Amazing Chinese Characters (703) Carpenter - 匠

The big seal script of character Carpenter is

The outside is character Basket for God - 匚（Post 694). The inside is character Catty or Jin - 斤 (Post 698). The most popular explanation of character Catty or Jin is Axe, so experts believe that the basket is belong to a carpenter, which contains axe. As I discussed in Post 698, I disagree with the popular explanation, I think the character Catty or Jin - 斤 is not axe, but two pieces of firewood split by axe or other tools. 

Therefore, the basket contains the pieces of wood, raw or semi finished/finished parts. As I discussed in character Correct (Post 695), the basket for god has some magic power, guide the carpenter to change the wood pieces into furniture or houses. 

The small seal script of character Carpenter is

Some similarity to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Carpenter is

Inside is the clerical script of character Catty or Jin.

The Pinyin of the character is Jiang4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (702) Axe - 斧

The shell bone script of character Axe is

It looks like a modern axe. However, the above shell one script only listed in 《在线汉语字典》(The Online Chinese Dictionary), not in 《漢典》（Chinese Dictionary), 《Chinese Etymology》, two very important Chinese dictionaries. It shows that there are different opinions on if the script above means Axe, a questionable script.

The bronze script of character Axe is

It has two parts, one is 

Which is character Catty or Jin (Post 699), here it means the two pieces of firewood just being cut.

Another part is 

Character Father (Post 166), not very similar but close enough. The script of above is a hand holding a tool (may be knife). 

The entire character of Axe is "A hand holding a tool to split or cut a wood (the top), got some split firewood (the bottom)", indirectly means the Axe, a tool used to cut wood. 

The big seal script of character Axe is

Similar or same as bronze script.

The small seal script of character Axe is

The top + right long vertical line is character Father, the left lower part is character Catty or Jin.

The clerical script of character Axe is

The top is clerical script of character Father, the bottom is clerical script of character Catty or Jin.

The Pinyin of the character is Fu3.

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (701) Close or Near - 近

The big seal script of character Close or Near is

the left 

is Road (the top) and Foot (the bottom), which means walking on the road. 

The right is character Catty or Jin, here it means scissors or a tool used to cut.

Shortcut is closer to the destination, which is the meaning of the character.

The small seal script of character Close or Near is

The left is "walking on the road", the right is character Catty or Jin, here it means Cut.

The clerical script of character Close or Near is

The life and bottom is called Radical Walking Bottom, meaning walking on the road. The right is character Catty or Jin, here it means Cut.

The pinyin of the character is Jin4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (700) Fold - 折

 The shell bone script of character Fold is

The left are two character Grass (Post 40), the right is character Catty or Jin, meaning hatchet here. The left should be a long grass, cut by hatchet. Chinese 折 has meaning of folding and breaking. It emphasizes folding process, the result may be broken, may be not.

The bronze script of character Fold is

The left is same as shell bone script, the right is character Catty or Jin, meaning to cut.

The small seal script of character Fold is 

Here is interesting. The left looks like a long grass, but it is character Hand.

which is an understandable mistake: they people of Qin Dynasty mistakely wrote a character Hand for long grass.

The right is character Catty or Jin, a scissors for cutting.

The clerical script of character Fold is

The left is Radical Hand (mistake continues), the right is character Catty or Jin. 

The pinyin of the character is Zhe1.

Amazing Chinese Characters (699) Break - 断（斷）

 The big seal script of character Break is

The left is silk bunches on weaving machine, the right is character Catty or Jin (Post 698), here is to Cut.  Cutting the silk is Break.

The small seal script of character Break is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Break is 

The left changed a lot, but still means the silk bunches, the right is character Catty or Jin, here it means cut.

The simplified song typeface of character Break is

I don't know where the left is from, not like common running or cursive scripts. Anyway, lost all pictography, and no any similarity to old scripts, but decreased strokes, which is not meaningful in the time people enter the character on computer with Chinese application easily. The benefit is disappeared, but the damage is done permanently. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (698) Catty or Jin - 斤

The shell bone script of character Catty or Jin is

The experts explain the above as a hatchet, which looks like an arrow mounted in the end of a bent stick. It may be used to cut trees in ancient time, but has nothing to do with catty, a weight unit.

