rajpurkar/squad huggingface dataset:
Title: Chinese_characters

Semantic-phonetic compounds or pictophonetic compounds are by far the most numerous characters. These characters are composed of two parts: one of a limited set of characters (the semantic indicator, often graphically simplified) which suggests the general meaning of the compound character, and another character (the phonetic indicator) whose pronunciation suggests the pronunciation of the compound character. In most cases the semantic indicator is also the radical under which the character is listed in dictionaries.

Question: What are the most numerous characters?
Answer: Semantic-phonetic compounds

Question: What is the radical under which the character is listed in dictionaries?
Answer: semantic indicator

Question: What suggests the general meaning of a compound character? 
Answer: semantic indicator
Title: Chinese_characters

Examples are 河 hé "river", 湖 hú "lake", 流 liú "stream", 沖 chōng "riptide" (or "flush"), 滑 huá "slippery". All these characters have on the left a radical of three short strokes (氵), which is a reduced form of the character 水 shuǐ meaning "water", indicating that the character has a semantic connection with water. The right-hand side in each case is a phonetic indicator. For example, in the case of 沖 chōng (Old Chinese *ɡ-ljuŋ), the phonetic indicator is 中 zhōng (Old Chinese *k-ljuŋ), which by itself means "middle". In this case it can be seen that the pronunciation of the character is slightly different from that of its phonetic indicator; the process of historical phonetic change means that the composition of such characters can sometimes seem arbitrary today.

Question: What side is a phonetic indicator located on?
Answer: right-hand side

Question: What is the process of historical phonetic change?
Answer: phonetic indicator

Question: What process can sometimes seem arbitrary today?
Answer: phonetic change
Title: Chinese_characters

Occasionally a bisyllabic word is written with two characters that contain the same radical, as in 蝴蝶 húdié "butterfly", where both characters have the insect radical 虫. A notable example is pipa (a Chinese lute, also a fruit, the loquat, of similar shape) – originally written as 批把 with the hand radical, referring to the down and up strokes when playing this instrument, which was then changed to 枇杷 (tree radical), which is still used for the fruit, while the character was changed to 琵琶 when referring to the instrument. In other cases a compound word may coincidentally share a radical without this being meaningful.

Question: What is occasionally written with two characters that contain the same radical?
Answer: bisyllabic word

Question: What is also a fruit?
Answer: pipa

Question: What may share a radical without being meaningful?
Answer: compound word
Title: Chinese_characters

In recent decades, a series of inscribed graphs and pictures have been found at Neolithic sites in China, including Jiahu (c. 6500 BC), Dadiwan and Damaidi from the 6th millennium BC, and Banpo (5th millennium BC). Often these finds are accompanied by media reports that push back the purported beginnings of Chinese writing by thousands of years. However, because these marks occur singly, without any implied context, and are made crudely and simply, Qiu Xigui concluded that "we do not have any basis for stating that these constituted writing nor is there reason to conclude that they were ancestral to Shang dynasty Chinese characters." They do however demonstrate a history of sign use in the Yellow River valley during the Neolithic through to the Shang period.

Question: What may have been found at Neolithic sites in China in recent decades? 
Answer: series of inscribed graphs and pictures

Question: What has demonstrated a history of sign use in the Yellow River valley?
Answer: Chinese characters

Question: What color was the famous valley during the Neolithic through to the Shang period?
Answer: Yellow
Title: Chinese_characters

The earliest confirmed evidence of the Chinese script yet discovered is the body of inscriptions on oracle bones from the late Shang dynasty (c. 1200–1050 BC). These symbols, carved on pieces of bone and turtle shell being sold as "dragon bones" for medicinal purposes, were identified as Chinese writing by scholars in 1899. By 1928, the source of the oracle bones had been traced to a village near Anyang in Henan Province, which was excavated by the Academia Sinica between 1928 and 1937. Over 150,000 fragments have been found.

