TLDR FEATURES: TRADITIONAL + SIMPLIFIED CHARACTERS, PINYIN, MNEMONIC STORIES, WRITING QUIZ This deck contains the characters and stories from Heisig's remembering the traditional hanzi volume 1 (Simplified characters are also included in the deck) . Each card contains the mnemonic story that the book provides as well as a character writing test (must be connected to internet for that to work).
This deck is in the same order as the original book. To properly use this deck, please follow along with the book ("free" copies may be found online) as there is a special method for remembering characters described in the book. Also, the book describes "primitives" for characters that are also important to learn. (If anyone has added these themselves please reach out to me so I can add them to the deck) I also encourage you to write your own mnemonics whenever you can. You can do this by editing a card and changing the "custom mnemonic" field.
Also, the book tries to convince you that you shouldn't learn the pronunciation for characters. This is probably a better strategy in Japanese (The language that the original book was made for), but it doesn't really help you in Chinese as each character usually corresponds to only one reading. Try to learn the pronunciation for all of the characters in the deck. Most Chinese characters also include a phonetic component, so if you know the pronunciation, oftentimes you can replace using Heisig's story entirely.
| Mnemonic_Heisig | Sinister... human legs. |
| Mnemonic_Custom | |
| Keyword | cruel |
| Simplified Hanzi | 凶 |
| Traditional Hanzi | 兇 |
| Pinyin | xiōng |
| RTH Index | 1114 |
| primitives | |
| chinese_audio | |
| Connotation | atrocious, ferocious, brutal, fierce |
| AsAPrimitive | |
| References | "兇的字源・兇的筆順・凶在n词酷(简体字)・兇在RTK:evil" |
| Reading | ㄒㄩㄥ |
| pos |
| Mnemonic_Heisig | The primitive elements that compose this character are ten and mouth, but you may find it easier to remember it as a pictograph of a tombstone with a cross on top. Just think back to one of those graveyards you have visited, or better still, used to play in as a child, with ancient inscriptions on the tombstones. This departure from the primitive elements in favor of a pictograph will take place now and again at these early stages, and almost never after that. So you need not worry about cluttering up your memory with too many character drawings. |
| Mnemonic_Custom | |
| Keyword | ancient |
| Simplified Hanzi | 古 |
| Traditional Hanzi | 古 |
| Pinyin | gǔ |
| RTH Index | 0016 |
| primitives | needle mouth |
| chinese_audio | |
| Connotation | ancient, old; paleo— |
| AsAPrimitive | |
| References | "古的字源・古的筆順・古在n词酷・古在RTK:old" |
| Reading | ㄍㄨˇ |
| pos |
| Mnemonic_Heisig | Here we meet at last the full character on which the primitive for head is based. The elements: table... head. |
| Mnemonic_Custom | |
| Keyword | Head |
| Simplified Hanzi | 头 |
| Traditional Hanzi | 頭 |
| Pinyin | tóu |
| RTH Index | 1067 |
| primitives | |
| chinese_audio | |
| Connotation | head; chief, boss |
| AsAPrimitive | |
| References | "頭的字源・頭的筆順・头在n词酷(简体字)・頭在RTK:head" |
| Reading | *ㄊㄡˊ |
| pos |