Friday, June 30, 2023

Amazing Chinese Characters (599) Residence - 舍 and Abandon - 捨

The bronze script of character Residence is


The top triangle is the roof of hut or shed, the bottom is a semi basement, the middle is the main beam and support beams. The semi basement style residence is to avoid building walls, therefore, it is much easier to build the residence in the ancient time.

The big seal script of character Residence is 

Similar to bronze script. 

The small seal script of character Residence is 

Similar to older scripts.

The clerical script of character Residence is 



Similar to older scripts, except the middle part, the support beams are horizontal, not like support beam anymore. 

The Pinyin of character Residence - 舍 is She4.

The small seal script of character Abandon is


In the ancient time, people hunt wild animal for living. They moved a lot, often abandoned the hut or shed they lived. There are no its shell bone, bronze, big seal scripts, which means that the character was created much later than character 舍. 

The clerical script of character Abandon is

Similar to its small seal script. 

The Pinyin of character 捨 is She3.

捨 also meaning Giving, normally giving help to poor people. 

From the discussion above, we know that 舍 and 捨 are different characters, 舍 was created much earlier than 捨. However, in the simplified song typeface, character 捨 is abandoned, its meaning is merged into character 舍, which reduced one character but makes more confusing. 

First, the pronunciation, before merge, 舍 is pronounced as She4, 捨 is pronounced as She3, even though very close but people could distinguish. After merge, 捨 is abandoned, 舍 is pronounced She3, and She4. You have to pronounce them according to the meaning, "Abandon" should be She3, Residence should be She4. 

Second, it is not easy sometimes to judge where it means Abandon, and where it means Residence. 

Third, right now people consider 捨 is traditional song typeface of 舍, which is wrong. Both 捨 and 舍 are traditional characters, 舍 was created much earlier than 捨. But people wrongly think that in the past, there was only 捨, after simplification experts simplified 捨 to 舍, which is absolutely WRONG!.

This simplification is very bad. 






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