Question: What was the earliest confirmed evidence of the Chinese script?
Answer: oracle bones

Question: Where were the symbols carved on?
Answer: pieces of bone and turtle shell

Question: Where was the source of Oracle bones traced to?
Answer: village near Anyang in Henan Province
Title: Chinese_characters

The traditional picture of an orderly series of scripts, each one invented suddenly and then completely displacing the previous one, has been conclusively demonstrated to be fiction by the archaeological finds and scholarly research of the later 20th and early 21st centuries. Gradual evolution and the coexistence of two or more scripts was more often the case. As early as the Shang dynasty, oracle-bone script coexisted as a simplified form alongside the normal script of bamboo books (preserved in typical bronze inscriptions), as well as the extra-elaborate pictorial forms (often clan emblems) found on many bronzes.

Question: What existed as early as the Shang dynasty?
Answer: oracle-bone script

Question: What did the oracle-bone script coexist alongside?
Answer: bamboo books

Question: What were preserved in typical bronze inscriptions?
Answer: bamboo books
Title: Chinese_characters

Based on studies of these bronze inscriptions, it is clear that, from the Shang dynasty writing to that of the Western Zhou and early Eastern Zhou, the mainstream script evolved in a slow, unbroken fashion, until assuming the form that is now known as seal script in the late Eastern Zhou in the state of Qin, without any clear line of division. Meanwhile, other scripts had evolved, especially in the eastern and southern areas during the late Zhou dynasty, including regional forms, such as the gǔwén ("ancient forms") of the eastern Warring States preserved as variant forms in the Han dynasty character dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, as well as decorative forms such as bird and insect scripts.

Question: What has evolved over time?
Answer: scripts

Question: What type of forms are bird and insect scripts considered?
Answer: decorative

Question: What is guwen considered as?
Answer: ancient forms
Title: Chinese_characters

Seal script, which had evolved slowly in the state of Qin during the Eastern Zhou dynasty, became standardized and adopted as the formal script for all of China in the Qin dynasty (leading to a popular misconception that it was invented at that time), and was still widely used for decorative engraving and seals (name chops, or signets) in the Han dynasty period. However, despite the Qin script standardization, more than one script remained in use at the time. For example, a little-known, rectilinear and roughly executed kind of common (vulgar) writing had for centuries coexisted with the more formal seal script in the Qin state, and the popularity of this vulgar writing grew as the use of writing itself became more widespread. By the Warring States period, an immature form of clerical script called "early clerical" or "proto-clerical" had already developed in the state of Qin based upon this vulgar writing, and with influence from seal script as well. The coexistence of the three scripts – small seal, vulgar and proto-clerical, with the latter evolving gradually in the Qin to early Han dynasties into clerical script – runs counter to the traditional belief that the Qin dynasty had one script only, and that clerical script was suddenly invented in the early Han dynasty from the small seal script.

Question: What has evolved slowly in the State of of Qin?
Answer: Seal script

Question: What script runs counter to the traditional belief that the Qin dynasty had one script only?
Answer: clerical

Question: What was invented in the early Han dynasty from the small seal script?
Answer: clerical script
Title: Chinese_characters

Contrary to the popular belief of there being only one script per period, there were in fact multiple scripts in use during the Han period. Although mature clerical script, also called 八分 (bāfēn) script, was dominant at that time, an early type of cursive script was also in use by the Han by at least as early as 24 BC (during the very late Western Han period),[b] incorporating cursive forms popular at the time, well as many elements from the vulgar writing of the Warring State of Qin. By around the time of the Eastern Jin dynasty, this Han cursive became known as 章草 zhāngcǎo (also known as 隶草 / 隸草 lìcǎo today), or in English sometimes clerical cursive, ancient cursive, or draft cursive. Some believe that the name, based on 章 zhāng meaning "orderly", arose because the script was a more orderly form of cursive than the modern form, which emerged during the Eastern Jin dynasty and is still in use today, called 今草 jīncǎo or "modern cursive".

Question: Were multiple scripts used during the Han period?
Answer: there were in fact multiple scripts in use

Question: What was one of the more dominant scripts during the time?
Answer: bāfēn

Question: What name stood for "orderly"?
Answer: zhāng
Title: Chinese_characters

By the late Eastern Han period, an early form of semi-cursive script appeared, developing out of a cursively written form of neo-clerical script[c] and simple cursive. This semi-cursive script was traditionally attributed to Liu Desheng c. 147–188 AD,[d] although such attributions refer to early masters of a script rather than to their actual inventors, since the scripts generally evolved into being over time. Qiu gives examples of early semi-cursive script, showing that it had popular origins rather than being purely Liu’s invention.

