Shape analysis ought to be emphasized in the teaching of Chinese characters. The primary methods to analyze the form of Chinese characters are incarnated in ShuoWenJieZi includeing analysis on component function, analysis on form variation and analysis on isomorphic part, all of which afford us as references that merit academic attention in modern teaching of Chinese characters. The paper introduces the method of structure analysis from ShuoWenJieZi, focusing on how to draw lessons from these approaches in the teaching of Chinese characters and illustrating key points in practical application as well as effects that may achieve.
Fenbiewenand Leizengziare two kinds of complex phenomenon ofChinese character which were coming from WangYun's research on Chongwen,both ofthem were from the point of view of character creation,they are different fromGujinzi,the term of contacting the usage of characters in ancient bibliography.Fenbiewen, LeizengZiand GujinZiare heterogeneous concepts due to theirdifferent academic backgrounds and research purposes.Beacuse of different pointof view,they have intersection of materials,so WangYun occasionally use Fenbiewenor Leizengzito explain those Jinziof Gujinziis in order to explain the causeof Jinzi,but doesn't mean he changed the historical definitions of Gujinzi. XuHaois the origin of the Gujinzidistortion,the different usage of a word in differentages' documents had been paralleled by XuHao with the terms like FenbiewenandLiezengzi,and then he inclined to tell that Gujinzimeans the phenomenon thatcharacters creation with the radicals increasing,so later misled people becomesto believe Gujinzimeans the phenomenon that characters creation with the radicalsincreasing just like Fenbiewenand Leizengzi,then they usually believe this isWangYun'sGujinziconcept but in fact this is not true.
“Liushu(六书)” is a general term for the whole knowledge of an course about Chinese character in elementary education,which contains the source of pattern,reasons and rules of structure,relationship between different characters in a Chinese character cluster,and rules of using these characters to record Chinese language,etc. Based on all those knowledge,the teaching system of Chinese character but not a single style system has been found. In the past long time,the have been misunderstanding that “Liushu”(六书) represented six ways of character-maken,or six styles of character structure. The misunderstanding did not conform to initial fact of “Liushu”(六书). In academic history of science of Chinese character,the study of “Liushu”(六书) came into being. But the study cannot be equated with “Liushu”(六书) itself. Because of misunderstanding,the study goes out of the scope of teaching. As a matter of fact,the selected points of knowledge and terms about “Liushu”(六书) are appropriate for elementary education requirement,its main value is in teaching,but not theorizing. If we want to correct mistakes in modern reading education,a possible solution may be to pick up “Liushu”(六书).