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.