Friday, September 19, 2025

Amazing Chinese Characters (773) Entrust - 委

The big seal script of character Entrust is

The top is character Rice Crop (Post 34), the bottom is character Woman (Post 20). A woman bears heavy rice crop on her back or shoulder, which is a hard work suppose to be taken by men. Right now, may be lack of labor, may be for saving money. Anyway, it is unreasonable entrust arrangement. The image you could have is a small lady bent her back, twisted her body to walk with heavy rice crop on her shoulder.

The small seal script of character Entrust is

Similar to big seal script, Rice Crop on the top, the Woman on the bottom.

The clerical script of character Entrust is
All lines are straight or close to straight.

The Pinyin of the character is Wei3.

委 has other meanings close to its original meaning: 
1, 委身:a woman is forced or half forced to be a wife or girlfriend of a man
2, 委屈:wronged



Sunday, September 14, 2025

Amazing Chinese characters (773) Zhao - 赵(趙)

The bronze script of character Zhao is

The left is character Walk - 走 (Post 96), 
The right part is character Shrink - 肖(480)


which is small moon, which means the dark night. We see full moon, half moon, and small moon. Full moon night is the brightest, and the small moon night is darker even though better than no moon night. The small moon is also meaning that the moon shrinks.

Who walks (fast walking) in dark night? Most likely the burglars or soldiers rushing to the war battle field. 

The big shell script of character Zhao is

Walk + Shrink.

The small seal script of character Zhao is
Similar to big seal.

The clerical script of character Zhao is

Walk + Shrink.

The song typeface of character Zhao is
The X replaced character 肖 is bad, because X is not good meaning in characters, for example, 凶 - Fierce (Post 312), means Risk, and Danger. The replacement is not only destroyed the pictographic, but also changed to meaning to "Walking with risk or danger". 

The Pinyin of the character is Zhao4.

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Amazing Chinese Characters (772) Grass (ancient) - 屮

The shell bone script of character Grass (ancient) is

A newly grown grass. 

The bronze script of character Grass (ancient) is 
Similar to shell bone script.

The big seal script of character Grass (ancient) is
Similar to older scripts, but the curve is very smooth and symmetrical.

The small seal script of character Grass (ancient) is

Very similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Grass (ancient) is

Similar to older scripts, but all lines become straight lines.

The Pinyin of the character is Che4.

The character was replaced by character 草 long time ago, it has not been used as grass alone but it is used in compound characters as a radical part. For example, the big seal script of 草字头 - Radical Grass is

Two 屮 together. 
 





Sunday, August 31, 2025

Amazing Chinese characters (771) Cloth - 布

 The bronze script of character Cloth is

The bottom is character Towel - 巾(Post 172),the top is character Father - 父(Post 166), which is a hand holding a stick or bar, meaning he works hard, and has power to punish family members. Here it means to hit the flax to make linen, the earliest cloth for Chinese.

The big seal script of character Cloth is
Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Cloth is
The bottom 巾(towel) is similar to bronze or big seal script. The top is hand holding the stick which is very short, and connected with hand which is difficult to separate it from the hand, lost the pictography.

The clerical script of character Cloth is
The bottom 巾 is still very similar to older scripts, but the top hand with stick changed dramatically, please use your imagination to figure out how it became the current form from the small seal script. 

The Pinyin of the character is Bu4. 


Saturday, August 30, 2025

Amazing Chinese Characters (770) Give with Respect - 奉

The bronze script of character Give with Respect is


The top is character Harvest and Abundance - 丰, ears of wheat (Post 317), the bottom are two hands which hold the crop to give to some one who is a prestigious person, such as King,  or to God in Sacrifice.

The big seal script of character Give with Respect is


Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Give with Respect is


Similar to older scripts, except an extra hand in the bottom which shows the present is heavy, needs more people to lift.

The clerical script of character Give with Respect is

The top middle is character Harvest and Abundance, the falling-down left, and falling-down right strokes are two hands, the bottom is another hands. 

The Pinyin of the character is Feng4.



Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Amazing Chinese characters (769) Libation - 奠

The shell bone script of character Libation is

The top is character Liquor Jug (Post 104)
The bottom one line means the earth. The character means sacrificial wine for earth. 

The bronze script of character Libation is
The top is character Liquor Jug, and bottom is earth with wine drops.

The big seal script of character Libation is 
The top is character Eight - 八 (Post 156), means Separate, here is Open, open the jug mouth (= separate the mouth). The middle is character Liquor Jug. The bottom is two hands holding the jug.

The small seal script of character of Libation is
Similar to big seal script. 

The clerical script of character Libation is
Some similarity to small seal script.

The Pinyin of the character is Dian4.







Amazing Chinese Characters (773) Entrust - 委

The big seal script of character Entrust is The top is character Rice Crop (Post 34), the bottom is character Woman (Post 20). A woman bears...