1000 Chinese foundation characters. Book 1 (250 characters) [PDF]

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TRINifY C011EG



UBRAR..Y



M.OOR.E COLLECTION RELATING



TO THE



FA~



EAST



i



1000 CHINESE FOUNDATION CHARACTERS



BY Y. C. JAMES YEN and DANIEL C. FU



ROMANIZATION, TRANSLATION and



VOCABULARY BY WILLIAM C. WffiTE



BOOK 1 (250 Characters)



School of Chinese Studies University of Toronto 100 Queen's Park 1944



FOREWORD These "Thousand Foundation Characters"are those selected and used by Dr.Y.C.James Yen, the founder and national director of the Mass Educational Movement in China. Many millions of China's illiterates have learned to read by the use of. these primers, and they have been found remarkably useful in enabling westerners to acquire a knowledge of written Chinese. The lessons are in very good ~-~,so they ~re also most suitable for those desiring knowledge of the spoken language. Chinese characters are essentially basic, each character being a word, and each word being monosyllabic. Sometimes two charaote~s are used together,to express an idea which either character alone might not do so well. They are oftentimes pictogr~ phic,especially in their archaic forms, and the more complex characters are usually ideographic. In Chinese dictionaries the characters are invariably indexed under the 214 Radicals,which are arranged according to the number of strokes required to write them. The arrangement of characters under these radicals is also according to number of writing strokes,but not counting the radical strokes. The characters in Chinese literature are usually arranged in vertical columns,and are read from top to bottom beginning from the right. Apart from its form,whioh includes its indexing radical, each character has its meaning,its sound,its tone number,and its syntactic usage.



F·o r the convenience of westerners,sounds of the ahinese characters are expressed by the English alphabet in what is known as Romanization. There are many systems of Romanization,but no one has been found adequately to cover the various and varying sounds of the Chinese language, and a.ll have serious limitations to universal or common use. The system used in these lessons is that known as Wade's Romanization,and is that invariably used in dictionaries,and in diplomatic and commercial usage. While it m9\Y' appear to be a system o! inept phonetic spellings of Chinese words,yet by use and familiarity it is found to be a very useful and workable system. The following are some of the more important sound values of the English letters in this system: Vowels as J.n father; e as in fed, and e as u in us; .,.1a as long e,and also as i in with,and When standing a'!one m~ be wr!tten rl· .2 as in moan,!! as in rule;U as .g,2• and when sta.nding--arQne mB\Y' be written z!!;~ as in nut. Consonants l as ! in !:!!!H!£' as ~,and ~ approximates s; E' as ~,and E approximates b;t' as t,and t approximates d. - :£h' is .Ql: as in-church;.£!! i s J. as in jam; ts' as in seats;!! approximates ~ sound; tz' is tz;tz approximates dz. Diphthongs !4. as in aisle;~ as .2!! in !!.2:!'!;!! as in deign;iu as ,!!! in ~;s as in ..!2!!!•



-----



-



-



--



-



(Oontinued on last leaf of this book)



LESSON l



1i A.



gg A.



-t



--- --



-A.



A.



A.



/\.



J/'\



_:f.



~



~



W1 .:f



.f.



•



'



'



'



'



--



Yi j en erh shou, erh j en szu shou, san jen liu ehou,szu jen pa shou, wu j en shih ehou.



A man (has) two hands, two men(have) four hands,three men(have)six hands, f'our men(have) eight hands,five men (have)ten hands.



l



VOCABULARY



• •



YI(i)



... • ._



1



one,a



us



216/l 2



~



Am:



-



~



person



226/9



4



three



Lro4 six



~PA'



ERH4



~



two



373/12 SHOU



3



.1i.



hand



458/64



eigh~



wua five



607/7



s.zU4



P.S



1



315/12



125/7



4-



sAN



428/l. A



a



1



+



four



481/~1



450/24



2



SHIH 2 ten, complete



VOCABULARY



ttb



HSI 1 west, foreign



IL



KUA 1



melon



CH 1 I



1



nine,deep KUNGa.4



altogether, to give;bow



/.~



A



1



KUNG



public,just; duke;male



277/12



Ko 4



~~ rilfl



':7J



individual.; classifier



I



_.



134 18



251/9



A



~



seven



37/1



1~



3



279/12



263/97



~



CHIU



84/5



158/146



Jt~



2



w• also,and, again



334/80



639/29



3



to divide, distinguish; office,share



YEI 3 each,every



LESSON



4q:



--



A A



2



x x



#



-+-



~



JL



/\. ~ /\. /j} '01 11M 1m] -t



1lm 4 1@ •



'



'



'



·•



1lM '



Hsi-kua ch'i-ko,yu pa-ko,yu chiu-ko, kung erh-shih-szu ko.



San jen kung fen,mei jen pa-ko. (There were)water-melons seven pieces, also eight pieces,also nine pieces, (making)altogether twenty-four pieces. Three men evenlY divided{them),eaoh man obtaining eight pieces.



4



LESSON



ts tzJ1 x 11 1Im $ W- $ ll-1 1l ' ~



M



7Jare



573/41



399/Sl.



