"The study of the analysis of Chinese characters is useful to those who merely wish to read or write the Chinese language. Part of the work of any analysis is to organize the characters into groups which reveal their relationships and thus lighten the burden of memorizing. A still more important function of character analysis is to recommend the individual written words to the student's own linguistic powers so that he may feel at home with them. This is done by showing, as far as possible, how they reached their present shape and the reasoning that guided the generations of people who invented and perfected them." From the Preface. A Wade-Giles - Pinyin Conversion Table has been added to this edition.