Amazing Chinese Characters (773) 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. 
 

Amazing Chinese characters (771) Cloth - 布

 The bronze script of character Cloth is

The bottom is character Towel - 巾（Post 172），the top is character Father - 父（Post 166), which is a hand holding a stick or bar, meaning he works hard, and has power to punish family members. Here it means to hit the flax to make linen, the earliest cloth for Chinese.

The big seal script of character Cloth is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Cloth is

The bottom 巾（towel) is similar to bronze or big seal script. The top is hand holding the stick which is very short, and connected with hand which is difficult to separate it from the hand, lost the pictography.

The clerical script of character Cloth is

The bottom 巾 is still very similar to older scripts, but the top hand with stick changed dramatically, please use your imagination to figure out how it became the current form from the small seal script. 

The Pinyin of the character is Bu4. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (770) Give with Respect - 奉

The bronze script of character Give with Respect is

The top is character Harvest and Abundance - 丰, ears of wheat (Post 317), the bottom are two hands which hold the crop to give to some one who is a prestigious person, such as King,  or to God in Sacrifice.

The big seal script of character Give with Respect is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Give with Respect is

Similar to older scripts, except an extra hand in the bottom which shows the present is heavy, needs more people to lift.

The clerical script of character Give with Respect is

The top middle is character Harvest and Abundance, the falling-down left, and falling-down right strokes are two hands, the bottom is another hands. 

The Pinyin of the character is Feng4.

Amazing Chinese characters (769) Libation - 奠

The shell bone script of character Libation is

The top is character Liquor Jug (Post 104)

The bottom one line means the earth. The character means sacrificial wine for earth. 

The bronze script of character Libation is

The top is character Liquor Jug, and bottom is earth with wine drops.

The big seal script of character Libation is 

The top is character Eight - 八 (Post 156), means Separate, here is Open, open the jug mouth (= separate the mouth). The middle is character Liquor Jug. The bottom is two hands holding the jug.

The small seal script of character of Libation is

Similar to big seal script. 

The clerical script of character Libation is

Some similarity to small seal script.

The Pinyin of the character is Dian4.

Amazing Chinese characters (768) Rotation - 番

The bronze script of character Rotation is

The top is like character Rice - 米 (Post 163), but it is not the same. I think it is rice crop with rice before threshing. The bottom is character Field - 田 (Post 3). The character means that the rice crop is planted in paddy field to produce the rice year after year.  It is used to express how many times of a same thing people has done.

The big seal script of character Rotation is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Rotation is

Similar to big seal script, but the top stroke bent to right instead of left.

The clerical script of character Rotation is

The top stroke is all through from right to left now, the rest is similar to older scripts.

The Pinyin of the script is Fan1.

Amazing Chinese Characters（767）Full of Life - 苏

The bronze script of character Full of Life is 

The top are two grass, left bottom is character Fish (Post 2), the right bottom is character Wood (Post 10). The character means a place with a lot of grass, wood, and fish, a full of life world.

The big seal script of character Full of Life is

The left top, the middle, and the bottom together is character Fish, the top right is character Wood. Grass is not showing. But the meaning is same: full of live.

The small seal script of character Full of Life is

The top are two grass, the left is fish, the right is character Rice Crop (Post 34), changed from character Wood in bronze and big seal scripts, but the meaning is same. Why did change? Because the rice crop was more important than wood in 2200 ago than 3000 + years ago when people more relied on the fruits on trees.  

The clerical script of character Full of Life is

The top is Grass Radical, the left is character Fish, the right is character Rice Crop.

The simplified song typeface of the character is 

The top is Grass Radical, the bottom is character Manage (not discussed yet), nothing to do with Full of Live. No idea where it is from.

The Pinyin of the character is Su1. 

 

Amazing Chinese characters (766) Chapter - 章

The bronze script of character Chapter is

The top is character 辛 - Pungent （Post 733), the middle may be character 曰 - Say (Post 341), or just a drawing of big round board with some characters or symbols on. The character 辛 vertical line penetrated the character 曰. 辛 also means tongue which could speak and sing, here it means sing or singing. The tongue is singing according to the music score on the big board.

The big seal script of character Chapter is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Chapter is

The top is character 辛, the bottom is character 早 - Morning, which is not same as the bottom in bronze and big seal scripts. It is a mistake, changed the original meaning to unknown meaning. 

The clerical script of character Chapter is

The top is character 立 - Stand from character 辛 - Pungent; the bottom is character 早 - Morning. It has been changed from the top to bottom, lost 100% original meaning and pictography, just because people wanted to write couple strokes less. 

The Pinyin of the character is Zhang1.

Amazing Chinese characters (765) Cao (Family name) - 曹

 The shell bone script of character Cao is

The top are two characters East (Post 77), the bottom is character Mouth (Post 16). The character East could mean Host, Owner, etc. here it means party in the court, the two parties: Plaintiff, and Defendant. The Mouth means arguing between the two parties. Original meaning of the character is Court Argument.

The bronze script of character Cao is

The top are two characters East, the bottom is character Say (341), argument on the court.

The big seal script of character Cao is

Two Easts on the top, and Say in the bottom.

The small seal script of character Cao is

Easts and Say.

The clerical script of character Cao is

The top two small curves are pulled to one straight line, the middle two 日 are merged together, the bottom closed the open to form characer 曰（Say).

The Pinyin of the character is Cao2.

The character is only used as family name, the court-argument meaning is disappeared.

The reason why it is used just for family name may be that it was used as a famous person 曹操 who was the king of state during Three Kingdoms (A.D. 220 - 280). Normally, if a character was used for a famous King or Emperor, the character would be used only for family name, all other meanings won't be used anymore.  

Amazing Chinese Characters (764) Fraud - 诈

 The bronze script of character Fraud is

The left is character Say (Post 157), the right is character Sudden - 乍（Post 763). The character looks deformed, which was caused by the low casting technology at that time - 3000+ years ago.

Overstate, and boast something to make people believe, then taking advantage of people's gullibility. 

The big seal script of character Fraud is

Say is in left, and Sudden on the right.

The small seal script of character Fraud is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Fraud is

The left is radical Say, and the right is character Sudden.

The simplified song typeface is

The character Say is simplified.

The Pinyin of the character is Zha4, same as the character 乍.