The building blocks of Chinese characters are elements called radicals (部首 bùshǒu). Radicals are used as a classification system for Chinese dictionaries. They range in complexity from one stroke to seventeen strokes.
History of Chinese Radicals
The earliest forms of Chinese characters were pictographs representing objects. As the written language became more complex and the rules for forming characters became set, a classification system was developed.
The earliest Chinese dictionary categorized characters according to 540 radicals. By 1615, this number of radicals had been reduced to 214, which is the system still used today for traditional characters (used in Taiwan and Hong Kong).
Mainland China developed simplified characters in the 1950's, and this required a revision of the radicals. There were three systems developed which used 227, 187, and 155 radicals respectively.
Using Radicals
As elements of Chinese characters, radicals are useful when learning how to write Chinese. Once the student knows all of the radicals, he or she can produce any Chinese character, no matter how complex.
Radicals are also used for looking up characters in dictionaries. Traditionally this was the only method used for classifying dictionary entries, but many modern dictionaries supplemtent radical tables with other systems such as phonetics and stroke count.
For dictionary entries, the radical is considered to be the most important element of the character. It is sometimes difficult to determine which is the radical, since it may appear at any position of the character.
Radical Variations
Some radicals have alternate forms when they are used as part of a character. For example, the character for person 人 becomes 亻 when it appears on the left side of a character. Note that 人 is both a radical and an independent character, but 亻 is always used in integration with another character.
Using a Dictionary
Chinese dictionaries usually have radical tables that list the starting page for radical sections. Each of these radical sections are subdivided according to the number of strokes of the non-radical portion of the character.
For example, if we want to find 派, we first need to know its radical. In this case, the radical is 氵, and the number of remaining strokes is six. We first look up the radical in the radical table which will tell us the page number for that radical. We then find the "six" section of that radical, and find the character. If we can't find the character, we must try again using a different radical.
The radicals are not always apparent, so some dictionaries list characters under more than one radical. This makes it easier to locate a character by using any radical within it.
