What are pictophonetic characters?

Pictophonetic characters refer to a form of Chinese characters, which is formed on the basis of pictographic characters, signifier characters and knowing characters.

Pictophonetic characters are composed of two characters, one representing the category of things and the other representing the pronunciation of things.

Xu Shen said, "Sound and shape, in the name of things, complement each other with examples, and rivers also." .

The sememe of pictophonetic characters can only represent the range of a certain meaning. Characters or characters are mainly a word-making method that plays the role of phonetic symbols. Xu Shen said: "People who have sound and tangible things are named after things, and analogies complement each other. Rivers are also. " The so-called thing in the name, that is, its name depends on the kind of thing.