You might remember the meaning of the character 唐 with this easy mnemonic:
During the Tang dynasty, they would make hostages stand in a line (丨) on that dotted cliff (广), and have pigs push them over the edge with their snouts (彐), or sew their mouths (口) shut.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.