Six ways of forming Chinese characters in the seal script

(c) Youxuan Wang 2011

Xu Shen’s theory of the six ways of
forming Chinese characters in the seal script: a semiotic approach


Youxuan Wang
2011-11-01

For Xu Shen (許慎， c.58-c.147 CE), the most distinguished Confucian scholar
during the East Han dynasty, a proper understanding of a Chinese word encountered
in the Confucian classics consists in the ability to analyse the character into its basic
component radicals. In his Shuowen Jiezi 《說文解字》, the first dictionary of the
Chinese language ever compiled in the history of Chinese linguistics, he breaks each
character into its composing radicals and traces the configuration of the radicals to
their earlier form in the seal script, or zhuanshu 篆書. Only when he is satisfied with
his analysis of the radicals does he start to explain the etymology and denotation of
the word in question. Thus, this oldest dictionary remains the richest source of
information on Chinese morphology and etymology.

1. The distinction of wen and zi

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