<p>From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>, before Hanyu Pinyin was introduced, the PRC Chinese learnt Bopomofo or 注音符號 [Zhùyīn fúhào]. It comprises of 37 characters (注音) and four tone marks (符號).</p>

<ul>
<li>注音 consists of consonants, rhymes and medial (e.g. ㄅ,ㄆ,ㄇ,ㄈ)</li>
<li>符號 is similar to the four tones in Pinyin except there is no marking
for the first tone (ˊ,ˇ,ˋ)</li>
</ul>

<p>An example: 大 (ㄉㄚˋ, dà) where ㄉ is the consonant for "d" and ㄚ is the rhyme for "a".</p>

<p>There are a variety of ways to look up a word in the dictionary such as 部首查字法 and 数笔画查字法. This <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/827228.htm" rel="noreferrer">article</a> describes the various method.</p>

<p><strong>Update:</strong></p>

<p>As mentioned in the comment by Claw, <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/129724.htm" rel="noreferrer">反切</a> (introduced around 220 A.D.) preceded 注音符號, which was introduced in the 1910s. And even <a href="http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-sg/%E8%AF%BB%E8%8B%A5%E6%B3%95" rel="noreferrer">before</a> that, there were two other methods, namely <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/1898927.htm" rel="noreferrer">直音法</a> and <a href="http://baike.baidu.com/view/898354.htm" rel="noreferrer">读若法</a>. As the names suggest 直音法 refers to learning by comparison with another character of the <em>same</em> pronunciation while 读若法 refers to learning by comparison with another character of <em>similar</em> pronunciation.</p>

<p>But for all the three methods described above, there is a need to memorise the pronunciation of a few characters first, before one can proceed to learn the pronunciation of other characters based on these characters.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-31T17:11:05.677Z
Even Bopomofo is a modern invention though (introduced in the 1910s according to Wikipedia).  For centuries, 反切 was the way dictionaries indicated pronunciation, as dda indicated in his answer.
Claw
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-31T11:06:30.447Z
2012-09-01T07:07:41.263Z
2012-09-01T07:07:41.263Z
杨以轩
<p>As for the question how characters are <strong>taught</strong>, one important point that all other good answers mentioning 反切 fail to elaborate, though they really give a brief &amp; clear introduction to the traditional academic way of showing character pronunciation in dictionaries, is that when we are talking about "before the introduction of pinyin", <strong>a nationwide standard Chinese (e.g. 國語 Guoyu, 普通話 Putonghua or so) might have nor been popularized</strong>. What does this mean? Actually in the old days, as told by my 外公 Waigong, a native speaker of 贛語 Ganyu born in the 1930s, in any 私塾 Sishu, for a long period the only type of institution that served for elementary education before the introduction of western-style schools, all characters were pronounced by the 先生 Xiansheng in their dialectal versions. And kids generally recited the fundamental materials such as 《三字經》 Sanzi Jing 《百家姓》 Baijia Xing 《千字文》 Qianzi Wen by <strong>imitating</strong> their 先生 without deeper understanding, till they could fully handle the mapping between the characters and their pronunciations. In such process, <strong>no auxiliary tools for phonetic indication were used, nor were a unified one even possible, due to the huge differences between dialects</strong>.</p>

<p>And I shall say, from the viewpoint of a native speaker of 普通話 Putonghua, who has learned it through school education since young, 反切 could hardly have been used as a practical tool to teach young children the pronunciation of characters, since <strong>occasionally it uses more complex characters to explain simpler ones</strong>. Plus, the practice of combining syllabic characters rather than juxtaposing phoneme symbols itself shows the restriction of old Chinese scholars' understanding of the relation between syllable and phoneme, not to mention how young kids should use this imperfect tool to learn "hard" characters from scratch.</p>

<p>P.S. apart from 反切 which indicates a syllable in whole, from my vague memory, there might also be a <strong>tone-indicating symbol system</strong> called 四聲破讀記號 Sisheng Podu Jihao or something similar in ancient literatures, which <em>puts a small circle in one of the four corners of a character, so as to indicate whether its tone is 平 Ping, 上 Shang, 去 Qu, or 入 Ru of the traditional tonal system</em>. But unfortunately I can hardly find a reference for this. Anyone who can provide further information would be highly appreciated ^_^.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-10-01T01:53:26.410Z
2012-10-01T08:54:32.350Z
2012-10-01T08:54:32.350Z
Nihil
<p>Actually the comparison between the IPA and pinyin is misleading in another way.  In IPA the pronunciation of the letters remains constant... in pinyin, the pronunciation of certain letters changes according to preceding letters - namely - i after q is different to the i after c.</p>

<p>Plus iu in qiu is not what one would expect from an IPA.  Same for -un ending.</p>

