Chinese characters are an important symbol and carrier of Chinese civilization. The inheritance and dissemination of Chinese characters are the two wings of Chinese culture. In addition to the past handed down and unearthed documents, the study of Chinese characters in the new era has entered the cross-cultural field. The study of cross-cultural Chinese characters has become a new trend in the study of Chinese characters, that is, using cross-cultural methods to study Chinese characters and Research on Chinese characters in a cross-cultural environment. The current cross-cultural Chinese character research has made many achievements in the history of Chinese character transmission, the collation of foreign Chinese books and Chinese character materials, and the comparison of crosscultural Chinese characters. The foreign Chinese books and Chinese character materials produced by Chinese characters in a cross-cultural environment show the distinctive characteristics of Chinese characters under the influence of different cultural factors.

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.

For a long time, Chinese characters have been considered merely as a tool for recording the spoken language. However, in certain contexts, Chinese characters can also convey trans-glossematic information, e.g. information incompatible with the character that is used to record its glosseme can be conveyed by some component of the character or simply by the form of the character; information that is not within the semantic category of the corresponding glosseme can be conveyed by an altered character. In fact, Chinese characters, consisting of a set of plane symbols, function as a self-contained whole, which work well with the Chinese language and keep their own features at the same time. Because of this trans-glossematic communication function, Chinese characters are not a mere copy of the Chinese language. On the contrary, they can convey messages on their own when needed. This trans-glossematic function is determined by the origin and structural features of Chinese characters. In the very beginning, the lack of correspondence between characters and glossemes, as well as the principle of representing an object by a character form that resembles it, influenced the way people understood and used the characters. The structural feature of Chinese characters, i.e. the planar composition of the characters, has rendered the alternation of characters and the separation of components possible. Therefore, there are a diversity of ways to express meaning with Chinese characters: by using just the form of a character, piecing or separating components, re-analyzing characters, adding or reducing strokes, moving strokes, or altering character forms. Expression through the use of character forms and structures is a special rhetorical device. Here we call it the rhetoric of Chinese characters.

“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）.