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 has the meaning now.

People used their tongue to negotiate how to distribute the foods or substances. 

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.  If put the tongue inside, it may be thought one person in speaking, and the sounds are weak.

The bronze script of character Negotiate is 

The top is tongue, 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. 

Small seal script of character Negotiate is

Similar to bronze script in structure, but the lines are more symmetrical and smoother.

The clerical script of character Negotiate is

Similar to small seal script with one line eliminated: the U shape line in small seal script disappeared in clerical script. 

The song typeface of character Negotiate is

Similar to clerical script.