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.