The majority of these characters are pictographs. Archaeologists and epigraphers of various countries have learned that most early writing svstems went through a pictographic stage, as did the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Most writing systems, however, eventually developed a phonetic alphabet to represent the sounds of spoken language rather than visual images perceived in the physical world. Chinese is the only major writing system of the world that continued its pictograph-based development without interruption, and that is still in general modern use. But not all Chinese characters are simply impressionistic sketches of concrete objects.
Chinese characters incorporate meaning and sound as well as visual image into a coherent whole.
In traditional etymology, Chinese characters are classified into six different methods of character composition and use. So learning to read and write Chinese is not nearly so formidable a task as it may at first seem. Although Chinese characters may appear to be quite complicated, they cannot be randomly simplified. Omitting or changing strokes not only obscures the origin and categorization of a character, but also robs the character of its unique characteristics. The government of the Republic of China on Taiwan has always placed great importance on language education, and on promoting a standard written style.