Written Chinese  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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search  Written Chinese (Chinese: 中文; pinyin: zhōngwén)
comprises Chinese characters (汉字/漢字; pinyin: Hànzì, literally
"Han characters") used to represent the Chinese language.
Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact
syllabary. Rather, the writing system is roughly logosyllabic;
that is, a character generally represents one syllable of spoken
Chinese and may be a word on its own or a part of a polysyllabic
word. The characters themselves are often composed of parts that
may represent physical objects, abstract notions,[1] or
pronunciation.[2] Literacy requires the memorization of a great
many characters: educated Chinese know about 4,000.[3][4] The
large number of Chinese characters has in part led to the
adoption of Western alphabets as an auxiliary means of
representing Chinese.[5]  Various current Chinese characters
have been traced back to the late Shang Dynasty about 12