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Dream of the Red Chamber
Why Chinese Needs To Be Written In Characters
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Why Chinese Needs To Be Written In Characters

Addressing an old controversy

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Daniel Evensen
Jul 27, 2025
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Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber
Why Chinese Needs To Be Written In Characters
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Why Chinese Needs To Be Written In Characters

We saw two lines in yesterday’s post that are extremely confusing to anybody who doesn’t already read Chinese.

The first was this:

凡鳥偏從末世來

Disguised as a common bird, a phoenix emerges in this decadent age

And the second was this:

一從二令三人木

First she complies, then she commands, and then she’s cast aside

In both cases, we’re dealing with a type of poetic character description. It’s formally called 拆字 (chāizì) in Chinese, and is translated as “to disassemble Chinese characters.” Since English and other Latin-based languages don’t have this concept, there is no good word other than “chaizi.”

Let’s take a look at how this works.

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