J.



reply; a pair



~~



1JP



... 4



CHE



ra



this,here



24/162



" b



,-~ _,~...,



· 42/19



PIElf



w



408/162



J



si~e,margin,



edge; I>lace



43



3



PI



1



CHIA



to add to '



LESSON



22



)!J;bJk~~itMm



iJl:t tit



~



if if



1mi



{T ~t



jft



' L 1T a9 tzk - -



~f _t



~



{£



•



ffi1



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:r. '



•



'



Liang ko t'ieh-kung,chan teai tui-mien ta-t' ieh. Che-pien ta yi-heia,na-pien ta yi-heia. Huo hua luan fang ,pi ehu-shang-ti hung hua,keng chia hao k' an. There were tvto blacksmi the, standing opposite each other beating the iron. This side struck a blow, that aide struck a blow. The fiery flowers buret in wild confusion, ( and)compared to the red flowers of the tree,they were still more beautiful to see.



44



L E



s s



0



lT 23



Fu-mu-eh'in ta-jen: Erh ch'ien-t'ien tao hsiieh-t'ang, yi-lu p'ing-an. Chin-t'ien shang-k'o~ hsien-sheng hen ho-ch'i,t'ung hsuenmen yen hen hao,hsin-11 fei-ch'ang k'uai-huo. Wang erh-wei ta-jen, hao-hao pao-yang wei-yao. Erh,Ho-chung shang. Erh-yi!eh erh-jih Dear parents,-great persons: Your son the d~ before yesterd~ arrived at school,and the journey was peaceful. Tod~ I started lessona,the teacher is of friendly dispositlon,and my classmates also are very fine, so rrry heart is unusually cheerful. I hope you two great persona will very carefully look after yourselvea,for tlrla is important. Your son,Ho-chung,sends this up. The 2nd.month,the 2nd.d~. 45



VOCABULARY



~'



X.



Jt 77/147



FU4



seat; a post; c.of persons



father



599/9 CH'IN



1



to guard, protect



to love,



relative, self



386/9



~



_AJma



.,lJ..



bee.r;support 615/184



~ P'ING ~ - tranquil, 2



WEI



415/51



596/87 AN



d&



I



quiet,rest; still



w.ANG



YAO



4



~ to wentJwill; important 618/146



3/40



.-l:lJ



2,4



to do;be;make; cause



even



~



3



YANG



~.... to nourish;



mother



350/80



h



4



WEI



143/88



~



23



4



~ to look at; expect 595/74



46



VOCABULARY



A



wu



2



~



~no,not 606/86



1fi /



pri·ce,value



bitter, wee:ry



PAD



womb,mother



~~



3



2



SHIH



/J



precious



knowledge; experience



451/149



CHm



few,seldom, wanting



wisdom, knowledge



65/111 3



Cif'ING



to permit,



253/30



30'7/61



3



invi:te, please



m~,can



•t,



1



SH.AO a,t



~ K'O(k'8)



~_jt



1



389/130



440/42



-..J



3



R~ P'AD



4



CHIA



387/40



,b



K'U



262/140



-13/9



•f



24



83/149 LIEN



2



to pity



••



J!j& '~~



to desireJ Willing, a VOW



652/181 4'7



4



YUAN



LESSON



~f



24



ti !l1ifi.K



~~ ~~



~~ ~ l~ ~- ~~ iiJr ~ ~-~~f ~ 1fu ~ ' fft M' ·M- ~tr: :g= {£~ ~if I ;f. flJ ~ Sf. 11 ~f ~f ~g :9 t



-:l~



?



*



w



•



'



•



-



•



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Tu-shu hao,tu-shu hao,



Tu-te shu to wu chia pao. Yuan tu shu, tsai ni en shao. K'o-lien to-shao k'u t'ung-p'ao, Wu-shih wu-chih mang tao lao. Ch' ing wen tu shu hao pu hao? Rao! Hao! Haol To read is good,to read is good, To read much ·is a priceless thing. We should went to read while young. Alas,so m~ distressed brothers, Toil in ignorance until old age, I ask you is it good or not to read? Good~ Goodt Goodl



48



(Continued from first leaf of tbds book) There are only some 420 Romanized words required to cover all the sounds of ahinese characters,so that where many different characters have the same sound,it would be impossible by the Romanization alone, to know which particular character was intended,unless that character was in sight. This difficulty is met to some extent by the tonal system. The Mandarin dialect ,which is the basis for the Kuo-~ or National Language ,has four tonei;aiiCI each ahinese character carries one of these four tones,and in same cases more than one,when a different meaning or use is indicated. The respective tones for the characters are the same all over ahina wherever the Mandarin language is spoken,but different localities give different intonations to the tones. These differences are rapidly disa.ppearing,due to the spread of the National Language,which is producing a more universal standard of pronunciation,intonation,and syntactical usage,and bids fair to absorb the various dialects and brogues of the country. Chinese grammar ,when compared With that of Western cognate languages,is conspicuous by its simplicity and its elasticity. The requirements of grammar are met chiefly by means of a definite word order,and also by a few much used auxiliary words. Syntactic and idiomatic use of words, rather than fixed grammatical rules,are essentials for logical and accurate expression of ideas in the Chinese language.



The student is recommende~ to obtain a co:py of C.H.Fenn's "Chinese-English Pocket-Dictiona.ry",and endeavour s:peedily to acquire facilfty in its use. This dictionar.y gives various tables essential to the study of Chinese,including the list of the 214 Radicals. The vocabulary of each lesson given in these texts contains the new characters first met with in the :particular lesson. Under each character in the vocabularies a double number is given,the first :part of which is the :page in Fenn's dictionary where the character m9\V be found,and the second part of the number is the Radical number under which the character is indexed. The strokes used to form each character are always written in a :particular order and the student should learn the sequence and follow the order in counting the strokes in a character,or in writing them. These texts do not show the order of strokes,but the student m~ obtain these from copy-books which are obtainable,and could readily insert the stroke numbers on the large characters given in the vocabularies.