Amazing Chinese Characters (797) Slaughter - 宰

The shell bone script of character Slaughter is

A big house, there is a 辛 - Pungent (Post 733) inside. 辛 could be toil, here is toil, not pungent. It is butler who manage all house works. The original meaning of the character is Butler or Manager. In Chinese history, the highest ranking official was called 宰相 - the person who runs the Dynasty, like Premier, or State Secretary.  

In Zhou Dynasty, it meant the Food Services Director or Minister who slaughter animals for foods. Therefore the character became slaughter later on.

The bronze script of character Slaughter is

Similar to shell bone script.

The small seal script of character Slaughter is
 

The outside is similar to older scripts, the inside changed more. For detail explanation, please read Post 733.

The clerical script of character Slaughter is

Similar to small seal script, except the top "House Radical" is much shorter.

Pinyin of the character is Zai3. 
 

 

Amazing Chinese characters (796) Extremely - 极（極）

The big seal script of character Extremely is 

The left is character Wood (Post 10), the right is character Urgently - 亟 (Post 795). The meaning of the character is the highest house pillar, iwhich is the extreme in length. 

The small seal script of character Extremely is

Similar to big seal script.

There is another small seal script of character Extremely

The left is character Wood, the right is character Reach - 及 (Post 311). It means "extending to as much as you could", close to extreme but not exactly. The one evolved into simplified song typeface.

The clerical script of character Extremely is

Similar to the first small seal script, except the right part 亟, in which the middle is changed (see Post 795 for detail explanation).

Simplified song typeface of character Extremely is

 

 

evolved from the second small seal script above, but the meaning is not exactly same as to traditional one but very close.

 

The Pinyin of character Extremely is Ji2. 

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (795) Urgently - 亟

Shell bone script of character Urgently is

The middle is character Human

The up horizontal line is the top of the head, the extreme point in up direction. The bottom horizontal line is the foot, the extreme point in down direction.

It means the extreme of some thing. 

Bronze script of character Urgently is

The middle is similar to shell bone script. But there is a character Mouth on the left, and the character 攴, which means Knock lightly, normally it means that some one is working. The middle is a person with stretched, which is physically, adding characters Mouth, and Work (hand + tool), to expresses that the thing is urgent, which needs to tell everyone (by mouth), and do the work immediately (by hand and tool). If no characters Mouth and Work, the character is just for extreme physically.

Big seal script of character Urgently is

Similar to bronze script.

Small seal script of character Urgently is

Similar to script of bronze and big seal scripts.

Clerical script of character Urgently is 

The middle became 了- character Over (Post 335), which is wrong due to 了 has similarity to small seal script of character Urgently, but they are not the same if we look carefully, the meanings are different too.

The character is not used alone now, only found in the articles written long time ago.  

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (794) Bright - 囧

The shell bone script of character Bright is

A window, the meaning of the character is Bright because the window could allow the light in.

The bronze script of character Bright is

Similar to shell bone script.

The small seal script of character Bright is

Changed a lot, a different window. It is possible because there were thousand of years passed since shell bone script time, the window could have changed a lot.

The song typeface of character Bright is 

Another different window.

Another song typeface of the character is 冏.

The Pinyin of the character is Jiong3. 

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (793) Guangdong - 粤

The shell bone script of character Guangdong is

The top is character Rain - 雨 (Post 8), the bottom is character At or Proposition - 于 (Post 488), which means "poor airflow". The character means that Guangdong is a place where it is rainy and stuffy.

The bronze script of character Guangdong is

 

The top is character Rain, the bottom is character At or Proposition. Guangdong is rainy and stuffy.

The big seal script of character Guangdong is

The right is character At or Proposition; the left is unknown character. The left is character Rice - 米 (Post 163) in a rounded triangle. I guess what happened is that the character Rain is misunderstood to be character Rice, but the rounded triangle is from no where. 

One possibility is that some one recreated the character with different meaning: left is a rice cooking pot. Then the character could mean a place where rice is the major food, and climate is stuffy. If it is true, the character should mean the area belong Guangdong which is true, ancient China, the character 粤 means at least Guangdong, Guangxi, and Vietnam.

The small seal script of character Guangdong is

The top is Radical Roof, under the roof is character Rice, a miss present for raining drops. The bottom is character At or Proposition.

The clerical script of character Guangdong is

Similar to small seal script, but more straight strokes.

The song typeface of character Guangdong is

 

Similar to clerical script.

 

Pinyin of the character is Ao4.  

Amazing Chinese Characters (792) Allow - 许（許）

The bronze script of character Allow is

 

The left is character Say - 言 (Post 158), the right is character Noon - 午 (Post 417). Ancient Chinese believed that the shortest distance to God in the sky is noon, if you want to make a wish to God, noon is the best time, or the only time you can convey your wish to God. The original meaning of the character is "Make a Wish, but expended later on to Allow, Permit, Promise, etc.

The big seal script of character Allow is

 

Similar to bronze script.

 

The small seal script of character Allow is

Similar to big seal script on the left, the right part, small seal script is more curved, and the dot in big seal script becomes a short line because small seal script has not dot, all dots are replaced by short lines.

The clerical script of character Allow is

The left is character Say in clerical script, the right is character Noon. The curves in older scripts become straight strokes, which is the clerical script characteristic.

 

The simplified song typeface of character Allow is

 

The left is Radical Say, the right is character Noon.

 

The pinyin of character 许 is Xu3. 

 

 

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (791) Place (for human activities) - 所

The bronze script of character Place is

The left is character Household - 户 (Post 271), the right is character Catty - 斤 (Post 698), here is split firewood. The character means a warehouse or storeroom for firewood.

The character means nowadays office, residential house, a place for human activity.  

The big seal script of character Place is

Similar to bronze script.

Small seal script of character Place is

The left is similar to that in older scripts, the right changed to more curved.

The clerical script of character Place is

The left is similar to that of older script, the right is changed to more straight lines. 

The song typeface of character Place is

Very similar to clerical script.

The pinyin of character Place - 所 is Suo3.