Amazing Chinese Characters (506) Base - 基

 The shell bone script of character Base is

The bottom is character Its or That (其, Post 505), which means a basket, the top is Soil (Post 223), even though the dot in the vertical is not showing. The character means that using basket to carry soil to set up a base.

The bronze script of character Base is

The bottom 土 is character Soil, the rest is character 其, the basket. The soil is on bottom but the character means same as that of shell bone script: to carry the soil for setting up a base. The small seal script of character 其 (Post 505) has the same structure.

The big seal script of character Base is

Similar to the bronze script.

The small seal script of character Base is

Similar to older scripts.

The clerical script of character Base is

The X becomes two short horizontal lines, the rest is similar to the older scripts.

The pinyin of character 基 is Ji1.