Mr. Wayne Walter used this system and
gave a fair review. The following is quoted from his review, posted on a discussion forum.
“FYI, I purchased the book [Chinese Etymology] and agree
with Volapuk49 with one additional information...
Volupuk49 said, "I suspect that
the author is on to something valuable but unfortunately, at this point in my
studies, I am not willing to make the effort to decipher ... "
Now that I have the book, I have taken
some time to figure out what is valuable.
After discussing with several native
Chinese, they agree the information is valuable in the following way:
Most Chinese recognize characters are
composed of different other roots which often are standalone characters of
which the meaning is commonly understood.
However, many characters have
ideographic symbols included in them which, while repeated in other characters,
never exist as standalone and the meaning has been lost to the average (even
well educated) Chinese person.
Additionally, many symbols that exist
as standalone characters and form parts of other characters had their meaning
change over time so that the meaning is very different when included inside
another character.
Note: My earlier post was incorrect in
that the professor never said that all characters contain sounds. But he does
include sound.
What the professor, (through email
correspondence), has convinced us that he can do is really tell how the meaning
and writing of a character evolved to what it is today. …
What he successfully accomplished
while personally teaching students in class is enough "critical mass"
of understanding of etymology and the evolution of characters so that students
can "decode" the meaning of new characters they never saw before.
How is this useful to me....
I personally want to know all the
symbols individually that can construct any characters. His list of 220 symbols
has been proven to cover EVERY single character that exists.
In other words, once you learn the
220, you'll never see a character that looks completely foreign.
Plus, with some practice, (and support
from Dr. Gong) you can get the "hang of" decoding characters based on
these.
It seems, personally, that reading
about ancient Chinese culture and habits helps a great deal to decode
characters. …
Additionally, learning the roots that
related to Chi, (energy) like blocked Chi, unblock Chi, week Chi, etc. unlocks
greater meaning from characters.
I'm personally creating a much more
approachable beginners guide to how this all works. I have proposed to
Professor Gong to collaborate. FYI, I'm a trained language teacher and speak and
teach French and Spanish as well as my native English. …
Hey, would anyone else would like to
join in this effort? If so, I can give
you an outline of how I will approach it to make it easy and useful. And I
would love ideas, input and feedback.
I will follow a style like the book
Reading and Writing Chinese but with some major differences and an emphasis on
teaching the roots primarily with enough examples and etymology so the beginner
gets immediate satisfaction with understanding the compositions of popular
characters.”
The original discussion about this
review is available at http://www.chineselanguageforums.com/post1575.html#p1575
