Comments on: Zi.Tools: A powerful free resource for exploring Chinese characters https://www.hackingchinese.com/zi-tools-a-powerful-free-resource-for-exploring-chinese-characters/ A better way of learning Mandarin Fri, 30 May 2025 09:09:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Olle Linge https://www.hackingchinese.com/zi-tools-a-powerful-free-resource-for-exploring-chinese-characters/#comment-133457 Fri, 30 May 2025 09:09:36 +0000 https://www.hackingchinese.com/?p=20259#comment-133457 In reply to Gordon.

Thank you for bringing this up! I didn’t include it because the average student will already be overwhelmed, and I couldn’t think of a good example s of when the kinship maps would be useful for students that don’t already know a lot about Chinese characters (and those students will probably notice this feature anyway). The sheer number of variants and the somewhat tricky interface makes it impenetrable for many, I think. Do you have a good example where this is genuinely useful without also being potentially very confusing? With a good example, it would be easier both to show how it works and why the feature can be useful!

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By: Gordon https://www.hackingchinese.com/zi-tools-a-powerful-free-resource-for-exploring-chinese-characters/#comment-133189 Sat, 24 May 2025 16:16:22 +0000 https://www.hackingchinese.com/?p=20259#comment-133189 What I love most about it, that I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned, is the “Kinship” map that responds to which definition entry you highlight, and the ‘relatives’ sections which not only shows you every cousin of the character that shares half a hint with it, but also every conceivable rendering of it that might not even exist. The interface is inconvenient and itndoes show outdated stuff first, but it denies the philologist almost nothing, except that it doesn’t highlight or list false friends and deceptive components, such as which 貝 is actually a reduced 鼎 without you having to look up the latter. That is the most conspicuously missing feature. It shows its presence as a semantic component, and as a sound component, but not where it’s found as a false component.

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By: Lisa Crawford https://www.hackingchinese.com/zi-tools-a-powerful-free-resource-for-exploring-chinese-characters/#comment-132714 Tue, 13 May 2025 00:13:28 +0000 https://www.hackingchinese.com/?p=20259#comment-132714 If you find the etymology or phonetic of a character isn’t helping you memorize it, and you are just in need of a good mnemonic story or image, give my free collection of mnemonics a try (2500+ characters and growing)! https://www.chinesecharactercoach.com/learners-dictionary

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