The widely accepted understanding that a Chinese character has three factors, i.e., form, sound and meaning, takes sound and meaning into the account of the Chinese Graphology; this has too broad a scope. On the other hand, the view that “Chinese Graphology is in essence the study of the graphic shape” is too narrow. From my observation, Chinese characters have three properties of their own: shape, constitution and function. To start from here may in necessity attain three branches of it, that is, the study of Chinese graphic constitution and the study of Chinese graphic functions, each forming a system of its own. These three systems do not stand in parallel, nor in layers, but three independent and not severed planes of the noumenon of Chinese characters. In other words, they constitute what the Chinese Graphology should concern. This may be termed “the Three-Plane Theory of Chinese Graphology”. A dozen years of researches of ours have proved that this theory, and the study of Chinese graphic function in particular, have both important theoretical and wide-reaching practical values.

• Yunfu LI(Yunfu LI Professor, School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University. Main research: The Chinese Philology)