Amazing Chinese characters (787) Fundamental - 元

Shell bone script of character Fundamental is

The top is "一“, like character One; the rest is character Unexpected - 兀 (Post 611), which is a person without head. 

The 一 on the top is an indicative sign, which means that this is where I mean. It is the head in this character but it is not for the biological head, which is 头 (頭） it is the implication of the head: the fundamental organ of human, also means "basic", "first", "most important", etc.

Bronze script of character Fundamental is

Similar to shell bone script, but the bottom one is deformed due to the immature metallurgical technology at that time. 

Big seal script of character Fundamental is

Similar to bronze script, the bottom human shape is simplified, not as pictographic as shell bone script.

Small sell script of character Fundamental is

The bottom Human body changed a lot: the left arm extends to ground, and the right body shape bent more and bent plus reverse bent. The purpose of doing so is to make the script more symmetrical and smoother. 

Clerical script of character Fundamental is

Similar to small seal script, but simplified, the strokes are outwards from inwards.

Song typeface of character Fundamental is

Similar to clerical script.

The pinyin of the character is Yuan2.

Amazing Chinese characters (785) Head - 头（頭）

The shell bone script of character Head is

The left is character Bean - 豆 (Post 174), the right is character Page - 页 (Post 257). In the Shang Dynasty, people steamed the head of captive or slave to worship ancestors and gods. The character Bean - 豆, is a cooking cauldron used to boil or steam foods. Here is to steam the human head for worshipping.

The big seal script of character Head is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of character Head is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Head is

Similar to older scripts but most curves become straight lines.

The simplified song typeface of character Head is

It is from nowhere, completely disconnected with older scripts.

The pinyin of the character Head is Tou2.

Amazing Chinese Characters (784) Negotiate - 商

The shell bone script of character Negotiate is

The top is top part of character Say (Post 158)

which means tongue, the organ for speaking. 

The bottom is character Cave (Post 44), the residence of human in the ancient time.

The cave could be a place for people gathering to negotiate important things, what was the most important thing in more than 3500+ years ago: foods. People didn't have enough foods most of the time, they shared the foods to survive. Therefore, they negotiated how to divide the foods they got either from planting or hunting or collecting. Most of time, it is distributed equally, that means total foods (weight) divided by number of people, the quotient is the result of the operation. The original meaning of the character was Quotient, and it still is the formal term in math.

The character also means that people use their tongue to negotiate or discuss how to distribute the foods or substances. 

It is interesting that the Quotient (character Negotiate) has shell bone script, but Sum, Difference, Product have no shell bone script, which means that the division was most popular calculation in shell bone script time (Shang Dynasty, 3500 years ago), the addition, subtraction, multiplication were not popular at that time because the distribution of the foods among people was the most popular and important action in that time. 

Why did the ancient people put the tongue outside of cave? They might have wanted to emphasize the situation: many people or all people did use tongue (to speak) and very loud, the sounds could be heard outside the cave, or it is public and transparent.  If put the tongue inside, it may be thought a secret agreement.

The character means Trade or Business too. Trade or Business is also negotiating between people in a room.

The bronze script of character Negotiate is 

The top is tongue, not very like the tongue maybe due to the poor casting technology at that time, causing the shape of the character distorted. The bottom is the cave, and the mouth (口）inside the cave, which may mean that there are many mouths in the cave speak to discuss how to distribute, or trade.

Small seal script of character Negotiate is

he top part is a tongue, and the bottom consists of a 'cave' (穴) plus a 'mouth' (口), which is similar to the bronze script. There is an extra horizontal stroke above the 'tongue' that isn't connected to it. What does that mean? It is an indicative mark, representing the sound emitted by the tongue. We can see a similar method of expression in the character for 'sound' (音, Post 159).

The small seal script of character Sound 

 

The top is identical to the upper portion of character Negotiate; it also uses a short horizontal line, positioned slightly apart from the tongue, to signify the sound being emitted. The bottom part is character Say (曰, Post 341), which refers to a sound accompanied by lyrics—meaningful speech, as opposed to a sound without meaning.

The clerical script of character Negotiate is

Similar to small seal script with one line becomes a dot: the big U shape line in small seal script disappeared in clerical script. 

The song typeface of character Negotiate is

Similar to clerical script.

Pinyin of character Negotiate is Shang1.

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.