Sunday, July 13, 2025

Amazing Chinese Characters (761) Larva - 孓

The big seal script of character Larva is


similar to big seal script of character Child

The difference is that the character Child has two arms not upward, but Larva has only one arm up, another downward. What does it mean? I guess it means that the arm downward implies the child is weak like Larva. So its original meaning is small and weak.

The small seal script of character Larva is

which is similar to character Alone


just missing an arm on the different side, here it means Alone too, which is different from Small and Weak, or Larva. I guess is that the character evolved, the meaning of Larva gradually lost, but not completely, the new meaning of Alone was added on, especially when people used the two characters 孑孓 together, which emphasizes the Along, or Lonely. 

The clerical script of character Larva is

the middle line is different direction from that in character Alone (孑)

The Pinyin of the character is Jue2.

The character is used rarely alone. occasionally used with 孑:孑孓, meaning is Lonely.






Amazing Chinese Characters (760) Alone - 孑

The big seal script of character Alone is

A little child with only one arm. 

Let's us compare the big seal script of character Child (Post 21)

A child with both arms.

Which arm is missing? Depends on what you think the position of the child, if the child is facing us, he is missing right arm; if he is back to us, he is missing left arm. By 《說文解字》(the most famous dictionary in Chinese history, it is missing left arm, therefore, the child is back to us. 

Normal people have two arms, single arm implies not paired, no partner, alone.

The small seal script of character Alone is

Right arm is missing? Which conflicts with the big seal script. Therefore, even 《說文解字》might make mistakes. What I think is that it just shows one arm missing, which arm missing doesn't matter.

The clerical script of character Alone is

The middle is slightly slanted line, left lower-right higher . 

In comparison, the clerical script of character Child is

Middle is horizontal line.

The Pinyin for the character is Jie2.

I want to point out that character 孑 is not a popular character, used rarely. 孤单 is used often for Alone. 










Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Amazing Chinese Character(759)Lift - 举(舉)

The big seal script of character Lift is 

The top and middle part are same as that of character Give - 与(Post 758), meaning two hands lift elephant Tooth, and put it down. The bottom is character Hand, which emphasizes how heavy the elephant tooth is, needs extra hand (extra person) to help.

The small script of character Lift is 

The top and middl parts are similar to the top of character Give, the bottom is character Hand.

The clerical script of character Lift is
The top (not including the middle) part is similar to the top part of old scripts, which means that two hands put down the elephant tooth. The two hands lifting the elephant tooth become one long horizontal line, one falling-left line, and one falling-right line, which are from the two hands in small script of Lift. The hand in the bottom becomes two horizontal lines, which are from the two concave arcs, and one vertical line.

The pictography of the character is lost more than half.

The song typeface of character Lift is
 
 
The top part becomes three dots, the rest are similar to clerical script. The pictography of the character is completely lost.

The Pinyin of the character is Ju3.




Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Amazing Chinese characters (758) Give - 与(與)

The bronze script of character Give is 

Before I discuss this character, I would like to show another similar character, character Flourish - 兴(興, Post 350). The shell bone script of charact4er Flourish is 

The outside are four hands, which are similar to the outside of character Give above. The two hands on the bottom are fingers up, which means lift something over head. The two hands on the top are fingers down, which means put down something. They are one person's hands, the character is an image of lifting a brick mud (口)and hit it into the brick mould (similar to 井) to make adobe.

What is inside?

Let's see another character, character Tooth - 牙 (Post 523).

The bronze script of character Tooth is

Therefore the inside of character Give is Tooth. Which tooth? The elephant Tooth here. First it is very valuable, and heavy, so you need people to lift with hands, and give to the person who is honored. 

The small seal script of character Give is 


Similar to bronze script except the top inside, which is modified of the character Tooth.

The clerical script of character Give is
The top is similar to the top of small seal script. The bottom is the modified two hands: the horizontal long line is from the two curve of the two hands in small script, the two dots are the arms.

The simplified song typeface of character Give is


which is the top middle, meaning is tooth. But the simplification lost the original pictography and the meaning too.

The Pinyin of the character is Yu3.

The character right now has many other meanings: and, with, etc.
 



Monday, March 10, 2025

Amazing Chinese Characters (757)Chew - 刍(芻)

The shell bone script of character Chew is

A hand holding grass to feed animals. 

which is hand.

The bronze script of character Chew is

Similar to shell bone script.

The big seal script of character Chew is

The grass is on the hand, not in the hand. The bottom is the hand.

The small seal script of character Chew is
The two open circles are stomaches in body, the grass are inside. The meaning of the character is Chew, not feeding anymore.

The clerical script of character Chew is
The two circles become two 勹, which means body. Inside the middle straight vertical lines of grass become falling-left curves for writing easier. 

The simplified song typeface of the character is


There is no relationship between the simplified form and the original forms, and destroyed the pictography of the character.

The pinyin of the character is Chu2.





Sunday, January 26, 2025

Amazing Chinese Characters (756)Rising Sun - 旭

 The big seal script of character Rising Sun is


The left is character Nine (Post 443), the right is character Sun (Post 4). Character Nine means very low position, or ground level, the sun rising from the horizon is the meaning of the character.


The small seal script of character Rising Sun is


The left is character Nine, and the right is character Sun, similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Rising Sun is
The left is character Nine, the right is character Run.

The pinyin of the character is Xu4.


Amazing Chinese Characters (755)Rail - 轨(軌)

The bronze script of character Rail is

The left is character Vehicle (Post 5), the right is character Nine (Post 443). The character Nine means low position, close to ground or on the ground. The character Rail means that the rolling mark on the ground after the vehicle passed.


The big seal script of character Rail is
Similar to the bronze script.

The small seal script of character Rail is
Similar to bronze script.

The clerical script of character Rail is
The left is character Vehicle, the right is character Nine.

Simplified song typeface of character Rail is


The left is simplified song typeface for character Rail, the right character Nine is same.

The Pinyin of the character is Gui3.







Amazing Chinese Characters (761) Larva - 孓

The big seal script of character Larva is similar to big seal script of character Child The difference is that the character Child has two a...