An Illustrated Account of Common Chinese Characters (Second Edition)

An Illustrated Account of Common Chinese Characters gives a detailed description of the origin and evolution of 651 commonly used Chinese characters, especially the original meaning and development of these characters, and gives the evolutionary process of the glyphs from oracle bone inscriptions to modern Chinese characters. Each Chinese character is provided with a diagram showing the original meaning of the character, which is convenient for readers to understand the evolution and current meaning of the Chinese character.

This book is for popular reading, but the explanation of the source of characters emphasizes the theories of philology, which not only has a certain value of philological research, but also facilitates general readers to scientifically understand the origin and evolution of Chinese characters. It is an essential guide for anyone interested in the history and meaning behind these iconic characters.

Xie Guanghui is a renowned professor in the Fine Arts Department of the Art College of Jinan University. In 1985, he graduated from the Department of Anthropology, Sun Yat-sen University with a Bachelor’ s Degree in History. In 1988, he graduated from the Chinese Department of Sun Yat-sen University with a Master’ s Degree in Chinese Language and Literature. He has written many famous monographs, such as The Great Dictionary of Zhouyi, An Illustrated Account of Common Chinese Characters, Selected Notes on the Works of China’ s Top Ten Prose Masters (Volumes 1 and 2), Chinese Character Source Dictionary, Illustrated Chinese Characters, Le Shizhai Book, The Second Edition of Le Shizhai Book and Printing, and other works.