There are two opinions in academia: one opinion realizes Chinese Character as a shape, or a concrete image in one’s mind. But another realizes Chinese Character as the symbol of language. The two character’s ideologies both have their own applicability and boundedness. They are the results under certain historical conditions, so they can’t satisfy the modern people’s needs of recognitions of character. Therefore, we should define the research objects, stand in the position of semiology, use dialectical materialism and historical materialism and modern scientific methodology, to reexamine Chinese Character, and will find that, Chinese Character is the results which combine the graphic/visual symbol with voice/auditory symbol. It is graphic symbol presenting a certain voice and meaning.

One opinion of traditional Chinese Philology is that Character is a shape, or a concrete image in one’s mind. But in modern Chinese linguistics and Philology quoted from linguistics in Europe and America, character is considered as the symbol of language. The same of these two ideologies is that character is seemed as a symbol. But the difference is that character equals meaning in the former one, on the contrary the latter considers character equals language. In the former theory, they are the same status between character and language, but in the latter theory, character is seemed as the dependency of language. This difference was originated from different research objects, different standing, and different theoretical basis.