Abstract: Xiangyi and huiyi are two termes used to refer to types of Chinese characters formation. They share some common points,i.e,to from a Chinese character by combining more than two components together which have semantic unity.From the theory of L iushu in the Han Dynasty to nowadays,scholars of philology have tended to believe the two are almost the same in meaning.Yet, studies in this paper have shown that xiangyi and huiyi bear obvious diffenerce in reference.Above all,xiangyi refers to a concrete imag...