Kanji ordering inconsistencies? in Heisig’s RtK

Hello to everyone.

Before I delve into the topic in hand, I would like to mention that I have been using Heisig’s RtK to learn kanji keywords for the past half a year, and although I find the book quite useful, I repeatedly encountered inconsistencies in the order in which kanji are presented. At the beginning I did not mind them, but gradually I found them more and more frustrating. Now, looking back on all of them after I finished the book, I have to say that I am a bit disappointed by Heisig’s simple-to-complex ordering. Do not get me wrong, I still think that the people behind the book did a great job considering the subtle differences between components in characters like 取 and 助, or 栓 and 詮, and so on, but I cannot understand why 屯 and 且 are listed separately from 純 頓 鈍 or 組 粗 租 狙 祖 阻, or why the hell are 凸 凹 listed at the beginning although they have 5 strokes, while 干 (3 strokes) is listed as the 1777th character, and many other things I found during my studies.

This post is related solely to inconsistencies in kanji **ordering** which I spotted when going through the list of 2200 kanji in the latest 6th edition of Heisig’s book *Remembering the Kanji*. I think that most of them were deliberate, but I would like to hear an explanation, because I personally have not managed to find one. In general, I noticed **three** types of inconsistencies: **a)** visually unrelated kanji stuck between other kanji; **b)** basic component (primitive) separated from kanji in which it appears; **c)** several missed opportunities to group together kanji sharing the same component.

Below, I provide a few examples that I find the most disturbing.

**A) visually unrelated kanji stuck between other kanji:**

kanji 葛 (no. 492) in 褐 喝 葛 旨 脂 —> the idea is that all kanji should contain the component 匕 , but 葛 does not, so why it is there?

瓜 弧 孤 繭 益 暇 敷 来 気 汽 飛 沈 —> perhaps the best example, why are the kanji 繭 益 暇 敷 来 not ordered somewhere else? for example, 益 could be moved to the primitive 皿, and 来 (no. 2029) could be moved to 未 末 (no. 229-230), instead of being introduced at the end of the book, etc.

凡 負 万 句 肌 —> in this case, I managed to find out that the kanji 負 actually contains the component 勹, but I still have not idea how this should benefit me, the same is the case for 万, which I would rather learn together with 方

**B) basic component (primitive) separated from kanji in which it appears:**

乙 (no. 75) being separated from 乞 乾 (no. 501-502)

\+ see the above-mentioned 屯 and 且 which are listed at the end of the textbook, despite being visually simpler than characters in which they appear as components

**C) several missed opportunities to group together kanji sharing the same component:**

侍 (1050) 待 (944) 持 (712) 特 (261) all being separated from 寺 and 時 (170-171)

霊 (1930) 震 (2166) 需 (1249) 雰 (2184) 雪 (1225) 霧 (1314) all being separated from 雨 雲 曇 雷 霜 (451-455) —> this is even more mind-boggling than the previous example, because at first thought that the first three kanji are separated due to the fact they are unrelated to weather, but 雪 clearly is related to weather, and it is still separated, so why 雷 has not been moved to the primitive 田 ?

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If you know answers to some of these inconsistencies, I will gladly read your explanation since I kinda gave up on looking for answers. Even though I generally still like the book, I find some things (not only ordering-related but also keyword-related) in it **shocking** (given it is the 6th edition), but maybe that’s what Heisig intended in order to make the whole experience even more memorable, so kudos to him I guess.

Cheers to all of you.