Look up a character you cannot read

A character you cannot read is not a failure of memory yet. You have not been introduced. The lookup is a procedure: decide the radical, count what is left, read the entry, then — this is the part the dictionary will not do — make a card and produce the reading with the entry closed.

“Chinese dictionary” searches split into two tools. If you can hear the word, search the pinyin or the kana. If you can only see the shape, you need an index by component. Handwriting boxes on a phone are that second path, automated. The paper path is radicals.

214, or 201, plus 99 variants

The Kangxi Dictionary (1716) indexed characters under 214 radicals. That number is still what older dictionaries and a lot of learning apps mean by “the radicals”. In 2009 the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission published the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components: 201 main radicals, and 99 attached forms. The attached forms are variants of main radicals — the standing-person form of 人 is the usual example — not 99 extra characters you must learn before you are allowed to use a dictionary.

[[chart:ld-radical-index]]

The first view is the two indexes side by side, 214 and 201. They are close because the 2009 table kept the 1983 draft’s main count and adjusted it, rather than inventing a new system. Switch to the second view before you add 99 to 201 and tell yourself the modern index is 300 radicals to memorise. 201 are the heads. 99 are alternate shapes of those heads. A dictionary may file under the main form, the attached form, or both. The preface of the standard says dictionaries can vary, as long as they say so.

A worked lookup, then the card

Take 河. The radical is 氵, the attached form of 水 (water). The remaining piece is 可. You do not need the English “river” to find the entry. You need the radical and a stroke count of what is left. The entry gives hé and the word. That is the end of the lookup and the start of study.

Write the card while the entry is open: character, reading, one word. Close the entry. Say the reading. Write the character from the word. If you cannot, the card is due, not “known because you looked it up”. Stroke-count habits for the common set are in the stroke chart. The reason a gloss like “river” is not the whole meaning is in symbols are not pictures.

Why this method works

Lookup is a way to get a reading you do not have. It is not a way to keep it. The radical narrows the page. The remaining strokes narrow the column. The card, with the dictionary shut, is what makes the reading available tomorrow. Skipping the card is why people “look up the same character every chapter”.

Run this session

Twenty minutes. Three characters you cannot read. A paper dictionary or a radical index, not a photo solver that hands you the translation of the whole sentence.

1. 0–4 min. Name the index you are using: 214 if the book is Kangxi-style, 201 main radicals if it follows the 2009 table. Write down whether 99 attached forms are heads or variants. They are variants.
2. 4–14 min. For each character: radical, remaining stroke count, reading, one word. 河 is the model if you want a warm-up you can check: 氵, then 可, hé.
3. 14–20 min. Close the book. Three cards. Produce the reading, then write the character from the word. Any one you missed goes first tomorrow. Do not look it up again tonight.

Common traps

• Adding 201 and 99 and calling it 300 radicals to memorise. Fix: 99 are attached forms of the main radicals.
• Stopping when the popup shows the English. Fix: the popup is the dictionary. The card is the study.
• Guessing the radical from a mnemonic app and never counting the remainder. Fix: the count is what makes the column short enough to search.

Handwriting search on a phone is allowed. It skips the radical drill. It does not skip the card. Study Lab is where the entry stays closed.