<p>It always amazes me that pinyin was invented in 1949 or thereabouts and they still couldn't invent a romanisation without strange exceptions.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-30T23:29:55.590Z
2012-09-30T23:29:55.590Z
Robert Budzul
<p>I personally believe Pinyin is only for non-native speakers or is only to set up a kind of standard prounciation system for Chinese language. </p>

<p>Below are the facts:</p>

<p>1) Chinese children are taught how to write some special Chinese character with the already known prounciation immediately (so children don't have to learn the Pinyin first.  As a native speaker of Chinese, I even didnot know why Pinyin was taught before high school :)
Native speakers learn how to pronounce first, and then learn how to write; this should be the truth;</p>

<p>2) The modern Chinese Pinyin system (or scheme?) is only for Mandarin (or Putonghua, which is based on Northern China's Peiking/Beijing dialects). So most of the aged Chinese people in south China who were educated with only their own dialects even cannot pronounce Pinyin correctly.  One of the most popular Chinese character IME software is based on Pinyin, but I know a lot southern China people who cannot use such IME software but a more complicate to learn Wubi IME software.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-11-26T12:19:52.583Z
2013-11-26T12:19:52.583Z
LCFactorization
<p>In the (very) old days, there was a system called <a href="http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%8D%E5%88%87" rel="nofollow noreferrer">反切</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanqie" rel="nofollow noreferrer">in English</a>) where two characters were used, one for initial, one for the rhyme (vowel[s] + final), followed by 切 to indicate it was a phonetic notation. For instance, 東 could be represented as 德紅切.</p>
<h2>Edit #2</h2>
<p>I thought I should insert an example from the canon of Chinese dictionaries, 康熙字典. Here's page 1 -- might as well start at the beginning...</p>
<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/2U235.jpg" alt="康熙字典, 一部" /></p>
<p>I highlighted the two definitions for 一: <code>於悉</code> for 唐韻 and 韻會, <code>益悉</code> for 集韻 and 正韻. Which is interesting, as these won't match the modern pronunciation in most dialects (strangely enough <code>於悉切</code> works perfectly in Hakka for <code>一</code> but that's probably more likely an accident...).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-06-11T15:29:40.710Z
In fact it matches with Mandarin.. 於 y + 悉 i = 一 yi; 益 y + 悉 i = 一 yi. It also works for ancient pronunciation: 於 q + 悉 jit = 一 qjit
Mike Manilone
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-06T02:44:14.003Z
Not to nitpick but wouldn't 東 as 德紅切 be wrong? I thought that the final needs to contain the correct tone also. Perhaps something like 德轟切 would be more appropriate.
Mou某
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-31T10:17:23.893Z
2012-09-07T08:03:07.510Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
dda
<p>Before schools started to use pinyin for teaching characters to Chinese children, how and/or what was used to teach it instead? And what about how dictionaries showed the pronunciation of characters?</p>

<pinyin><history>
How were Chinese characters taught to Chinese children before the introduction of pinyin?
# How were Chinese characters taught to Chinese children before the introduction of pinyin?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-08-31)

Before schools started to use pinyin for teaching characters to Chinese children, how and/or what was used to teach it instead? And what about how dictionaries showed the pronunciation of characters?

**Tags:** pinyin, history


---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2012-08-31. Score: 13 | Accepted answer

In the (very) old days, there was a system called [反切](http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%8D%E5%88%87) ([in English](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanqie)) where two characters were used, one for initial, one for the rhyme (vowel[s] + final), followed by 切 to indicate it was a phonetic notation. For instance, 東 could be represented as 德紅切.

## Edit #2

I thought I should insert an example from the canon of Chinese dictionaries, 康熙字典. Here's page 1 -- might as well start at the beginning...

![康熙字典, 一部](https://i.sstatic.net/2U235.jpg)

I highlighted the two definitions for 一: `於悉` for 唐韻 and 韻會, `益悉` for 集韻 and 正韻. Which is interesting, as these won't match the modern pronunciation in most dialects (strangely enough `於悉切` works perfectly in Hakka for `一` but that's probably more likely an accident...).

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: In fact it matches with Mandarin.. 於 y + 悉 i = 一 yi; 益 y + 悉 i = 一 yi. It also works for ancient pronunciation: 於 q + 悉 jit = 一 qjit  
> **username_8**: Not to nitpick but wouldn't 東 as 德紅切 be wrong? I thought that the final needs to contain the correct tone also. Perhaps something like 德轟切 would be more appropriate.  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2012-08-31. Score: 9

From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo), before Hanyu Pinyin was introduced, the PRC Chinese learnt Bopomofo or 注音符號 [Zhùyīn fúhào]. It comprises of 37 characters (注音) and four tone marks (符號).

