部首和偏旁
Radicals and components

看这三个字：河、洗、海。三个字的意思不一样，可是左边完全一样，都是三个点儿——这一块叫三点水，跟水有关系：河里有水，洗手要用水，海是很大的水。再看这四个字：妈、姐、妹、她，左边也一样，都是一个“女”。所以，认汉字的时候不要把一个字看成一整块，要先看出它是哪几块合起来的。看出来了，要记的东西一下子就少了很多。

Look at 河, 洗, 海. Three different meanings, but the left-hand side is identical in all three: three dots. That block is called 三点水, the three-dots water, and it has to do with water — a 河 is a river, 洗 is washing, a 海 is a very large body of water. Now look at 妈, 姐, 妹, 她: the same left side again, a 女. So when you meet a character, do not treat it as one solid lump. Ask which blocks it is made of. Once you can see the blocks, the amount you have to memorise collapses.

能拆开的汉字，拆出来的每一块都叫偏旁。“好”是“女”加“子”，“明”是“日”加“月”，“妈”是“女”加“马”，“校”是“木”加“交”。“偏”本来指左边，“旁”本来指右边；今天“偏旁”合起来指字的任何一块，不管它在左、在右、在上还是在下。有的字拆不开，像“一、人、木、水”，它们本身就是一块。

Any character that comes apart, comes apart into 偏旁. 好 is 女 plus 子; 明 is 日 plus 月; 妈 is 女 plus 马; 校 is 木 plus 交. Historically 偏 meant the left-hand part and 旁 the right-hand part, but today 偏旁 together simply means any component of a character, wherever it sits — left, right, top or bottom. Some characters do not come apart at all: 一, 人, 木, 水 are each a single block.

词典里查汉字，不能一个一个地翻，得有个办法分类。这个办法就是部首：词典先立两百来个部，每个部用一个偏旁做标记，然后把所有的字分到各个部里去。“妈”放在“女”部，不放在“马”部；“河”放在“水”部，也就是三点水；“校”放在“木”部。所以两个词的关系是：偏旁是字的任何一块，部首是词典挑出来给这个字分类的那一块。一个字只有一个部首。

You cannot look a character up by leafing through page after page, so dictionaries need a filing system, and 部首 is that system. A dictionary sets up about two hundred 部, sections, each labelled by one component, and drops every character into exactly one of them. 妈 goes into the 女 section, not the 马 section. 河 goes into the 水 section, which is what 三点水 belongs to. 校 goes into the 木 section. So the two words differ like this: a 偏旁 is any block of a character, while the 部首 is the one block the dictionary picks to file it under — and a character has exactly one.

常用的部首不多，先记住六个就够用了。三点水跟水有关——河、海、洗、汉；木字旁跟树木有关——校、林、板；女字旁跟女性有关——妈、姐、妹、她、好；口字旁跟嘴有关——吃、喝、叫、吗；言字旁跟说话有关——说、请、谢、话、语；单人旁跟人有关——你、他、们、住。碰到不认识的字，先看它的部首，你至少能猜出它跟什么有关系。

There are not many components you need at first — six will carry you a long way. 三点水 has to do with water: 河, 海, 洗, 汉. 木字旁 with trees and wood: 校, 林, 板. 女字旁 with women: 妈, 姐, 妹, 她, 好. 口字旁 with the mouth: 吃, 喝, 叫, 吗. 言字旁 with speech: 说, 请, 谢, 话, 语. 单人旁 with people: 你, 他, 们, 住. When a character you do not know turns up, read its component first: it will not tell you the pronunciation, but it will usually tell you the field of meaning.

拿出你学过的二十个汉字，用部首把它们分成几堆：三点水一堆，女字旁一堆，言字旁一堆，剩下的放在一边。分完你会发现两件事：很多字其实是老朋友的新组合；同一堆里的字，意思也常常挨得很近。下一课我们去看看，两千年前是谁第一个这样分的。

Write out twenty characters you already know and sort them into piles by component: a water pile, a woman pile, a speech pile, and everything else to one side. Two things will strike you. Most characters turn out to be new combinations of old friends, and the characters in one pile usually sit close together in meaning too. In the next lesson you meet the man who sorted them this way first, nearly two thousand years ago.