Question: What appeared at the end of the late Eastern Han period?
Answer: early form of semi-cursive script

Question: What script was traditionally attributed to Liu Desheng?
Answer: semi-cursive

Question: Who showed examples of early semi-cursive script?
Answer: Qiu
Title: Chinese_characters

Regular script has been attributed to Zhong Yao, of the Eastern Han to Cao Wei period (c. 151–230 AD), who has been called the "father of regular script". However, some scholars postulate that one person alone could not have developed a new script which was universally adopted, but could only have been a contributor to its gradual formation. The earliest surviving pieces written in regular script are copies of Yao's works, including at least one copied by Wang Xizhi. This new script, which is the dominant modern Chinese script, developed out of a neatly written form of early semi-cursive, with addition of the pause (頓/顿 dùn) technique to end horizontal strokes, plus heavy tails on strokes which are written to the downward-right diagonal. Thus, early regular script emerged from a neat, formal form of semi-cursive, which had itself emerged from neo-clerical (a simplified, convenient form of clerical script). It then matured further in the Eastern Jin dynasty in the hands of the "Sage of Calligraphy", Wang Xizhi, and his son Wang Xianzhi. It was not, however, in widespread use at that time, and most writers continued using neo-clerical, or a somewhat semi-cursive form of it, for daily writing, while the conservative bafen clerical script remained in use on some stelae, alongside some semi-cursive, but primarily neo-clerical.

Question: What had been linked to Zhong Yao?
Answer: Regular script

Question: What was Zhong Yao known for?
Answer: father of regular script

Question: Who was the son of Wang Zishi?
Answer: Wang Xianzhi
Title: Chinese_characters

It was not until the Northern and Southern dynasties that regular script rose to dominant status. During that period, regular script continued evolving stylistically, reaching full maturity in the early Tang dynasty. Some call the writing of the early Tang calligrapher Ouyang Xun (557–641) the first mature regular script. After this point, although developments in the art of calligraphy and in character simplification still lay ahead, there were no more major stages of evolution for the mainstream script.

Question: What were the North and South considered as?
Answer: dynasties

Question: What continued to evolve stylistically?
Answer: regular script

Question: What script saw no more stages of evolution?
Answer: mainstream
Title: Chinese_characters

For instance, to look up the character where the sound is not known, e.g., 松 (pine tree), the user first determines which part of the character is the radical (here 木), then counts the number of strokes in the radical (four), and turns to the radical index (usually located on the inside front or back cover of the dictionary). Under the number "4" for radical stroke count, the user locates 木, then turns to the page number listed, which is the start of the listing of all the characters containing this radical. This page will have a sub-index giving remainder stroke numbers (for the non-radical portions of characters) and page numbers. The right half of the character also contains four strokes, so the user locates the number 4, and turns to the page number given. From there, the user must scan the entries to locate the character he or she is seeking. Some dictionaries have a sub-index which lists every character containing each radical, and if the user knows the number of strokes in the non-radical portion of the character, he or she can locate the correct page directly.

Question: What contains four strokes?
Answer: right half of the character

Question: What do some dictionaries have?
Answer: sub-index

Question: What gives remaining stroke numbers?
Answer: sub-index
Title: Chinese_characters

Chinese character dictionaries often allow users to locate entries in several ways. Many Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dictionaries of Chinese characters list characters in radical order: characters are grouped together by radical, and radicals containing fewer strokes come before radicals containing more strokes (radical-and-stroke sorting). Under each radical, characters are listed by their total number of strokes. It is often also possible to search for characters by sound, using pinyin (in Chinese dictionaries), zhuyin (in Taiwanese dictionaries), kana (in Japanese dictionaries) or hangul (in Korean dictionaries). Most dictionaries also allow searches by total number of strokes, and individual dictionaries often allow other search methods as well.

