\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1075\" height=\"759\" src=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese-characters.png\" alt=\"animals chinese characters\" class=\"wp-image-6708\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese-characters.png 1075w, https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese-characters-300x212.png 300w, https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese-characters-768x542.png 768w, https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/animals-chinese-characters-1024x723.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1075px) 100vw, 1075px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However, through transformations and simplifications over time, some characters have changed beyond recognition. The ancient glyph of \u864e (h\u01d4) once contained a recognizable tiger\u2019s head, tail, and claws, but the modern character requires quite a bit of imagination to see these features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Radical \u201c\u72ad\u201d \u53cd\u72ac\u65c1 (f\u01cen qu\u01cen p\u00e1ng)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of these animal characters are used in compound characters as meaning components. For example, \u8669 (x\u00ec), which means \u201cterrified,\u201d and \u50cf (xi\u00e0ng), which means \u201cto resemble,\u201d utilize these components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking closely at another group of characters, we find the radical \u72ad:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u732b (m\u0101o) \u2013 cat<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u72d7 (g\u01d2u) \u2013 dog<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u732a (zh\u016b) \u2013 pig<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u7334 (h\u00f3u) \u2013 monkey<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This radical originates from \u72ac (qu\u01cen), meaning \u201cdog.\u201d It is almost always used to denote an animal or beast. A helpful tip for beginners: if you see this radical but aren\u2019t familiar with the character, it likely represents some kind of animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many more animal characters in the Chinese language. Share with us which ones we might have missed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learning Chinese characters can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the symbols. One effective approach is the topic-oriented characters learning method, which focuses on specific themes to make the process more efficient and engaging. This time, we continue our thematic learning with twelve characters representing animals! Origin These animal characters are among&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178,116],"tags":[77,86,78,80,84],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-6706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-characters","category-hacking-chinese-characters","tag-beginner","tag-chinese-characters","tag-intermediate","tag-self-study","tag-vocabulary","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chinese Characters for Animals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chinese Characters for Animals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learning Chinese characters can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the symbols. 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Origin These animal characters are among&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-18T10:25:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-20T09:01:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/fb-post-7.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"845\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"449\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Oksana Ermolaeva\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@digmandarin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@digmandarin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Oksana Ermolaeva\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html\",\"name\":\"Chinese Characters for Animals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/fb-post-7.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-18T10:25:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-20T09:01:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d398c21521cbf04e442c8d747314b61a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/fb-post-7.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/fb-post-7.png\",\"width\":845,\"height\":449},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Thematic Learning Approach &#8211; Chinese Characters about Animals\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d398c21521cbf04e442c8d747314b61a\",\"name\":\"Oksana Ermolaeva\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/sana1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/sana1.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Oksana Ermolaeva\"},\"description\":\"Oxana Ermolaeva is a freelance writer, editor and translator from Russia. She loves studying new languages and cultures. Her special interest is Chinese language.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/author\/oksanaermolaeva\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chinese Characters for Animals","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/chinese-characters-for-animals.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chinese Characters for Animals","og_description":"Learning Chinese characters can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the symbols. One effective approach is the topic-oriented characters learning method, which focuses on specific themes to make the process more efficient and engaging. This time, we continue our thematic learning with twelve characters representing animals! 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