in old china, we just learn how to write, no maths, no physics..... every three or five years, the emperor will decide to set a series of exams. these exams have some levels. if u win the first level, which is easiest, u will be called 秀才, and 秀才 have the right to pass the next level exam. some people can just get this level, they cant continue because they dont study well. in this phrase, 秀才 means those people who study badly. and if u know about chinese, u will find some characters like this: 永 泳 咏 半 伴 etc u see, if u know the first character, such as 用 or 半, u will know how to pronunce the others. because they are all "yong" and "ban" there are lots of characters like this but there are also some characters like this: 官 菅 典 腆 etc their prounciation are not the same.官(guan) 菅(jian) 典(dian) 腆(tian) but if a person who dont know well about the chinese, generally they will proununce the same. so 秀才识字识半边 means a person who dont know something well-----秀才 just know a part of a character(半边) there is a 成语：一知半解 一知半解 = 秀才识字识半边 识：know 字：character 半边：a half i ll give u an example, ur dad is talking about the chinese food, and ur dad is an expert, he research the chinese food (:D, just an example), and one day, ur dad is talking about the chinese food to someone, and u just jump out and say: "oh, i know the chinese food, they are........." (in fact u just know that chinese people eat rice, that's all), now ur dad can say: 你真是 秀才识字识半边，不要对自己 一知半解 的东西随便发表评论, OK?

秀才 的意思 這裡指 書生的通稱。如：「秀才不出門，能知天下事。」 詳見 http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E7%A7%80%E6%89%8D 六書 的 形聲 請先了解 漢字 的 造字原則 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification 西方人認為 漢字是 象形字 事實上 這是錯誤的迷思 在漢字中 形聲字 佔到九成以上 形聲字 "形"表示意義或分類 "聲"表示發音 結構上各有半邊 依據 形 或 聲 大略可以推測其意義 但是 有時候 這個 “半邊” 是找不到 或 找不對的 有人因此鬧出笑話 於是 "秀才識字只(認) (識)半邊" 這句俗語就成了諷刺不學無術者的貶義詞 古典 笑話一則 : 王安石認為「波」字由「水」字和象聲的「皮」字構成，就說: 「波者，水之皮也。」 準此:「坡者，土之皮也！」似乎言之成理。 學問文采比王安石好的蘇東坡，實在看不下去，就反問他： 「那麼，滑者一定是水之骨了。」 把王安石給氣壞了。 王安石 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Anshi 蘇東坡 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Shi 還有一句話 有邊念邊 無邊念中間 沒有中間自己編 用以諷刺 識字不多 又愛賣弄的人

秀才识字识半边：汉子一般都有偏旁部首，分上下结构，左右结构等等。有些人只认识一个字的一部分，就以为自己认识这个字怎么念了。如：晴天的晴，有人只认识它的一半，就念成了青

it's a sarcastically or ironically way to describe some one who is not learning characters properly or know things completely.

This is a derogatory term commonly used in describing a person neither learning nor skill（不学无术）.