Amazing Chinese Characters (531) Official - 吏

 The bronze script of the character is

The top is character Middle - 中, plus a short curve which may be a decoration on the head, or a hat, or a typical hair style. The character is similar to character History - 史 (Post 418), the difference is that there is no top curve in character History. 

Let's recall the character History (shell bone script)

Top is character Middle -  中, without the curve.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script. 

The small script of the character is

Similar to big seal script.

Compare it to character History (small seal)

Similar to each other, the difference is that one has the top horizontal line, another doesn't.

The clerical script of the character is

The top is similar to small seal script, the bottom for the hand is changed to no similarity at all to the older scripts, the only reason for doing so is to make the writing easier on the cost of losing the pictography of the character.

The Pinyin of the character is Li4.

The character Official - 吏 is an official in lower level than that of 史 (History). Many times 吏 was the lowest official in government. The character is not used for officials anymore.

Amazing Chinese Characters (530) Structure - 构（構）

The big seal script of the character Structure is

The left is character Wood - 木 (Post 10), the right is character Connect (Post 524). The structure is formed by connecting wood, bamboo, or other materials.

The small seal script of the character is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of the character is

The left is the Wood Radical, the right is character Connect.

The traditional song typeface of the character is

Same as the clerical script.

The simplified song typeface of the character is

The right part is character Hook or Sentence. Here should be Hook which is closer to the meaning of the Structure than Sentence, this is why 勾 was chosen to substitute the 冓, which means Connect, close to Hook? The experts thought so at least.

The Pinyin of the character is Gou4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (529) Copulate - 媾

 The big seal script of character Copulate is 

The left is character Woman (Post 20), the right is character Connect (Post 524). It means Copulate in written expression, not used in oral Chinese often. In ancient time, the war between countries sometimes was ended by sending a young lady, normally a goddaughter of King to marry the King of enemy to make peace, which is called 媾和 （和 means Peace). The word is still used in traditional Chinese to describe the negotiation for peace between to countries in war. 

The small seal script of the character is

The left is Woman, the right is Connect, similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of the character is

The left is Woman Radical, the right is character Connect. 

The pinyin of the character is Got4.

The traditional song typeface of character Ditch (Post 527) is 溝, its simplified song typeface is 沟. However, the 媾 has no simplified song typeface. The reason is unclear. Some other characters have the same situation, e.g. 篝 (Post 525, Bamboo Fish Trap) has no simplified song typeface.  The inconsistent simplification causes confusions. 

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (528) Speak - 讲（講）

 The big seal script of character Speak is 

The left is character Tongue (Post 158), the right is character Connect (Post 524). Speak something to make connection between the content of the information with audience. The character is used often for formal speech, such as speaking of lecturer (讲课）, or seminar speaker （讲座）, even though sometimes used in informal situations. 

The small seal script of the character is

The left is character Tongue, the right is character Connect.

The clerical script of the character is

The left is character Say - 言 (Post 158), the right is character Connect. Say is better than Tongue to express the meaning of Speak.

The traditional song typeface is

Almost same as clerical script.

The simplified song typeface is

The left is simplified Say Radical, the right is character Well - 井 (Post 59). There is nothing between the character 冓 and character 井, which is not only no similarity in the shape, but no relationship with the meaning of well. The only consequence is the pictography of the character destroyed.

The Pinyin of the character is Jiang3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (527) Ditch - 沟（溝）

 The big seal script of character Ditch is

The left is character Water - 水 (Post 13), right one is character Fish Trap - 冓 (Post 524). The place with water and multiple fish traps is ditch. The river is not good for fish trap because the flow is too strong and fast. 

The small script of character Ditch is 

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Ditch is

Similar to older scripts.

The traditional song typeface for character Ditch is

Similar to clerical script.

The pinyin of the character is Gou1.

The simplified song typeface for character Ditch is

The left is Three Drops Radical, meaning is Water. The right one is character Hook - 勾 (Post 526), has nothing to do with character Fish Trap - 冓 (Post 524), the right side of traditional song typeface. Not only their writings are different, but their meanings are totally different. The only same the two have is the pronunciation Gou1. Besides, 勾 is only sometimes as the simplified part of 冓, not consistent. It is big topic, not discuss here. 

Anyway, this is a bad simplification. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (526) Sentence - 句 and Hook - 勾

 The shell bone script of the character Hook or Sentence is

The middle is character Mouth - 口 (Post 16), the two L alike are hooks. It means that the hooks hook mouth, e.g. fish mouth). 汉典（ Chinese Dictionary) says that the character Hook was same as character Sentence, which I guess that the sentence is hooked by words logically, the hook is hooked physically.

Other dictionaries don't have shell bone, bronze scripts of character Hook, they count the older scripts are just for character Sentence, not for Hook. 

I agree with 汉典 (Chinese Dictionary). I think that the meaning of Hook may be a little bit earlier than that of sentence, because hook is physical characteristics, visible. Sentence is flow of thinking, logical, not directly visible. I think that shell bone script is more to be Hook meaning.

The bronze script of the character is 

Hooks are on the top, and mouth is on the bottom. 

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script. 

The small seal script of the character is

The top hook is distorted, the lower hook changes a little.

The clerical script of character Hook is

The outside are two hooks, but the top hook is not like a hook anymore. The inside 厶 means "small", implying that the hooks are small.

The clerical scrkpt of character Sentence is

Inside is 口, not 厶 . Sentence is related to people speech (Mouth, 口). The two characters finally are completely distinguished each other at the Han Dynasty (About 202 B.C.  - 220 A.D.) when the communication became very important, one character has two different related meanings, which caused too much confusion. They must be distinguished without any delay.

The Pinyin for character Hook - 勾 is Gou1. The Pinyin for character Sentence - 句 is Ju4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (525) Bamboo Fish Trap - 篝

 The big seal script of character Bamboo Fish Trap is

The top is the Bamboo Head, the bottom is character Slowly (Post 251), meaning fish trap. The character above means Bamboo Fish Trap. We have character Fish Trap, why do we have a bamboo fish trap? I guess is that the fish trap could be made from rattan, and long twig. 

The small seal script of the character is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of the character is

The song typeface of the character is

The Pinyin of the character is Gou1.

篝 is not used often. The most common use is "篝火", the bonfire at night for people gathering. In the ancient time, 篝火 may be the fire of bamboo workshop for making the bamboo products because the bamboo should be heated to be bent, so the fire is kept on.