Monday, June 22, 2026

Amazing Chinese Characters (812) Pickle - 腌

The big seal script of the character for Pickle 

The left is radical Meat, the right is character for Cover (Post 809). Put the meat in a container, then cover it, keep it for some time, which means Pickle.

The small seal script for the character for Pickle

The left is radical Meat, the right is character for Cover

Similar to small seal script, but the strokes are more straight.

The song typeface of the character for Pickle 

Similar to clerical script.

The Pinyin of the character for Pickle is Yan1.

Traditional Chinese has a variant form 醃, the left is character 酉 (Post 104) - Liquor Jug: put the meat into a jug (with some salt), cover the jug for some time. The simplified Chinese abandoned the character.

 

Saturday, June 20, 2026

Amazing Chinese Characters (811) To Cover - 掩

The big seal script of character for To Cover is

The left is character for Hand (Post 55), the right is character for Cover (Post 809), which is the original character for the current one. The difference of the two characters for Cover is that the original one is passive cover, we may say it is "covered". The current one is initiative cover, or to cover with hand or without hand.

The small seal script of character for To Cover is 

The left is character for Hand, the irght is character for Cover.

The clerical script of character for To Cover is

The left is radical Hand, the right is character for Cover.

The song typeface of character for To Cover is  

Similar to clerical script of character for To Cover.

The Pinyin of character for To Cover is Yan3. 

 

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Amazing Chinese Characters (810) Flood - 淹

 The big seal script of character for Flood is

The left is character for Water (Post 13), the right is character for Cover. The water floods all or part land, which is flooding, or we can say, the land is all covered by water. 

The small seal script of character for Flood is

The left is character for Water, the right is character for Cover. 

The clerical script of character for Flood is

The left is water radical, the right is character character for Cover.

Similar to clerical script.

The Pinyin of character for Cover is Yan1.

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (809) Cover - 奄

The bronze script of the character for Cover is

The top is character for Electricity (Post 247), the bottom is character for Big (Post 76), here it means a person. During a lightning strike, a person can be completely obscured in an instant. 

The character has two meanings: 

1, cover; 2, sudden.

The big seal of the character for Cover is

The top is character for Big, the bottom is character for Electricity. The two characters positions are exchanged, why? I guess it is because easier to write, not change the meaning of character. 

The small script of the character for Cover is  

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character for Cover is

The top is character for Big, the bottom is character for Electricity.

The song typeface of character for Cover is

Similar to clerical script.

The pinyin of character for Cover is Yan1.


Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Amazing Chinese Characters (808) Radical Flag - 旗帜旁

Radical Flag is not a character but a single meaningful structure. Radical Flag is named by me because no one has ever discussed it, not listed in any dictionary. Its independent structure could not be found in dictionaries, I used Photos app on MacBook to remove other parts of compound character in cluding radical Flag to get its different scripts.

The shell bone script of Radical Flag is 

The left is a flagpole, the right is flying flag.

The bronze script of Radical Flag is

Similar to shell bone script but the flag is long and even touch on the ground.

The big seal script of Radical Flag is

Similar to shell bone script.

The small seal script of Radical Flag is

The left is not like a flagpole anymore, but similar to character Square - 方 (Post 273).

 

but not the same.

The right part is not like a flag, and disconnected from the flagpole. 

How could those big changes have happened? I don't know. But from then on, people have not known the fact that the two were originally united one.

The clerical script of character Radical Flag is

The left is character Square (Post 273), the right top is not a meaningful structure.

The song typeface of Radical Flag is 

Very similar to clerical script.

There is no pinyin for the independent structure. 

If you are interested in the evolution of character Flag (Post 717), you could click the following link to read the post.

https://learnchinesewithpictography.blogspot.com/2024/08/amazing-chinese-characters-717-troops.html 

I want to point out that the earliest script of character Flag is big seal, which means the character was created much later than the Radical Flag, which earliest script is shell bone. I think that the original Radical Flag was used as a character, it became a radical later on.
 
There are compound characters including radical flag:
族 (Post 718),旋 (Post 719),旅 (Post 720),and more I have not discussed yet.
 


Monday, June 8, 2026

Amazing Chinese Characters (807) West - 西

 The shell bone script of character West is

What is this? It is window facing west. In ancient China, or modern China too, the house door is normally facing south. There is no window on the back. The windows are either facing East or West. There is character East - 东 (Post 77), therefore the above should be window facing West.

The bronze script of character West is

A window with different style. 

The small seal script of character West is 

The bottom is the window, the top and right is character Body - 尸 (Post 423). A person's shadow is reflected on the window during sunset in the west. It happens in sunrise, but because character East is already exist, we only consider west. 

The clerical script of character West is

I don't know where it is from, I guess it is a popular window at that time.

The song typeface of character West is 

The Pinyin of the character is Xi1.  


Sunday, June 7, 2026

Amazing Chinese Characters (806) Tassel - 旒(㐬)

The big seal script of character Tassel is

The left is a flagpole, the horizontal turning down curve is the flag, which could be called Radical Flag. The rest under the flag is tassel hanging on the flag, which is the character meaning.


As time passed, it means the tassel hanging on front and back of the Emperor or Minister's official hat.


The small seal script of character Tassel is 

A tassel unit.

The clerical script of character Tassel is

As I mentioned above, the 方 + the top of right = Radical Flag, the rest is the tassel hanging on the flag.

The song typeface of character Tassel is 

Similar to clerical script.

The pinyin of character 旒 is Liu2. 


Amazing Chinese Characters (812) Pickle - 腌

The big seal script of the character for Pickle  The left is radical Meat, the right is character for Cover (Post 809). Put the meat in a co...