Amazing Chinese Characters (654) I or Me - 我

 The shell bone script of character I or Me is 

The vertical long bar with hook is a weapon or tool, the horizontal is a rake. The character means a person who is a labor such as slave in peace time and soldier when outbreak of war. 

Dictionary of Pictography explanation for the character is: a person who hold a big weapon, shouting to show the power. 

The bronze script of character I or Me is

Which is more like a big farm tool, rake connected with knife like plow, a kind of tool.

The small seal script of character I or Me is

The right is similar to same part of bronze script, the left is changed a lot from left part of bronze script, but it means same thing: the rake. 

The clerical script of character I or Me is

Similar to small seal script.

The pinyin of the character is Wo3.

This meaning of the character I or Me is difficult to guess. What I do is to see the meaning of some compound characters with the character 我. You will see in the next a few posts with those compound characters, we then can determine if the meaning of the character "A slave with tool and weapon" is correct or not.

Amazing Chinese Characters (653) Grave - 墓

 The big seal script of character Grave is 

The top 

is character Grass - 草 (Post 49). 

The bottom is character Soil - 土 （Post 223）.

The Grave is a place there is a lot of grass on soil. 

The small seal script of character Grave is

Similar to big seal script, but the two grass in the middle are 45 degree skew lines to give space for the character Soil in the bottom in order to write a compact structure. 

The clerical script of character Grave is

Most U shape lines become straight lines. the pictography is lost.

The Pinyin of character is Mu4. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (652) Wife's Maid - 媵

The bronze script of character Wife's Maid is

In ancient time, the Kings or Tribal Leaders married with wife who had escorting maid(s) coming with her, all the maids are King's, or Tribal Leader's wives but the family status are lower than the formal wife. The maids had to do many works, even some heavy works. The character left + the right is character I or Me Emperor self claim, here are Kings or Tribal Leaders. the middle bottom is character Woman (Post 20). The character means that the King's or Tribal Leader's Lady, or the Woman under the cover of King or Tribal Leader. 

The big seal script of character Wife's Maid is

The left, right top, and middle form character I or Me Emperor self Claim, here means King or Tribal Leader, the right bottom is character Woman.

The small seal script of character Wife's Maid is

Similar structure to big seal script. The left is character Boat which is right, not character Moon like in big seal script, which is wrong. The right top is character Fire, which is wrong. 

The clerical script of character Wife's Maid is

Character I or Me Emperor self Claim + character Woman.

The Pinyin of the character is Ying4.

The character is not used anymore, because it is illegal to have multiple wives. 

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (651) Path between Fields - 塍

The bronze script of character Path between Fields is 

The left is character Boat (Post 117), the right top is a rudder, the middle are two hands, and the bottom is character Soil (Post 223). The first three parts form character I (Emperor self Claim - Post 431).

The shell bone script of character I (Emperor self Claim)

Plus the character Soil means that the Ridge Emperor walks: the path between fields. 

The King or Emperor divides the fields for people who got which field, or the ownership of the field is confirmed by the King.

The big seal script of character Path between Fields is

The left is Radical Moon, which should be character Boat.  It is a mistakenly written. The right top is character Rice, which may be mistake, may not. The right middle are two hands, and right bottom is Soil. The top right is like character Rice as following,

Not exactly same, but similar. The field is rice field, which may mean that.

The small seal script of character Path between Fields is

The left is character Boat, which is right. The right top is character Fire, which is different from rudder or rice, it may be a mistake because the Fire looks like Rice, same as in small seal scripts of character Success (Post 650) and Soar (Post 432).

The clerical script of character Path between Fields is

The left is character Moon, which is wrong. The right top is simplified of combination of character Fire and two hands, the bottom is character Soil.

The Pinyin of the character is Cheng2.

The character is not used often anymore. 

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (650) Success - 胜（勝）

The big seal script of character Success or Successful is

The left is character Boat (Post 117), the right top is a vertical bar with a dot in the middle, here means a rudder, the middle is two hands holding the rudder. The three parts: left, top right, middle right, form character "I or Me - Emperor or King self claim(Post 431). Plus the right bottom which is character Power or Strength (Post 168), we have character Success or Successful. 

The character Emperor or King self claim actually is helmsman who controls the direction of the boat, here implies the direction of the army. The character Power or Strength means that they tried very hard to get success.

The small seal script of character Success or Successful is

Some similar to big seal script, but the top mistakenly becomes character Fire (Post 26), not a rudder. The script is very symmetric. 

There is another small seal script of the character

The left is character Moon (Post 53), or character Meat (Post 252), the right is character Living (Post 352). I don't know where the script came from, and what it means. Anyway, it has nothing to do with success, no relationship to other scripts of the character.

The clerical script of the character Success or Successful is

The left is character Moon, which is obvious a wrong writing. The right top is also wrong writing, no rudder, no hands, only the bottom character Power or Strength is correct.

The simplified song typeface of the character is

which is similar to the second small script above. However, as I mentioned above, this script has nothing to do with the original pictography, and no any relationship or similarity to other scripts, therefore, the song typeface above is strange too.

The Pinyin of the character is Sheng4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (649) Dawn - 晓（曉）

 The big seal script of character Dawn is

The left is character Sun - 日 (Post 4), the right is character Emperor Yao - 尧 (Post 612), here it means brick maker using Kiln. In the ancient time, people hunted, picked up fruits, and farming, almost no job requires continuously many days except the kiln work. They worked day and night in turns, they were the people who most likely to see the sun in dawn near the kiln.

The small seal script of character Dawn is

Similar to its big seal script.

The clerical script of character Dawn is

The left is character Sun, the right is character Emperor Yao.

The simplified song typeface is

The right top 垚 is replaced by 戈 without the dot on the top right. It should be from the cursive script, but there is no explanation why cursive script is like that.

The Pinyin of the character is Xiao3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (648) Pick Out - 抉

 The big seal script of character Pick Out is

The left is character Hand (Post 55), the right part is character Odd Jade (Post 644). To pick out the defect jade. Now It means to make decision from many options or choices. 

The small seal script of character Pick Out is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Pick Out is

The left is Radical Hand, the right is simplified character Odd Jade.

The Pinyin of the character is Jue2.

The character is used in the situation when people make difficult decision, which is very important to your career, life, and family. The influence of the decision may last years or life time, so people need long time consideration before the decision. It is not used to choose a restaurant for dinner.