The shell bone script of character Play with is
The middle is 工 - Work (Post 465), the left and right are two hands. Here 工 is a simplified 王 - King (Post 244), but it means Jade (Post 244). Before clerical script, both King and Jade are three horizontal lines and one vertical line. The character above means that two hands playing with a jade which may be a very beautiful, valuable, and lovely. Play with a jade in one's hand, touching, watching, and feeling.Monday, December 27, 2021
Amazing Chinese Characters (466) Play with - 弄
Sunday, December 26, 2021
Amazing Chinese Characters (465) Work - 工
The shell bone script of character Work is
or simplified one
There is dispute what it is. Some people including Dictionary of Pictography believe that it is a multiple functions iron tool used by carpenters. More people believe that it is impossible that there were iron tools in 3500+ year ago, it should be carpenter's ink marker.
The front box is ink box with black ink inside, the back box has a wire coil, there is a hole between the two boxes, the wire goes through the hole and another hold in front of the box to get out. The wire has ink on, carpenter puts the wire on wood he works on, and makes a straight line he needs.
There is a bamboo or metal nail on the end of the wire, the carpenter hits the nail on point A on the wood, he pulls the wire coil box to point C, and lifts up the wire at point B, then looses it, the wire drops on the wood, makes and a black straight line with the ink on the wire. The carpenter can cut or saw the wood along the line.I prefer the meaning of the character is mortise-tenon structure.
The first character above has an ink box at the bottom and a nail on the top, which is like a carpenter ink marker. The second one is simplified, more like a beam support structure.
The bronze script of the character is
Thursday, December 23, 2021
Amazing Chinese Characters (464) Repeat - 复(復)
The shell bone script of character Repeat is
The top pot alike is a city, the bottom is a foot. A guard (most likely) walks in the city back and forth again and again to keep public safety.Saturday, December 11, 2021
Amazing Chinese Characters (463) Latitude - 经(經)
The bronze script of character Latitude is
left is a radical of silk which means anything related to silk or cloth, the right one
Saturday, December 4, 2021
Amazing Chinese Characters (462) Han - 汉(漢)
Han is a very popular and very important character, which has many meanings: Han Dynasty, Han Nationality, Han Language (Standard Chinese), Han Cloth, etc. Han means China or Chinese related.
Han Dynasty (202 B.C. - 220 A.D.) is one of two most powerful dynasties in China history, another one is Tang Dynasty (628 - 907 A.D.). Chinese have been proud of Han Dynasty, call themselves to be Han People, Chinese (language) to be Han language.
Let's see the evolution of the character of Han.
The shell bone script of Han character has not been found. The earliest script for Han character is big seal script.
The left is Water (Post 13), the right is Viola (Post 460). The character means that a river with lush viola in the banks, which is Han River in north west China where was the richest, and the most developed area in ancient China.The small seal script of the character is
Similar to big seal script.
The clerical script of the character is
Left is Three-drops radical, the right is character Viola.
The song typeface for traditional character is
漢
Same as clerical script.
The song typeface for simplified character is
汉
The left is not changed, but the right one becomes character Again (Post 102), which has nothing to do with violet. The simplification is unreasonable, totally just for reducing the number of strokes.
The pinyin of the character is Han4.
Amazing Chinese Characters (752) Borderland - 陲
The bronze script of character Borderland is The left is cliff, the right is character Hang Down (Post 410). The remote Borderland is area w...
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This post has been collected in book "Learn Chinese from Pictography" published on Amazon. You could find it by clicking the follo...