Amazing Chinese Characters (783) Grace - 恩

The big seal script of character Grace is

The top is character Because - 因 (Post 777), the bottom is character Heart - 心 (Post 24).  因 is a person's base, origin, 心 is a love from heart. Here is to help people from heart, make all of efforts, which is a grace and love giving on someone.

The small seal script of character Grace is 

The top is character Because - 因, the bottom is character Heart - 心. Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Grace is

Similar to small seal script.

The pinyin of character 恩 is en1.

Amazing Chinese Characters (782) Feel - 感

The big seal script of character Feel is

The top is character 咸 (Post 781), the bottom is character Heart (Post 24), which ancient Chinese believed is Central Nervous System which could feel the pain. 

The small seal script of character Feel is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Feel is

The top is similar to that in small seal script, the bottom is clerical script of character Heart.

The pinyin of character 感 is gan3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (781) Salty - 咸

The big seal script of character Salty is 

The right top and right together is character 戌 (Post 779), the left bottom is character 口 (Post 16). The 戌 is an ancient weapon - pole - axe, which can injure or kill people, causing bleeding which is salty.

Why did ancient Chinese use salt to mean salty? First, it is difficult to describe Salt, besides, salt was very difficult to get, not everyone could have salt often. Ancient Chinese liked to use more popular things to describe the meaning, blood is well known by everyone. Therefore, the character Salty is formed by weapon and mouth the organ for tasting. 

The bronze script of character Salty is

The top is character 戌, and bottom middle is character 口. 

The small seal script of character Salty is

Similar to bronze script.

The clerical script of character Salty is

Similar to small seal script.

The pinyin of character 咸 is Xian2. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (780) Garrison - 戍

The shell bone script of character Garrison is

The right is character 戈 (Post 80),  left bottom is character Person (Post 37). To protect people by weapon is Garrison.

The bronze script of character Garrison is

Similar to shell bone script except the character Person has some deformation due to immature metallurgical techniques at that time.

The small seal script of character Garrison is

Similar to older scripts.

The clerical script of character Garrison is

The person in older scripts is a dot under the 戊 (Post 778), which is very similar to character 戌 (Post 779) 

Only the angle is different.

The Pinyin of character 戍 is shu4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (779) The 11th Earthly Branch - 戌

The shell bone script of character The 11th Earthly Branch is

A pole-axe, an ancient weapon, very similar to character 戊 (Post 778), just the axe replaced the knife. It became to mean "The 11th Earthly Branch", the reason why it was chosen to be the serial number is unknown. Besides the weapon was not used long time ago, there is no archaeological relics being found.

The bronze script of character The 11th Earthly Branch is

The axe on the left, the right top becomes sharp fork as an offensive weapon, the bottom is the handle. The curved body makes easier to switch from using fork to using to axe.

The big seal script of character The 11th Earthly Branch is

Similar to bronze script.

The small script of character The 11th Earthly Branch is

Similar to big seal script but the left axe is not like the real axe anymore because the lower line is not connected to anywhere.

The clerical script of character The 11th Earthly Branch is

Similar to small seal script.

The pinyin of character 戌 is xu1.

Amazing Chinese Characters (778) The fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems - 戊

Shell bone of character of the fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems is

which is an ancient weapon. We can compare it with character 戈 (Post 80)

The fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems has extra curve on the top left, which could be a knife. Therefore it has two parts: the knife on top left and the dagger like on the top. 

The original meaning of the character is weapon, but it became to be "the fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems" about 3300 years ago in Shang dynasty. Why it was chosen to be used in Heavenly Stems? No documents explain the reason. 

People know it as the fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems more than as weapon now because that weapon had been not used long long time ago,

The bronze script of the character of the fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems is

The left knife blade is straight, the right top is the sharp fork, and the bottom is the handle. The right part becomes big curved, because it is easier to switch from using the top fork to using the side knife.

The small seal script of the fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems is

The left shield now is not connected the horizontal bar, which is not real no matter it is a shield or a knife. The small seal script is changed to be no connection to older scripts, and lost the pictography of the character.

The clerical script of the fifth of the ten Heavenly Stems is

Similar to small seal script.

The pinyin of character 戊 is Wu4.
     

Amazing Chinese Characters (777) Because - 因

The shell bone script of character Beause is

The middle is character Big (Post 76), meaning a person opens his arms and legs. The big rectangle is a bed mat for him to sleep. People sleep in the same bed mat every night, each one has his own bed mat where is his base, and his original. I guess that the bed mat was different according to the person's social status at that time to distinguish people. People believed that a person became what he was due to his original, here is the bed mat.

