Remembering Simplified Hanzi Errata in 1st & 2nd printings (October 2013).pdf

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Remembering Simplified Hanzi
Errata in 1st & 2nd printings (October 2013)
Lesson 5
That is about all we are going to do with the pieces we have
accumulated so far, but as we add each new primitive element to those we
already know, the number of characters we will be able to form will increase
by leaps and bounds. If you are not going through the corresponding lessons
of Book 2 just yet, you might be interested in knowing which additional char-
acters you would be able to learn with the primitive elements already in hand.
There are only 10 of them now, but the number will increase dramatically:
叭
1501
咕
1502
�½
1503
咱
1504
腫
1505
串
1506
嚇
1507
�½�
1508
獸 囂
1509
1510
Many of the stories you have learned in the previous lessons are actually
more complex than the majority you will learn in the later lessons. But they are
the
first
stories you have learned, and for that reason are not likely to cause you
much difficulty. By now, however, you may be wondering just how to go about
reviewing what you have learned. Obviously, it won’t do simply to flip through
the pages you have already studied, because the ordering of the characters pro-
vides too many hints. The best method for many people is to design a set of
flash cards that can be added to along the way.
If you have not already started doing this on your own, you might try it
this way: Buy heavy paper (about twice the thickness of normal index cards),
unlined and with a semigloss finish. Cut it into cards of about 9 cm. long and
6 cm. wide. On one side, make a large ball-pen drawing of one character in the
top two-thirds of the card. (Writing done with fountain pens and felt-tip pens
tends to smear with the sweat that comes from holding them in your hands for
a long time.) In the bottom right-hand corner, put the number of the frame in
which the character appeared. On the back side, in the upper left-hand corner,
write the key-word meaning of the character. Then draw a line across the mid-
dle of the card and another line about 2 cm. below it. The space between these
two lines can be used for
below
any notes you may need
later to remind you of the
primitive elements or sto-
ries you used to remem-
ber the character.
Only fill
this in when you need to,
but make a card for every
character
as soon as you
46
have learned it.
floor with magic
wand below
东
86 |
remembering simplified hanzi: book 1
塾 境
181
bury
When we
bury
something (or someone, for that matter), we
usually mean putting it under
ground.
Only here, we are
bury-
ing
our beloved
computer
that has served us so well these past
years. Behind us a choir chants the “Dies irae, dies illa” and
there is much wailing and grief among the bystanders as they
pass by to shovel a little
dirt
into what will be its final resting
place. R.I.P. [10]
埋
墅 墓
Before going any further, we might pause a moment to look at precisely where
the primitive elements were placed in the character of the last frame: the
ground
to the left and the
computer
to the right. Neither of these is an absolutely fixed
position. The character for
spit
吐
(frame 163), for instance, puts
ground
on the
right, and that for
wild
野
(frame
1008)
will put the
computer
on the left. While
there is no reason to bother memorizing any “rules,” a quick glance through a
few general guidelines may help. Use them if they help; if not, simply adjust the
story for a problem character in such a way as to help you remember the posi-
tion of the elements relative to one another.
In any case, here are the guidelines that follow from the characters treated
up to this point:
1. Many characters used regularly as primitives have a “strong” position or
two from which they are able to give a basic “flavor” to the character. For
example,
ground
at the left (or bottom) usually indicates something to do
with earth, soil, land, and the like;
fire
at the bottom in the form of the four
dots, or at the left in its compressed character form, usually tells us we
have to do with heat, passion, and the like; a
mouth
at the left commonly
signifies something to do with eating, coughing, spitting, snoring, scream-
ing, and so forth. Where these elements appear elsewhere in the charac-
ters, they do not, as a rule, have the same overall impact on its meaning.
2. Some primitive elements always have the same position in a character.
We saw this earlier in the case of the primitive meaning three drops of
water
ф
(page 71).
3. Enclosures like
cliff
厂
(page 66) and
bound up
勹
(page 39) are always set
98 |
remembering simplified hanzi: book 1
嫩 嫺
217
foam
The
foam
this character refers to is the
last
stage of
water
after it
has dashed and splashed against the rocks, spraying in all direc-
tions. The
foam
is thus a wave that has run its full course and
reached its
last
on the rocky seashore. If you picture it in your
mind’s eye, this somewhat rare (but oh-so-easy-to-learn) char-
acter is yours for good. [8]
沫
嫻 嬉
218
flavor
(n.)
When a tree has
not yet
finished growing, it produces fruit with
a full
flavor.
When the official taster (the professional
mouth
to
the left) determines that full
flavor
has been reached, the tree
is pruned back so that it remains permanently
not yet
grown. A
neat little agricultural trick and an easy way to see the sense of
flavor
hidden in this character. [8]
味
嬋 嬌
219
younger sister
The
younger sister
in the family is the
woman
in the family
who, like the newest branch in a tree, is
not yet
old enough or
mature enough to do everything the older sister can do (see
frame
1344).
[8]
妹
嬖 嬢
220
investigate
To
investigate
is to get to the bottom of something or track
something down, which often has you working all through the
night, right to
daybreak.
In the case of this character, it is Sir
Isaac Newton, who is
investigating
the laws of physics when
the appearance of the sun at
daybreak
prompts the
tree
to
stretch and welcome a new day. At that, an apple drops from its
查
130 |
remembering simplified hanzi: book 1
295
escape
(v.)
The thing about a
portent
is that it points to what lies ahead as
inevitable, like something at the end of a one-lane, one-direc-
tional
road.
You can run, but you can’t
escape
it. [9]
逃
蕎 蕕
296
patrol
(v.)
The motorcycle police, exercising their duty to
patrol
the high-
ways, are pictured in this character as a virtual
flood
washing
down a
road.
[6]
巡
蕗 蕘
297
choose
”Two
roads
diverged in a yellow wood,” begins “The
Road
Less
Travelled,” the famous poem by Robert Frost that talks about
having to
choose
one’s path in life. The elements
before
and
road
should be more than enough to make the connections. [9]
選
�½
298
modest
The
grandchild
we see on the
road
here is taking grandma for
a ride in his little red wagon, a rather more
modest
means of
transportation than the Rolls Royce grandma is used to. [9]
遜
299
stroll
A
crazy
person decides to
stroll
down the middle of a very busy
road
during rush hour. [10]
逛
蕚 蕣

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