Recently, Professor Qiu Longsheng’s monograph, “Character Origins for Literacy” has been published by Shanghai Guji Press. This work is a significant contribution to the field of Chinese character studies, combining both academic rigor and accessibility. It is another important publication by Professor Qiu in the area of Chinese character research. Spanning 596 pages and approximately 483,000 characters, the book systematically explains the origins of 2,000 commonly used Chinese characters.
Chinese characters are the oldest writing system still in use in the world. With a verifiable history of over 3,400 years, dating back to the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1046 BC), the origins of Chinese characters can be traced back as far as 5,000 years ago. As a logographic writing system, Chinese characters are not only a means of recording the Chinese language but also a carrier of the history, society, and culture of China within their forms. The inherent structural information in the characters is closely related to Chinese culture. This book fully and accurately utilizes character form data and adopts a scientific and rigorous research methodology to trace the origins of Chinese characters by examining their evolutionary sequences during several representative periods.
Based on the List of Frequently Used Characters in Modern Chinese, the book selects 2,000 commonly used characters. These characters are categorized into 14 semantic modules: animals, plants, geography and landscapes, celestial phenomena and minerals, people, body parts, hand movements, foot movements, mouth movements, clothing and food, housing and transportation, tools and implements, sacrifices and punishments, and others. It covers most of the commonly used characters whose origins can be clearly explained. It is beneficial for elementary and middle school students as well as general readers who wish to understand the etymology of Chinese characters.
Character Origins for Literacy has garnered widespread attention and positive feedback from academia since its publication. It was selected for the Best Books of the Century list for October 2024 in the month following its release. The Shanghai Guji Press WeChat account, the Zhejiang Linguistics WeChat account, the official WeChat account of the Chinese Character Civilization Research Center of Zhengzhou University, and the official news client of Taizhou City Government, “Wangchao” actively promoted the book, publishing review articles with a total readership exceeding 100,000. On January 14, 2025, the Taizhou Daily published a 3,000-word feature interview, Discussing ‘Character Origins for Literacy’ with Professor Qiu Longsheng which was also reprinted by China Taizhou Network. On March 3, 2025, the Collection and Reading News published a book review titled A Masterpiece of Literacy with Both Academic and Popular Appeal—A Review of Qiu Longsheng’s ‘Character Origins for Literacy’, which was reprinted by the Shanghai Guji Press WeChat account. These publications have been well-received by both the academic community and readers.
Professor Qiu’s Character Origins for Literacy
Author Profile
Qiu Longsheng is a professor, master’s supervisor, and academic leader at the School of Humanities, Taizhou University. He has successively presided over 1 National Social Science Fund project, 2 provincial philosophy and social science research projects, 2 key provincial higher education teaching reform projects and research projects. He has won the provincial philosophy and social science research achievement award twice and the provincial higher education research achievement award twice. He is the author of A Study on the Inscriptions on Bronze Mirrors in the Han Dynasty (2012) and Textual Research on the Redundant Characters in “Wu Yin Ji Yun” (2019), and has published more than 20 academic papers.
