Chinese Symbols for Words

You may be wondering, what does our logo mean? Why is Chinese writing so complex? Let us explain...

The Chinese symbol in our logo, just beside the drawing of the blue bird above means Medicine (or herb). This symbol reflects the nature of our wellness centre. Using Chinese symbols for words, rather than our 'western' style alphabet has a long history.

The earliest examples of Chinese writing date to the late Shang period (ca. 1200 BC). These are the so-called Oracle Bone Inscriptions (jiaguwen) which were found at the site of the last Shang capital near present-day Anyang, Henan province.

Starting around the fifth century BCE, examples of writings on bamboo strips appear. The new media also means new content: along with historical and administrative writings, the bamboo strips contains the earliest manuscripts of famous Chinese philosophical texts, such as the Laozi, Liji, and Lunyu. Beside bamboo, texts were also written on wooden tablets and silk cloth. The written language by this time is the so-called "classical Chinese" (wenyan) which had remained more or less the same as late as the 19th century.

The earliest symbols in the development of Chinese writing were pictographic, that is they graphically depicted certain objects. The symbol for the word "dog" was a picture of a dog, the symbol for the word "tiger" was a picture of a tiger, etc. It is important to emphasize, however, that despite their graphic resemblance, these symbols were secondary to the sound value of words in spoken language. Later on, additional symbols were developed mainly on the basis of phonetic similarities between words.

Chinese symbols for words are written in columns that are read from top to bottom and from right to left, or in horizontal lines that read from left to right.