The Study Of Chinese Characters Of The Westerners Who Came To China In The Late Qing Dynasty

In 1807,Robert Morrison came to China,raising the curtain on the learning and researching of the Chinese language among the Westerners who came to China in the late Qing Dynasty.Then,many missionaries,diplomats and businessmen entered China and actively began studying Chinese for different purposes.Chinese characters,being numerous and particularly difficult to learn,became the most troublesome part.Hence they published many academic articles in order to share their methods and experiences in teaching and researching Chinese characters on The Chinese Repository(1832-1851)and The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal(1868-1941),which were the two influential newspapers at that time.These articles,being written over a long time span by a wide range of authors,reflected the overall trend in the learning and researching of Chinese characters by the Westerners,being full of literature value and academic significance.Therefore,this paper is intended to take these two influential newspapers as an example,especially focusing on the research articles on Chinese character,to explore the research status and summarize the research rules and characteristics on Chinese characters by the Westerners at that time.The ultimate goal is to provide reference for the study of Chinese characters today.The first Chapter: Introduction.The chapter explains the reasons behind writing this paper as well as the research object,the research status and the research plans.This paper mainly focuses on research articles on Chinese characters in the two newspapers described above,to explore the research status on Chinese characters by the westerners coming to China in the late Qing Dynasty in order to provide a reference point for today's research.The research status includes the following two aspects: the research status on Chinese characters by the Westerners living in the late Qing Dynasty and the research status on these two newspapers.The research plans mainly include the research goals and methods used in the paper.The second chapter: the understanding of Chinese characters for the Westerners who came to China in the late Qing Dynasty.This chapter mainly analyzes the general understanding of Chinese characters from the origin,variants,six styles of writing,etc,and also analyzes the understanding of the internal structure of Chinese characters from the strokes,radicals,characters,six writings.In addition,this chapter also includes the understanding of individual characters and the introduction of ancient Chinese character books.The third chapter: the exploration of the learning and teaching Chinese characters by the Westerners who came to China in the late Qing Dynasty.The chapter mainly analyzes the background of teaching Chinese characters and explores the characteristics of learning Chinese characters and the enlightenment we can get for today's researching,from the following three aspects: the learning of radicals,the learning of forms,pronunciation and meanings,and the principles of choosing Chinese characters.In addition,the chapter also analyzes the characteristics of the learning Chinese characters and the enlightenment,from the following two aspects: multistage teaching and Chinese characters teaching in schools.The fourth chapter: the extensive application of Chinese characters by the Westerners coming to China in the Late Qing Dynasty,such as creating the Chinese Braille system.This chapter mainly analyzes The Murray Numeral System and Hankow Braille System which was later created by David Hill,and summarizes a brief review of the development of Chinese Braille in the late Qing Dynasty.All in all,the paper analyses the understanding of Chinese characters for the Westerners who came to China in the late Qing Dynasty,explores how the westerners learned and taught Chinese characters,and it also explores the Chinese Braille system created by the Westerners,so as to provide reference for today's research.