Amazing Chinese Characters (651) Path between Fields - 塍

The bronze script of character Path between Fields is 

The left is character Boat (Post 117), the right top is a rudder, the middle are two hands, and the bottom is character Soil (Post 223). The first three parts form character I (Emperor self Claim - Post 431).

The shell bone script of character I (Emperor self Claim)

Plus the character Soil means that the Ridge Emperor walks: the path between fields. 

The King or Emperor divides the fields for people who got which field, or the ownership of the field is confirmed by the King.

The big seal script of character Path between Fields is

The left is Radical Moon, which should be character Boat.  It is a mistakenly written. The right top is character Rice, which may be mistake, may not. The right middle are two hands, and right bottom is Soil. The top right is like character Rice as following,

Not exactly same, but similar. The field is rice field, which may mean that.

The small seal script of character Path between Fields is

The left is character Boat, which is right. The right top is character Fire, which is different from rudder or rice, it may be a mistake because the Fire looks like Rice, same as in small seal scripts of character Success (Post 650) and Soar (Post 432).

The clerical script of character Path between Fields is

The left is character Moon, which is wrong. The right top is simplified of combination of character Fire and two hands, the bottom is character Soil.

The Pinyin of the character is Cheng2.

The character is not used often anymore. 

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (650) Success - 胜（勝）

The big seal script of character Success or Successful is

The left is character Boat (Post 117), the right top is a vertical bar with a dot in the middle, here means a rudder, the middle is two hands holding the rudder. The three parts: left, top right, middle right, form character "I or Me - Emperor or King self claim(Post 431). Plus the right bottom which is character Power or Strength (Post 168), we have character Success or Successful. 

The character Emperor or King self claim actually is helmsman who controls the direction of the boat, here implies the direction of the army. The character Power or Strength means that they tried very hard to get success.

The small seal script of character Success or Successful is

Some similar to big seal script, but the top mistakenly becomes character Fire (Post 26), not a rudder. The script is very symmetric. 

There is another small seal script of the character

The left is character Moon (Post 53), or character Meat (Post 252), the right is character Living (Post 352). I don't know where the script came from, and what it means. Anyway, it has nothing to do with success, no relationship to other scripts of the character.

The clerical script of the character Success or Successful is

The left is character Moon, which is obvious a wrong writing. The right top is also wrong writing, no rudder, no hands, only the bottom character Power or Strength is correct.

The simplified song typeface of the character is

which is similar to the second small script above. However, as I mentioned above, this script has nothing to do with the original pictography, and no any relationship or similarity to other scripts, therefore, the song typeface above is strange too.

The Pinyin of the character is Sheng4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (649) Dawn - 晓（曉）

 The big seal script of character Dawn is

The left is character Sun - 日 (Post 4), the right is character Emperor Yao - 尧 (Post 612), here it means brick maker using Kiln. In the ancient time, people hunted, picked up fruits, and farming, almost no job requires continuously many days except the kiln work. They worked day and night in turns, they were the people who most likely to see the sun in dawn near the kiln.

The small seal script of character Dawn is

Similar to its big seal script.

The clerical script of character Dawn is

The left is character Sun, the right is character Emperor Yao.

The simplified song typeface is

The right top 垚 is replaced by 戈 without the dot on the top right. It should be from the cursive script, but there is no explanation why cursive script is like that.

The Pinyin of the character is Xiao3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (648) Pick Out - 抉

 The big seal script of character Pick Out is

The left is character Hand (Post 55), the right part is character Odd Jade (Post 644). To pick out the defect jade. Now It means to make decision from many options or choices. 

The small seal script of character Pick Out is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Pick Out is

The left is Radical Hand, the right is simplified character Odd Jade.

The Pinyin of the character is Jue2.

The character is used in the situation when people make difficult decision, which is very important to your career, life, and family. The influence of the decision may last years or life time, so people need long time consideration before the decision. It is not used to choose a restaurant for dinner.

Amazing Chinese Characters (647) Quick - 快

The big seal script of character Quick is

The left is character Heart (Post 24), the right is character Odd Jade, here means lack of consideration. If lack of consideration, people may be rush to do something.

The small seal script of character Quick is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Quick is

The left is Radical Heart, the right is simplified character Odd Jade.

The Pinyin of the character is Kuai4. 

Original, the character means Quick. Right now, it means Quick and Fast, mentally or physically in a rush. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (646) Lack - 缺

 The big seal script of character Lack is

The left is character Can - 缶

which is a Chinese medicine mortar

In order to see what the mortar is like inside, we can see the image below

The front far left is the mortar with a lid, the rest are mortars without lid.

The right part of the character is character Odd Jade (Post 644), which means defect here. 

The character means a defected mortar or bowl or any similar stuff, one or more piece(s) missing or broken or lacking.

The small seal script of character Lack is 

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Lack is

The left is Mortar, the right is simplified character Odd Jade.

