Amazing Chinese Characters (479) Vinegar Jar - 覃

 The bronze script of character Vinegar Jar is

The top is brine added into the jar. The bottom is the jar. Why is the jar having a upside down triangle bottom? I don't know. No explanation about this online. I guess that there is a concave base to hold the jar.

The big seal script of the character is

The bottom is more stable.

The small seal script of the character is

The top is character Chinese Marinade (Post 478), the bottom is the jar. But I can't tell what the parts mean, especially the upside down Treasure-head radical, impossible to be stable as the bottom of a jar.

The clerical script of the character is

The top 西 is the brine, the bottom 早 is the jar, no similarity to older scripts.

The song typeface of the character is 

覃

Same as the clerical script.

The Pinyin of the character is Tan2.

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (478) Chinese Marinade - 卤（鹵）

The bronze script of character Chinese Marinade is

Most people think that is a bag holding foods in salt water. I dots are salt crystals in water, plus some vinegar to make marinade for pickling foods. This is a big plats with multiple grids holding marinade, each for one food.

There is another possibility that the four grids are salt field on beach, the water evaporates and the salt left.    People may use the salty water as marinade to pickle food.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

The dots become short lines, the top curve becomes a half across.

The clerical script of the character is

The right part is similar to small seal script, the left is a Three-Drop radical, which emphasizes that the marinade is a liquid.

The traditional song typeface of the character is 

鹵

Same as the right part of the clerical script.

The simplified song typeface of the character is 

卤

All dots are gone, no salt? It reduced strokes, but destroyed the pictography.

The Pinyin for 卤 is Lu3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (477) Crawl - 匐

 The big seal script of character Crawl is

The outside is character Nine (Post 443), a person bends, and stretches forward.  The inside is character Rice Wine Jar (Post 473). A person bends and push the wine jar rolling forward. 

The small seal script of the character is

The outside is character Nine, a person bends down, as the character Bend and Squat, the small seal script emphasizes the symmetric of the character, not the pictographic. The inside is the Jar.

The clerical script of the character is

similar to big seal script.

The song typeface of the character is

匐

Same as the clerical script.

The Pinyin of the character is Fu2.

匐 is not used as single character nowadays, but used in a combination with 匍 （Post 476) to form 匍匐 words, which means that people crawl forward. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (476) Bend and Squat - 匍

 The bronze script of character Bend and Squat is

The top and right curve, actually is character Nine (Post 443)

勹

a person bends and squats. 

Under the person, it is 

which is character Garden (Post 474), actually is a seeding in fence or a container. 

The person is gardening, bending and squatting are the most common postures.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script, but the outside intersection is just a point, not very pictographic anymore. The inside is very similar to the character Garden.

The small seal script of the character is

Inside is similar to older scripts, but outside becomes almost a circle or rectangle with a small opening, which means "bend and squat", just bent too much. The small script doesn't pay attention to pictographic but the symmetric, over bending on the left could make the character more symmetrical but destroy the pictography.

The clerical script of the character is

similar to bronze, and big seal scripts.

The song typeface of the character is

匍 

Same as the clerical script.

Its Pinyin is Pu

Amazing Chinese Characters (475) Garden - 甫/圃

 The shell bone script of character Garden is

The top is seedling, the bottom is nursery pot. But some people think that the bottom is field because the character field is 田, and the seedlings are in the field most of times. 

The bronze script of the character is

The top is seedling, the bottom is a container made from rattan. Some people believe that it is a bucket, I don't think so. Because it doesn't look like a bucket, and it is impossible to make a bucket without leaking water in 3500+ years ago. 

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of the character is

The top seedling 山 changed to one long horizontal line plus a dot, which is not pictography any more. 

The song typeface of the character is

甫

Same as the clerical script. 

The Pinyin of 甫 is Fu3.

The character 甫 is not used alone right now, only as a part of compound characters. The original Garden meaning is replaced by character 圃.

The evolution of character 圃 as the following,

The bronze script of the character 圃

Just give a box surrounding the shell bone script of character 甫 above, which makes sense because Garden is surrounded by fence.

The big seal script of the character 圃 is 

Put big seal script of 甫 inside of a closed fence.

The small seal script of 圃 is

甫 + a fence.

The clerical script of 圃 is

Similar to older scripts, 甫 is surrounded by a square fence.

The pinyin of 圃 is Pu3. 

 圃 is used alone or with other character to represent Garden right now, 

Amazing Chinese Characters (474) Even - 勻

 The bronze script of character Even is

The outside 

is character Nine - 九 (Post 443), which originally means to search, to explore. Here is to even something.

The inside two dots means "to divide by half". 

The character means that to divide something by half evenly, or to even.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script, but the outside is not like character Nine - 九, the fork shape disappeared. 

The small seal script of the character is

Outside is continuing to change, which almost surrounds the two short lines inside completely. The two short lines are same as two dots in other scripts because small seal script has no dot, using short line to represent dot.

The clerical script of the character is

Similar to big seal script.

The song typeface of the character is 

勻

The Pinyin of character 勻 is Yun2.

Amazing Chinese Characters (473) Rice Wine Jar - 畐

 The shell bone script of character Rice Wine Jar are

Jars with different shapes. The jars are full with rice wine. Ancient China had no grapes, so no wine from grapes, only from rice or other grains. 

The bronze script of the character is

The small seal script of the character is 

The parts are separated, not very like the jar any more.

The standard script of the character is

Similar to small script except the top.

The Pinyin of the character is Fu2.

There is another character Jar - 酉 (Post 104), which has the similar meaning. However, they are a little bit difference. 酉 is Jar or Jug as a tool to make wine or other liquid foods, such as vinegar, soy sauce, etc. 畐 is a container of wine, most likely full with wine. 

畐 is almost not used as a single character nowadays. It has been abandoned in simplified Chinese. However, it is a part in many characters. It is very important to know 畐 for you to understand any character which has 畐. For example, 福 - Fortune (Post 218), and 富 - Rich (Post 195).