Question: What often allow users to locate entries in several ways?
Answer: Chinese character dictionaries

Question: What lists Chinese characters in radical order?
Answer: Korean dictionaries

Question: What is grouped together by radicals?
Answer: characters
Title: Chinese_characters

While new characters can be easily coined by writing on paper, they are difficult to represent on a computer – they must generally be represented as a picture, rather than as text – which presents a significant barrier to their use or widespread adoption. Compare this with the use of symbols as names in 20th century musical albums such as Led Zeppelin IV (1971) and Love Symbol Album (1993); an album cover may potentially contain any graphics, but in writing and other computation these symbols are difficult to use.

Question: What can be easily coined by writing on paper?
Answer: characters

Question: What has their been a prominent supply of in the 20th century?
Answer: symbols

Question: What can be difficult to represent on a computer?
Answer: characters
Title: Chinese_characters

New characters can in principle be coined at any time, just as new words can be, but they may not be adopted. Significant historically recent coinages date to scientific terms of the 19th century. Specifically, Chinese coined new characters for chemical elements – see chemical elements in East Asian languages – which continue to be used and taught in schools in China and Taiwan. In Japan, in the Meiji era (specifically, late 19th century), new characters were coined for some (but not all) SI units, such as 粁 (米 "meter" + 千 "thousand, kilo-") for kilometer. These kokuji (Japanese-coinages) have found use in China as well – see Chinese characters for SI units for details.

Question: What can be coined at any time?
Answer: New characters

Question: What may not be adopted?
Answer: new words

Question: What are also known as Japanese-coinages?
Answer: kokuji
Title: Chinese_characters

In addition, there are a number of dialect characters (方言字) that are not used in formal written Chinese but represent colloquial terms in non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese. One such variety is Written Cantonese, in widespread use in Hong Kong even for certain formal documents, due to the former British colonial administration's recognition of Cantonese for use for official purposes. In Taiwan, there is also an informal body of characters used to represent Hokkien Chinese. Many varieties have specific characters for words exclusive to them. For example, the vernacular character 㓾, pronounced cii11 in Hakka, means "to kill". Furthermore, Shanghainese and Sichuanese also have their own series of written text, but these are not widely used in actual texts, Mandarin being the preference for all mainland regions.

Question: What are not used in formal written Chinese?
Answer: dialect characters

Question: What contains a block of characters used to showcase Hokkien Chinese?
Answer: Taiwan

Question: What was the preference for all mainland regions?
Answer: Mandarin
Title: Chinese_characters

In the Republic of China (Taiwan), which uses traditional Chinese characters, the Ministry of Education's Chángyòng Guózì Biāozhǔn Zìtǐ Biǎo (常用國字標準字體表, Chart of Standard Forms of Common National Characters) lists 4,808 characters; the Cì Chángyòng Guózì Biāozhǔn Zìtǐ Biǎo (次常用國字標準字體表, Chart of Standard Forms of Less-Than-Common National Characters) lists another 6,341 characters. The Chinese Standard Interchange Code (CNS11643)—the official national encoding standard—supports 48,027 characters, while the most widely used encoding scheme, BIG-5, supports only 13,053.

Question: What supports 48,027 characters?
Answer: the official national encoding standard

Question: What supports 13,053 characters?
Answer: BIG-5

Question: What area uses traditional Chinese characters?
Answer: Taiwan
Title: Chinese_characters

In China, which uses simplified Chinese characters, the Xiàndài Hànyǔ Chángyòng Zìbiǎo (现代汉语常用字表, Chart of Common Characters of Modern Chinese) lists 2,500 common characters and 1,000 less-than-common characters, while the Xiàndài Hànyǔ Tōngyòng Zìbiǎo (现代汉语通用字表, Chart of Generally Utilized Characters of Modern Chinese) lists 7,000 characters, including the 3,500 characters already listed above. GB2312, an early version of the national encoding standard used in the People's Republic of China, has 6,763 code points. GB18030, the modern, mandatory standard, has a much higher number. The New Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì (汉语水平考试, Chinese Proficiency Test) covers approximately 2,600 characters at its highest level (level six).

