Ink-Wash Chinese Characters · Indicative Characters: Up, Down, Ten, Thousand

This picture book is Ink-Wash Chinese Characters · Indicative Characters: Up, Down, Ten, Thousand, written by Bao Dongni, illustrated by Zhu Ying, and published by Jieli Publishing House in March 2022. It is one volume in the “Ink-Wash Chinese Characters” series, designed especially for children aged 4–8 in their character-learning sensitive period.

Centered on indicative characters, the book selects 48 structurally simple characters such as 一, 二, 三, 四, 本, 末, 尺, 寸, 立, 中, 高, 直. Through ink-wash illustrations and character-origin analysis, it helps children understand each character’s form, meaning, and pronunciation from its roots, connecting ancient and modern characters and laying a foundation for Chinese language learning.

Every character comes with a sketch-style illustration, an explanation of its origin, and a classic poem line featuring the character; key characters are marked with pinyin to ease the transition from reading pictures to reading characters. The series has four volumes in total, covering the four methods of character formation — pictographic, indicative, compound ideographic, and phono-semantic compound — with content ranging from body parts to clothing, food, housing, and transportation, and from mountains and rivers to plants and trees, letting children feel the enduring charm of Chinese culture through an aesthetic experience.

The cover presents the four characters 上, 下, 十, 千 in ink-wash brushstrokes, accompanied by green leaf-shaped graphics, creating a natural, lively Eastern aesthetic that matches the “ink-wash characters” theme.