حسب Shuowen Jiezi, Chinese characters are developed on six basic principles. ( These principles, though popularized by the Shuowen Jiezi, were developed earlier; the oldest known mention of them is in the Rites of Zhou, a text from ح. 150 BCE.) The first two principles produce simple characters, known as ؛ wén :. Pictographs ( ؛ xiàngxíng ): in which the character is a ...