ABSTRACT
The Chinese language, being the only ancient language of the early civilizations that is still working, is at least 4000 years old. The construction of the Chinese written symbols of the language not only followed the people’s relational mind, but continues faithfully to carry China’s relational culture. The Chinese written system was comprised of four types of monosyllabic characters: pictographs, ideographs, logographs and phonographs. The relational principle embedded in the language helps the learners and users to see connections in the world, even quantitatively. Today, the mandarin written system is still the national written language in China. The continuity of this written system, having evolved over many dynasties, enables today’s school children and scholars to read and understand the same classics after a time lapse of thousands of years and continues to provide the Chinese people – representing over 50 ethnic groups with their hundreds of spoken tongues – a single, unifying means for efficient communication.