The bronze script of character Catty or Jin is

This is hard to understand this one. Someone believe that the left is the blade, the right is the handle. A person thinks that it is not hatchet used to cut tree, instead it is used to cut cloth in textile workshops. I think that it may be a scissors used to cut small trees. 

I would say that it something was cut to two parts. The script shows the section dividing the two new surfaces after cutting.

The big seal script of character Catty or Jin is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Catty or Jin is

The left is character Body (Post 423), the right lower part is like up-down U. It is a section between two surfaces. 

The character means Catty or Jin, the unit of weight. I don't know the reason, only guess that meaning of Catty or Jin is added to the character, which is a method ancient Chinese used when they needed a character to represent something, but it is difficult to create one, they "borrow" exist one to add the meaning they needed into the character. Why did they "borrow" this character? Probably because, the weight of Axe used to split the firewood is close to the weight (500-600 grams), therefore, they "borrowed" the character. 

The clerical script of character Catty or Jin is 

Not much similarity to older script.  

The Pinyin of the character is Jin1.

Nowadays, few people know the "the two surfaces of split firewood", the original meaning of character, only know Catty or Jin, the unit of weight. However, it is widely existed in many compound characters with its original meaning.

Amazing Chinese Characters (697) Bamboo Basket - 筐

The big seal script of character Bamboo Basket is

The top is character Bamboo (Post 23), the bottom is character Basket for God (Post 694). The character means a basket made from bamboo.

The small seal script of character Bamboo Basket is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Bamboo Basket is

The top, outside of the lower part are similar to older script. The inside of Basket - 匚 is changed to character King - 王, from character Living.

The pinyin of the character is Kuang1.

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (696) Medicine - 医（醫）

The big seal script of character Medicine is

The left is character Basket for God (Post 694) , but here is normal basket. The character Arrow (Post 38) is inside. Experts believe that the left of the character is an arrow basket. The right is character Spear (Post 590). The entire character means weapon storage, or a box carrying weapon for soldier, has nothing to do with medicine.

The small seal script of character Medicine is

The top is similar to big seal script, the bottom added character Liquor Jug. If we think the top is a soldier weapon box, the jug contains alcohol or Chinese medicine used to treat the injured soldier, which is a practice of medicine. 

The clerical script of character Medicine is

Similar to small seal script.

The pinyin of the character is Yi1. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (695) Correct - 匡

The bronze script of character Correct is

It is character Basket (Post 694) outside, where God Lord tablet is. The inside is character 㞷, the top is character Foot (Post 370)

means foot on the ground. 

The bottom is character King

Even though it looks like there are not enough horizontal  lines, but we could thinks some lines are overlaped.

The character means that people went to the King who is inside the big basket with the god lord tablet together, which implies that the King is sent by God. He does what the god likes. What he does is correct. 

 

The big seal script of character Correct is

The outside is character Basket, the inside is character Living. 

The small seal script of character Correct is

Similar to big seal script, but there is extra horizontal line character Living.

The clerical script of character Correct is

The outside is similar as the older scripts, but the inside becomes character King, which looks similar but the meaning is not related.

The Pinyin of the character is Kuang1.

Amazing Chinese Characters (694) Basket for God - 匚

 The shell bone script of character Basket for God is

A vertical basket. Because there was no paper until East Han Dynasty (25–220 AD), people wrote characters on bamboo slips, which are very narrow, difficult to write wide in horizontal direction, therefore, many characters were written in vertical direction. The shell bone script of character Basket is one of them.

The basket here is huge, and people worship the God tablet inside. It is not normal basket. 

The bronze script of character Basket for God is

Similar to shell bone script, but the direction reversed.

The big seal script of character Basket for God is

Similar to older scripts, but only single line.

The small seal script of character Basket for God is

Similar to older scripts.

The clerical script of character Basket for God is

Similar to older scripts.

The Pinyin of the character is Fang4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (693) Coffin - 柩

The big seal script of character Coffin is

The left is character Wood (Post 10), the right is character Moxibustion (Post 692), here means a died body due to long time illness. 

The small seal script of character Coffin is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Coffin is

The left is Radical Wood, the right is clerical script of character Coffin.

The Pinyin of the character is Jiu4.