The shell bone script of character Open is
The top left is character Household - 户 （Post 271), meaning a single door. The top right is a hand opening the door. The bottom looks like character Mouth - 口（Post 16). It is believed that the first character had no Mouth. The meaning of the character is to Open the door. Later, the Mouth - 口 was added to mean "Teaching, Guiding for Beginners", open a door for skills and knowledge.
The big seal script of character Open is
The small seal script of character Open is
The left 启 is 户（top - character Household) + 口（bottom - Mouth), the right is a hand (lower part) holding a stick (higher part), which means "knock, hit" here. The stick here should be a tool for opening door.
The clerical script of character Open is
The simplified song type face of character Open is
Just the left half of the small seal script, the right part - Hand eliminated.
The Pinyin of character Open - 启（啓）is Qi3.
There is another character Open - 开 -開 （Post 359), its original meaning is to Open double door.
The difference between the two:
开（開）means Open, such as open a door, open to public, open a tournament (e.g. U.S. Open), open to talk, etc.
启（啓）means start up, start, inspire, announcement, notice, etc.
They are similar in most situation, however, 启（啓）is more formal, more mental, conceptal, and used more in writing; 开（開）is a little bit more informal, could be used both in writing and oral Chinese. Another big difference between the two is 启（啓）is not used in physical open anything anymore, all those open is 开（開）.
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