Question: What country uses simplified Chinese characters?
Answer: China

Question: What lists 2,500 common characters?
Answer: Chart of Common Characters of Modern Chinese

Question: What is an early version of the national encoding standard used in the people's public of China?
Answer: GB2312
Title: Chinese_characters

Modified radicals and new variants are two common reasons for the ever-increasing number of characters. There are about 300 radicals and 100 are in common use. Creating a new character by modifying the radical is an easy way to disambiguate homographs among xíngshēngzì pictophonetic compounds. This practice began long before the standardization of Chinese script by Qin Shi Huang and continues to the present day. The traditional 3rd-person pronoun tā (他 "he, she, it"), which is written with the "person radical", illustrates modifying significs to form new characters. In modern usage, there is a graphic distinction between tā (她 "she") with the "woman radical", tā (牠 "it") with the "animal radical", tā (它 "it") with the "roof radical", and tā (祂 "He") with the "deity radical", One consequence of modifying radicals is the fossilization of rare and obscure variant logographs, some of which are not even used in Classical Chinese. For instance, he 和 "harmony, peace", which combines the "grain radical" with the "mouth radical", has infrequent variants 咊 with the radicals reversed and 龢 with the "flute radical".

Question: What is written in modern usage?
Answer: new characters

Question: What is one consequence of modifying radicals?
Answer: fossilization

Question: What combines "grain radical" with the "mouth radical"?
Answer: "harmony, peace"
Title: Chinese_characters

Even the Zhonghua Zihai does not include characters in the Chinese family of scripts created to represent non-Chinese languages. Characters formed by Chinese principles in other languages include the roughly 1,500 Japanese-made kokuji given in the Kokuji no Jiten, the Korean-made gukja, the over 10,000 Sawndip characters still in use in Guangxi, and the almost 20,000 Nôm characters formerly used in Vietnam.[citation needed] More divergent descendents of Chinese script include Tangut script, which created over 5,000 characters with similar strokes but different formation principles to Chinese characters.

Question: What does not include characters in the Chinese family?
Answer: Zhonghua Zihai

Question: What is formed by Chinese principles? 
Answer: Characters

Question: What created over 5,000 characters with similar strokes?
Answer: Tangut script
Title: Chinese_characters

The total number of Chinese characters from past to present remains unknowable because new ones are developed all the time – for instance, brands may create new characters when none of the existing ones allow for the intended meaning. Chinese characters are theoretically an open set and anyone can create new characters, though such inventions are rarely included in official character sets. The number of entries in major Chinese dictionaries is the best means of estimating the historical growth of character inventory.

Question: What remains unknowable?
Answer: The total number of Chinese characters from past to present

Question: What becomes developed all the time?
Answer: Chinese characters

Question: What is the best means of estimating the historical growth of character inventory?
Answer: number of entries in major Chinese dictionaries
Title: Chinese_characters

One of the most complex characters found in modern Chinese dictionaries[g] is 齉 (U+9F49) (nàng,  listen (help·info), pictured below, middle image), meaning "snuffle" (that is, a pronunciation marred by a blocked nose), with "just" thirty-six strokes. However, this is not in common use. The most complex character that can be input using the Microsoft New Phonetic IME 2002a for traditional Chinese is 龘 (dá, "the appearance of a dragon flying"). It is composed of the dragon radical represented three times, for a total of 16 × 3 = 48 strokes. Among the most complex characters in modern dictionaries and also in frequent modern use are 籲 (yù, "to implore"), with 32 strokes; 鬱 (yù, "luxuriant, lush; gloomy"), with 29 strokes, as in 憂鬱 (yōuyù, "depressed"); 豔 (yàn, "colorful"), with 28 strokes; and 釁 (xìn, "quarrel"), with 25 strokes, as in 挑釁 (tiǎoxìn, "to pick a fight"). Also in occasional modern use is 鱻 (xiān "fresh"; variant of 鮮 xiān) with 33 strokes.

Question: What is one of the most complex characters in modern Chinese dictionaries?
Answer: U+9F49

Question: What features 33 strokes?
Answer: xiān

Question: What are among the most complex characters in modern dictionaries? 
Answer: yù