Hello I'm currently learning Kanjis ( well I had already JPLT N4 level but I
want to speed up my learning ) so I decided to learn meaning and writing of
Kanjis through Heisig Method. I'm learning the primitives first on an anki
deck ( I also got the books) and sometimes I'm a bit puzzled about the
primitive meaning.

Why did he invent the primitive meanings? I have come across meanings such as
teepee ( I doubt Middle Age chinese civilisation was aware of American
Indian...), scrapbook, missile, staple gun, thanksgiving... he came up with
those meanings and that's really too bad, we don't know the true meaning of
primitives though I'm sure they exist...Do you now where I could find the true
original meaning of the primitive

Also I'm a bit confuse when I see a primitive constructed from other primitive
with a '"strange meaning" like "child" made of "hat" and "elbow". How did the
guys came up with a construction like that? Where could I find real
explanations for the construction of primitives?

Thanks for your enlightenments!
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2020-05-21T08:48:57.567
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meaning kanji learning
Question about original meaning of primitives in Heisig method
As dROOOze has already mentioned, and as Heisig has mentioned himself, the
primitive's meanings are made up, in part or in full. I suggest you read the
[preface](https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/files/2012/12/RK-1-6th-edition-
sample.pdf).

> The basic alphabet of the imaginative world hidden in the kanji we may call,
> following traditional terminology, primitive elements (or simply
> primitives). These are not to be confused with the so-called “radicals”
> which form the basis of etymological studies of sound and meaning, and now
> are used for the lexical ordering of the characters. In fact, most of the
> radicals are themselves primitives, but the number of primitives is not
> restricted to the traditional list of radicals.

If you want to know how those kanjis were derived, feel free to post your
question here, because Heisig's method won't give you that. Post your
questions on this site and kanji experts including dROOOze will help you with
that.

Now, this is my opinion. If you can handle the **deluge** of kanji, then
follow RTK to the letter. In my case, I did not. I studied RTK out of a need
to survive my Japanese class, where we were asked to write down words from
memory, words which were pedagogically beyond our level and which included
kanjis that were difficult to remember. A ready-made RTK Anki deck helped me
pass those kanji tests. For that reason, I'm thankful for Heisig's RTK. I do
suggest though that you try a lighter version of RTK that only deals with 教育漢字
which is just half of the 常用漢字. It's less frustrating.
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It's mostly to serve as a building block for more complex characters, for him
to create the "stories" using already pre-determined characters. Most of the
primitives don't have direct translations and aren't used in anything other
than as part of larger kanji. The only other place you'll find most of them is
in names. It's good to remember them as Heisig titles them if you're using his
method of creating stories as it helps to add meaning to kanji that would be
hard to create stories for otherwise. It's also fine to change the meaning of
the primitives to something you prefer, so long as you can change the stories
that the primitive is later used in around the new meaning.
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