The bronze script of character Because is

Similar to shell bone script.

The small seal script of character Because is

Similar to older scripts, but more smooth, and symmetrical.

The clerical script of character Because is

All lines are straight now.

Pinyin of character Because is Yin1.

Amazing Chinese Characters (776) Xiang (Abbreviation of Hunan) - 湘

 The bronze script of character Xiang is

The top is character Mutual - 相 (Post 376), which means that checking the trees for building material. The bottom is horizontal character Water - 水 (Post 13). The meaning of the character Xiang is row raft on the river to transport the wood materials back to home for building houses.

The big seal script of character Xiang is

Similar to bronze script, the top is character Mutual - 相, the bottom is character Water - 水, row rafting. 

The small seal script of character Xiang is

The character Water - 水 right now is on the left, and the character Mutual - 相 is on the right, which arrangement could make the character compact in order to write into a square box.

The clerical script of character Xiang is

The left is Radical Three Drops, which is simplified of character Water - 水. The right is character Mutual - 相.

When 湘 represents Hunan is unknown, but at least before Warring State Period - 战国时代， 475 – 221 BC, 湘 means Hunan.

Amazing Chinese Characters (775) Yu (family name) - 俞

 The bronze script of character Yu is

The left is character Boat (Post 117), the right top triangle is upper lip, and the bottom two curves are water flow, here is a narrow river. The upper lip means that a person who controls the river channel allows the boat to pass. The original meaning of the character is "allow", "agree", "yes".

The big seal script of character Yu is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Yu is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Yu is

The upper lip part on the top is similar to older scripts. The left on the bottom changed from character Boat to character Moon (Post 53), it may be due to the similarity of the two, but it is wrong for the change. 

Besides, the right part from two curves changed to a radical Knife, caused by the similarity of the two, which is wrong too. 

The Pinyin of the character is Yu2.

The character is only used as family name. The original meanings: agree, yes, satisfied, etc. are only exist in the ancient documents. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (774) Entrust - 委

The big seal script of character Entrust is

The top is character Rice Crop (Post 34), the bottom is character Woman (Post 20). A woman bears heavy rice crop on her back or shoulder, which is a hard work suppose to be taken by men. Right now, may be lack of labor, may be for saving money. Anyway, it is unreasonable entrust arrangement. The image you could have is a small lady bent her back, twisted her body to walk with heavy rice crop on her shoulder.

The small seal script of character Entrust is

Similar to big seal script, Rice Crop on the top, the Woman on the bottom.

The clerical script of character Entrust is

All lines are straight or close to straight.

The Pinyin of the character is Wei3.

委 has other meanings close to its original meaning: 

1, 委身：a woman is forced or half forced to be a wife or girlfriend of a man

2, 委屈：wronged

Pictographic Interpretation of Chinese Characters 止，步，涉

Pictographic Interpretation of Chinese Characters 止，步，涉

 https://youtu.be/Oe1yYqWzxGc

Amazing Chinese characters (773) Zhao - 赵（趙）

The bronze script of character Zhao is

The left is character Walk - 走 (Post 96), 

The right part is character Shrink - 肖（480）

which is small moon, which means the dark night. We see full moon, half moon, and small moon. Full moon night is the brightest, and the small moon night is darker even though better than no moon night. The small moon is also meaning that the moon shrinks.

Who walks (fast walking) in dark night? Most likely the burglars or soldiers rushing to the war battle field. 

The big shell script of character Zhao is

Walk + Shrink.

The small seal script of character Zhao is

Similar to big seal.

The clerical script of character Zhao is

Walk + Shrink.

The song typeface of character Zhao is

The X replaced character 肖 is bad, because X is not good meaning in characters, for example, 凶 - Fierce (Post 312), means Risk, and Danger. The replacement is not only destroyed the pictographic, but also changed to meaning to "Walking with risk or danger". 

The Pinyin of the character is Zhao4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (772) Grass (ancient) - 屮

The shell bone script of character Grass (ancient) is

A newly grown grass. 

The bronze script of character Grass (ancient) is 

Similar to shell bone script.

The big seal script of character Grass (ancient) is

Similar to older scripts, but the curve is very smooth and symmetrical.

The small seal script of character Grass (ancient) is

Very similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Grass (ancient) is

Similar to older scripts, but all lines become straight lines.

The Pinyin of the character is Che4.

The character was replaced by character 草 long time ago, it has not been used as grass alone but it is used in compound characters as a radical part. For example, the big seal script of 草字头 - Radical Grass is

Two 屮 together.