The Pinyin of the character is Que1.

Character Lack - 缺 could mean something partially missing or lost partially, or something missing (you should have, but never have had).

Amazing Chinese Characters (645) Burst - 决

 The big seal script of character Burst is

The left is two ice blocks, the right is character Odd Jade (Post 644), which means that there is a mouth in the river bank, making big flood. Why is the left two ice blocks, not character Water? I don't know.

The small seal script of character Burst is

The left is character Water (Post 13), the right is character Odd Jade (Post 644). Here left is character Water, the right is character Odd Jade. 

The clerical script of character Burst is

The left is Radical Two Drops, normally means cold, the right is character Odd Jade, but changed a lot, especially the bottom, no similarity to old scripts.

The Pinyin of the character is Jue2.

The character means that the water bursts the bank, but more meanings like: decide, split, etc, but all happened quickly.

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (644) Odd Jade - 夬

 The shell bone script of character Odd Jade is (from 汉典）

Looks like a hand holding a small thing - the small circle. The character means a jade with a mouth.

There is another shell bone script from "Dictionary of Pictography" （象形字典）

The top X  is a hand, the bottom X is another hand. The U in between is a jade bracelet with a mouth. The character means that one person gives a jade bracelet to another person as a parting gift. I guess that ancient people back to 3500+ years ago were unable to do a jade bracelet without mouth or disconnected point, U shape jade bracelet was very expensive gift.

The bronze script and the big seal script is (from "Dictionary of Pictograph“）

The top is a hand, the bottom is another, the U disappeared. They may mean handshaking when people parting because normal people didn't have jade bracelet. 

The small seal sccript of character Odd Jade is

The top normally means a hand or foot, but here may be a Jade with a mouth. The bottom is a hand holding the Jade. 

The character was not used long time ago, may be 3000+ years ago. However, it is a part of many compound characters, it is necessary to discuss the character before we discuss other characters including it, even though I couldn't make it meaning clear without doubt. 

The Pinyin of the character is Guai4, which is same as character Strange - 怪. Some people believe that it is an evidence that the character Odd Jade meant the same as Strange. Odd Jade is strange, I support the idea.

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (643) Meal - 饭

 The bronze script of character Meal is

The left is character Eat - 食（Post 190), the right is character Anti-, Against, Reverse (Post 430). The character Eat is to eat the food on the utensil directly, 

The shell bone script of character Eat is

The top triangle is the mouth, the bottom is the food and utensil, the mouth bites the food. 

The Meal is character Eat + Reverse, meaning the food moving to the mouth. Some people believe it to be pilaf in which people use their fingers to grab rice, then turn the hand to face up (reverse the hand), and send the rice to mouth. The "Reverse" is to reverse the hand.

However, we don't know what the normal way ancient Chinese ate? Of course, not take the food from mouth to utensil, not use fingers grabbing the food with palm down (unable to send the food into mouth).

I think that the most likely the way ancient Chinese ate is to move mouth to the food, the reverse is to move the food to the mouth. The character Eat - 食 above is the normal way: bite the food on utensil, therefore move food to the mouth, no matter use fingers or chopsticks is reverse. 

The best food for pilaf is rice, the character Meal also means Rice, which is match my explanation. In Shang Dynasty, the agriculture was not very developed, people hunted more, ate more meat. The meat were cut big chunks, difficult to use hand to grab or use chopsticks to get it into mouth, easily to bite. Rice became main food in later time, people could easily to get rice into mouth with fingers or chopsticks. 

The big seal script of character Meal is

The left is character Eat, the right is character Reverse.

The small seal script of character Meal is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Meal is

Eat and Reverse.

The simplified song typeface of character Meal is

The left is Radical Eat, the right is unchanged.

The Pinyin of the character is Fan4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (642) Sell - 贩

 The big seal script of character Sell is

The left is character Shell (Post 194), the right is character Anti-, Against, Reverse (Post 430). Shell was currency in ancient time, "return currency" means that I had the shell, but I used to buy something, right now I sell something to get the currency (shell) back to me. 

The small seal script of character Sell is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Sell is

The left is character Shell, the right is character Reverse.

The simplified song typeface is

The character on the left is changed from traditional song typeface 貝 to simplified song typeface 贝. The right is same, no change.

The Pinyin of the character is Fan4.

Amazing Chinese Characters（641）Return - 返

 The bronze script of character Return is

The left top is left half of character Walk or Road (Post 96) 

The bottom is character Stop or Foot (Post 93).

Total left means walking on the road. 

The right one is character Anti-, Against, Reverse (Post 430).

Walking in a reverse direction is Return.

The big seal script of character Return is

The left top and the bottom together mean the walking on the road, the right top is character Reverse.

The small seal script of character Return is

The left from top to bottom is the Radical Walking the right is character Reverse.

The clerical script of character Return is

The left and bottom is radical Walking, the right is the character Reverse.