The Six Writings (六書): How Chinese Characters Were Created
The traditional six categories of Chinese character formation, from pictographs to phono-semantic compounds, with examples and real statistics on how common each is.
Key takeaways
- The Six Writings (六書) were described by Xu Shen in the Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字), around 100 CE.
- Four are ways of creating characters: pictographs 象形, indicatives 指事, ideographic compounds 會意, phono-semantic compounds 形聲. Two are ways of using them: transfer 轉注 and loans 假借.
- Phono-semantic compounds are the large majority. In the Make Me a Hanzi analysis of about 9,500 common characters, roughly 73% are classed as phono-semantic.
1. Pictographs (象形)
Pictographs began as drawings of objects. Over three thousand years of script changes they became stylised, but many are still recognisable:
- 日 the sun, 月 a crescent moon, 山 mountain peaks
- 木 a tree, 人 a person, 口 an open mouth
- 馬 a horse, 鳥 a bird
Pictographs are few, only a few hundred in the whole script, but they supply the building blocks for everything else.
2. Indicatives (指事)
Indicatives use abstract marks, sometimes added to a pictograph, to point at an idea:
- 上 above and 下 below: a mark over or under a line
- 本 root: a stroke marking the base of 木
- 末 tip: a stroke marking the top of 木
- 刃 blade: a dot marking the edge of 刀
- 一, 二, 三: counting strokes
3. Ideographic compounds (會意)
Two or more meaningful parts combine into a new meaning:
- 休 rest: a person 亻 leaning against a tree 木
- 明 bright: sun 日 and moon 月
- 林 woods and 森 forest: two and three trees
- 好 good: woman 女 and child 子
4. Phono-semantic compounds (形聲)
One part gives the meaning category (形旁) and the other gives the sound (聲旁). This method is so productive that it created most characters:
| Character | Meaning part | Sound part |
|---|---|---|
| 江 river | 氵 water | 工 |
| 河 river | 氵 water | 可 |
| 媽 mother | 女 woman | 馬 |
| 問 ask | 口 mouth | 門 |
| 想 think | 心 heart | 相 |
Sound changes over the centuries mean the sound part is often only an approximate hint today, but in Cantonese and Mandarin many still match closely, as with 媽 and 馬.
5. Transfer (轉注) and 6. Loans (假借)
These describe how characters are used rather than built. Loans (假借) borrow an existing character for a word that sounds the same: 來, originally a picture of wheat, was borrowed for “come”. Transfer (轉注) is the least clearly defined category; it is usually explained as characters with related meanings that share a radical and sound, such as 考 and 老, which gloss each other in the Shuowen.
Why it matters for learners
Knowing the Six Writings turns memorisation into pattern recognition. When you meet a new character like 湖, you can recognise 氵 (water, meaning) plus 胡 (sound) instead of memorising ten strokes. It is also why radicals are so useful. Every character page on this site shows its formation type and components where known.
Frequently asked questions
Which of the six categories is most common?
Phono-semantic compounds (形聲) by far. They are the large majority of characters in use today.
Who wrote about the Six Writings?
The categories were systematised by Xu Shen (許慎) in the Shuowen Jiezi around 100 CE, the first comprehensive Chinese character dictionary.
Are all Chinese characters pictures?
No. Pictographs are a small minority; most characters combine a meaning component with a sound component.
Related guides
Radicals (部首) explained
What radicals are, how the 214 Kangxi radicals organise every dictionary, the variant forms they take, and how radicals differ from Cangjie’s 24 keys.
Character structure
The structural patterns Chinese characters are built from, how common each one is, and how to proportion each type neatly when writing.
History of Cangjie
From the legendary inventor of writing to Chu Bong-Foo’s 1976 input method, and how Cangjie became part of every computer and phone used in Hong Kong.
Traditional vs Simplified
Where Simplified characters came from, the six main ways characters were simplified, who uses each script, and the one-to-many traps that break automatic conversion.