Editing Chinese characters (section)

==== Compound ideographs ====
[[File:Compound Chinese character demonstration with 好.webm|thumb|upright=0.9|The compound character {{zhi|c=好}} illustrated as its component characters {{zhi|c=女}} and {{zhi|c=子}} positioned side by side]]
Compound ideographs ({{zhi|t=會意|s=会意|p=huìyì}})—also called ''logical aggregates'', ''associative idea characters'', or ''syssemantographs''—combine other characters to convey a new, synthetic meaning. A canonical example is {{zhc|c=明|l=bright}}, interpreted as the juxtaposition of the two brightest objects in the sky: {{zhc|c=日|l=Sun}} and {{zhc|c=月|l=Moon}}, together expressing their shared quality of brightness. Other examples include {{zhc|c=休|l=rest}}, composed of pictographs {{zhc|c=人|l=man}} and {{zhc|c=木|l=tree}}, and {{zhc|c=好|l=good}}, composed of {{zhc|c=女|l=woman}} and {{zhc|c=子|l=child}}.{{sfn|Qiu|2000|pp=15, 190–202}}

Many traditional examples of compound ideographs are now believed to have actually originated as phono-semantic compounds, made obscure by subsequent changes in pronunciation.{{sfn|Sampson|Chen|2013|p=261}} For example, the ''{{tlit|zh|Shuowen Jiezi}}'' describes {{zhc|c=信|l=trust}} as an ideographic compound of {{zhc|c=人|l=man}} and {{zhc|c=言|l=speech}}, but modern analyses instead identify it as a phono-semantic compound—though with disagreement as to which component is phonetic.{{sfn|Qiu|2000|p=155}} [[Peter A. Boodberg]] and [[William G. Boltz]] go so far as to deny that any compound ideographs were devised in antiquity, maintaining that secondary readings that are now lost are responsible for the apparent absence of phonetic indicators,{{sfn|Boltz|1994|pp=104–110}} but their arguments have been rejected by other scholars.{{sfn|Sampson|Chen|2013|pp=265–268}}