A Thematic Learning Approach – Chinese Characters about Animals

Learning Chinese characters can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the symbols. One effective approach is the topic-oriented characters learning method, which focuses on specific themes to make the process more efficient and engaging.

This time, we continue our thematic learning with twelve characters representing animals!

Origin

These animal characters are among the most ancient Chinese words. Similar to body parts, many of these characters visually resemble the animals they represent.

For example, the ancient glyph 羊 (yáng) resembles a sheep’s head with curved horns, with even the lower lip clearly indicated. Similarly, 牛 (niú) looks like an animal’s head with visible horns and ears. The ancient form of 鱼 (yú) depicted a fish with a head, scales, and fins.

However, through transformations and simplifications over time, some characters have changed beyond recognition. The ancient glyph of 虎 (hǔ) once contained a recognizable tiger’s head, tail, and claws, but the modern character requires quite a bit of imagination to see these features.

Radical “犭” 反犬旁 (fǎn quǎn páng)

Many of these animal characters are used in compound characters as meaning components. For example, 虩 (xì), which means “terrified,” and 像 (xiàng), which means “to resemble,” utilize these components.

Looking closely at another group of characters, we find the radical 犭:

• 猫 (māo) – cat
• 狗 (gǒu) – dog
• 猪 (zhū) – pig
• 猴 (hóu) – monkey

This radical originates from 犬 (quǎn), meaning “dog.” It is almost always used to denote an animal or beast. A helpful tip for beginners: if you see this radical but aren’t familiar with the character, it likely represents some kind of animal.

There are many more animal characters in the Chinese language. Share with us which ones we might have missed!