* 注音 consists of consonants, rhymes and medial (e.g. ㄅ,ㄆ,ㄇ,ㄈ)
* 符號 is similar to the four tones in Pinyin except there is no marking
  for the first tone (ˊ,ˇ,ˋ)

An example: 大 (ㄉㄚˋ, dà) where ㄉ is the consonant for "d" and ㄚ is the rhyme for "a".

There are a variety of ways to look up a word in the dictionary such as 部首查字法 and 数笔画查字法. This [article](http://baike.baidu.com/view/827228.htm) describes the various method.

**Update:**

As mentioned in the comment by username_2, [反切](http://baike.baidu.com/view/129724.htm) (introduced around 220 A.D.) preceded 注音符號, which was introduced in the 1910s. And even [before](http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-sg/%E8%AF%BB%E8%8B%A5%E6%B3%95) that, there were two other methods, namely [直音法](http://baike.baidu.com/view/1898927.htm) and [读若法](http://baike.baidu.com/view/898354.htm). As the names suggest 直音法 refers to learning by comparison with another character of the *same* pronunciation while 读若法 refers to learning by comparison with another character of *similar* pronunciation.

But for all the three methods described above, there is a need to memorise the pronunciation of a few characters first, before one can proceed to learn the pronunciation of other characters based on these characters.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Even Bopomofo is a modern invention though (introduced in the 1910s according to Wikipedia).  For centuries, 反切 was the way dictionaries indicated pronunciation, as dda indicated in his answer.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2012-10-01. Score: 7

As for the question how characters are **taught**, one important point that all other good answers mentioning 反切 fail to elaborate, though they really give a brief & clear introduction to the traditional academic way of showing character pronunciation in dictionaries, is that when we are talking about "before the introduction of pinyin", **a nationwide standard Chinese (e.g. 國語 Guoyu, 普通話 Putonghua or so) might have nor been popularized**. What does this mean? Actually in the old days, as told by my 外公 Waigong, a native speaker of 贛語 Ganyu born in the 1930s, in any 私塾 Sishu, for a long period the only type of institution that served for elementary education before the introduction of western-style schools, all characters were pronounced by the 先生 Xiansheng in their dialectal versions. And kids generally recited the fundamental materials such as 《三字經》 Sanzi Jing 《百家姓》 Baijia Xing 《千字文》 Qianzi Wen by **imitating** their 先生 without deeper understanding, till they could fully handle the mapping between the characters and their pronunciations. In such process, **no auxiliary tools for phonetic indication were used, nor were a unified one even possible, due to the huge differences between dialects**.

And I shall say, from the viewpoint of a native speaker of 普通話 Putonghua, who has learned it through school education since young, 反切 could hardly have been used as a practical tool to teach young children the pronunciation of characters, since **occasionally it uses more complex characters to explain simpler ones**. Plus, the practice of combining syllabic characters rather than juxtaposing phoneme symbols itself shows the restriction of old Chinese scholars' understanding of the relation between syllable and phoneme, not to mention how young kids should use this imperfect tool to learn "hard" characters from scratch.

P.S. apart from 反切 which indicates a syllable in whole, from my vague memory, there might also be a **tone-indicating symbol system** called 四聲破讀記號 Sisheng Podu Jihao or something similar in ancient literatures, which *puts a small circle in one of the four corners of a character, so as to indicate whether its tone is 平 Ping, 上 Shang, 去 Qu, or 入 Ru of the traditional tonal system*. But unfortunately I can hardly find a reference for this. Anyone who can provide further information would be highly appreciated ^\_^.


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2012-09-30. Score: 2

Actually the comparison between the IPA and pinyin is misleading in another way. In IPA the pronunciation of the letters remains constant... in pinyin, the pronunciation of certain letters changes according to preceding letters - namely - i after q is different to the i after c.

Plus iu in qiu is not what one would expect from an IPA. Same for -un ending.

It always amazes me that pinyin was invented in 1949 or thereabouts and they still couldn't invent a romanisation without strange exceptions.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2013-11-26. Score: 0

I personally believe Pinyin is only for non-native speakers or is only to set up a kind of standard prounciation system for Chinese language.

Below are the facts:

1) Chinese children are taught how to write some special Chinese character with the already known prounciation immediately (so children don't have to learn the Pinyin first. As a native speaker of Chinese, I even didnot know why Pinyin was taught before high school :)
Native speakers learn how to pronounce first, and then learn how to write; this should be the truth;

2) The modern Chinese Pinyin system (or scheme?) is only for Mandarin (or Putonghua, which is based on Northern China's Peiking/Beijing dialects). So most of the aged Chinese people in south China who were educated with only their own dialects even cannot pronounce Pinyin correctly. One of the most popular Chinese character IME software is based on Pinyin, but I know a lot southern China people who cannot use such IME software but a more complicate to learn Wubi IME software.


---

