 | Ample lively illustrations tracing the origins or development of the characters will help you visualize their meanings and reinforce your conception of their forms.
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 | Diagrams of the brush movements will help you understand how to write, and help develop an appreciation of Chinese calligraphy.
|  | Besides the traditional and simplified scripts, the common printed form is presented along with each character.
|  | Listed under the 222 character entries there are over 400 frequently used compound words that incorporate the characters.
|  | Besides providing the form, sound and meaning of the characters, the serial number, component-order, stroke-order, number of strokes and the radical are provided for convenient reference.
|  | Writing boxes are provided for practicing each character.
|  | More than two-thirds of the characters have notes below them to give useful information and hints for learning the character.
|  | Six appendices including a brief chronology of Chinese dynasties, a comparative table of different Chinese character sets, a guide to the Chinese pronunciation systems, 214 Kangxi Radicals, etc. are included for reference.
|  | The index, arranged by number of strokes, provides great convenience for finding the meaning of the characters and their compound words. |