Cracking the Chinese Puzzles

I feel compelled to mention a fantastic book I was fortunate enough to discover while watching Stu Jay Raj's videos on YouTube. This book is Cracking the Chinese Puzzles by T.K. Ann and comes in two editions: a hardcover, five-volume set and a much more portable, one-volume, softcover abridged version. I own the latter edition, and have been getting much use out of it, as can be seen by its fading title print and slightly tattered corners.

Essentially, the book teaches 漢字 in a systematic fashion, beginning first and foremost with the 部首 - the bushous - which form the components of characters and can be viewed to a certain extent as a kind of alphabet for Chinese. Mastering the bushous gives you a thorough headstart in developing actual literacy (especially if you are learning the traditional forms as I am), since you can often grasp the logic and ideology behind each character as it was created several odd millenia ago. For instance, consider 渴 kě "thirst", "thirsty". The lower, right-hand component is an ancient character, now obsolete, which meant "to take away". The top component is the character for "the sun". Combined with the left radical component, denoting water, it creates the concept of the sun removing (or drying up) water, leaving thirst.

Cracking the Chinese Puzzles is divided into 45 chapters and each treats a certain category of meaning or function, whether it be characters relating to water or time and as a result you develop mental links between the meanings and the characters co-components by learning a related set all at once. In addition, Ann also provides etymologies for most of the characters (I'm aware they are provided for all characters in the unabridged version). To give an example from chapter thirteen, "From Tears to Ocean" (pg. 146):

"Notice the difference in writing between 水 shuǐ 'water' and 永 yǒng 'eternity'. Early man had already perceived the eternity of water and its importance to life. The 'water' sign with a determining dot on top of it seals man's fate. The eternal vertical stroke is bent sidewise to receive the dot. Man longs for eternity which he can never attain and so the yearning lingers on forever."

All in all the book presents 5886 characters, 3650 of which are explained in the abridged version. My method for using this book has been to work my way through each chapter, while using a spaced repeition system (SRS) to deal with the memorization and retention of them.

One of the reasons I'm inclined to prefer this method over straight mnemonics such as those of James Heisig (Remembering the Traditional/Simplified Hanzi) is that Ann's book endeavours to explain the etymologies of the characters (which admittedly can, at times be questionable) and as a result you gain an insight into a mentality and thinking on a practical, everyday level as it was during the time when the characters were created that would otherwise be missed if you memorised them via silly story mnemonics or the like. Here's a paraphrased example from chapter fourteen, "Singletons (positionals)":

"The character 萬 wàn "ten thousand" was used to name "bees" which always turn out in their ten thousands. The top part of the character 艹 relates to grass or plants, the second component 田 tián “farm", "field" and the bottom component is an abbreviation of 虫 chóng "insects". If the character is to be interpreted as the pattern presents, "insects in grass and farm", the number is, of course, an innumerable one."

If you can get your hands of a copy of Cracking the Chinese Puzzles, I heartily recommend you do so, though as far as I know it is out-of-print, and copies that are still being sold brand new are not cheap (I paid about $90 NZ for mine through Abebooks.com).