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Linguists have classified characters into the 6 categories below. These 6 categories for analysis were proposed by the academic Xu Shen in 100 AD (the Han Dynasty)
1. Pictographs
Most kanji have their origin in pictographs; many went through various changes or combinations until they became today’s shapes. While only 4% of kanji remains exclusively in this group, they retain a disproportional influence on many compounds. Examples include many year 1 glyphs like wood 木 and mouth 口
2. Simple Ideographs and 3. Compound Ideographs
These indicate simple ideas that cannot be directly indicated by pictures e.g.: 'under’ 下 or two 二. These are often self evident as basic glyphs, we group them together in the guide with compounds or mixtures of the above types, like talk 話, a compound of 言 word and tongue 舌 (itself also a combination of mouth 口and earth 土)
4. Phonetic-Ideographic Characters
These are compounds with one element used purely phonetically or else for pronunciation and meaning together. E.g. language 語 ’go’ is a compound which includes five 五 ‘go’.
5. Derivative characters (not distinguished in our kanji)
Derivatives of the original meaning suggesting a similar thing. 楽 (originally the sketch of a music instrument), but as music pleases people, it means " to enjoy"
6. Phonetic loans
Pronunciation alone dictates the kanji, rather than meaning, so it’s like a kana equivalent e.g. England is pronounced ‘ei’ and represented by the Kanji character for excellence 英
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