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.