Amazing Chinese Characters (633）Hat - 弁

 The bronze script of character Hat is

The middle is a hat, the sides are two hands holding the hat, or wearing the hat on head, or taking off the hat from the head. The hat means the hat in ancient time hat, not that today. The character has not used alone as hat for long time. The ancient time, not everyone had a hat, the person who had a hat was rich and high level in the society. In addition, the hat was very exquisite, and expensive, people took the hat carefully. 

The big seal script of character Hat is

The top is the hat, the bottom are two hands. 

The small seal script of character Hat is

The top is hat, the bottom are two hands.

The clerical script of character Hat

Not pictography anymore, but we can tell that the top is the hat, the bottom are two hands.

The Pinyin of the character is Bian4.

The character 弁 used most often right now is 马弁（horse - hat), not the hat wearing on horse head, but an orderly who severed for high ranked official, including taking care of his horse and hat. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (632) Hands -Together - 廾

 The big seal script of character Hands - Together is

Two grass seedling.

Let's compare it with big seal script of character Bamboo

Similar to the one above, but the sides are dropped down because bamboo leaves are drooping.

The small seal script of character Hands - Together is

Very similar to the man's hands in the picture.

There may be bent grass seedlings. 

Therefore, the character has two meanings: Grass, or Hands-Together.

The clerical script of character Hands - Together is

The two separated curves on the top become to a horizontal line, two vertical curves become one fall-left line and one vertical line, totally lost pictography for writing a little bit quicker.

The Pinyin of the character is Gong3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (631) Grass. - 卉

The big seal script of character Grass is

The three grass leaves.

The small seal script of character is 

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Grass is

The middle one becomes much shorter, the bottom two become connected as 廾, not like grass anymore. 

The Pinyin of the character is Hui4.

There is another character Grass - 草 (Post 49).

Big seal script of 草

The middle is character Morning (Post 266), the four corners are four grass. The character describes the picture the grass field in the sunrise time, the character 草 has a character Sun - 日 (Post 4), which is surrounded by grass, and in the same level of the grass. 

Normally, the character 草 is wild grass, the character 卉 is ornamental grass or plants, just like Ornamental flowers. This is why character 卉 has very neat and close three grass, 草 has scattered distributed grass.

Amazing Chinese Characters (630) Weapon - 戎

The shell bone script of character Weapon is

The left is very simple shield, with just two 十 infant of the chest. The right is character Dagger-axe. Defensive shield + offensive axe = Weapon.

The bronze script of character Weapon is 

The left is shield, the big dot is made of metal for protection. The right is character Dagger-axe. 

The small seal script of character Weapon is

The lower left is the shield, the rest is the axe.

The clerical script of character Weapon is 

The lower left 十 is the shield (simplified), the rest is axe.

The pinyin of the character is Rong2.

Amazing Chinese Characters (629) Guard Against - 戒

The shell bone script of character Guard Against is

The middle is character Dagger-axe (Post 80), the low sides are two hands holding the axe. The soldier is in battle readiness, very cautious for any suspicious movement around. 

The bronze script of character Guard Against is

The top right is character Dagger-axe, the bottom left are two hands. Why the axe on the right side, not in the middle? It is possible that one hand holds the weapon, not two.

The big seal script of character Guard Against is

Similar to bronze script, but the axe is in the middle.

The small seal script of character Guard Against is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Guard Against is

The weapon 戈，and the 廾 means two hands. 

The Pinyin of the character is Jie4.

The character has other meanings: Give up, Stop. Quit, etc. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (628) To Defeat - 伐

The shell bone script of character To Defeat is

The left is character People (Post 37), the right is character Dagger-axe (Post 80). A soldier holds a dagger-axe to battle field.

The bronze script of character To Defeat is 

Similar to shell bone script, the left is Person, the right is dagger-axe.

The big seal script of character To Defeat is

Similar to big seal script.

The small seal script of character To Defeat is

The left is Radical People, the right is character Dagger-axe.

The Pinyin of the character is Fa2.

The character original means To Defeat, which is still its main meaning. But it has another meaning: Lumbering.

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (627) Wing - 翅

 The big seal script of character Wing is

The left is character Feather (Post 89), the right is character Support (Post 622). The skeleton supporting feather is wing. 

The small seal script of character Wing is 

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Wing is

It is interesting that the positions of the two parts exchanged: the left is character Support, the right is character Feather. The reason why they are exchange positions is because therefore, the left Support could have a long falling-right stroke, which could hold the teacher. In this way, the character has a typical clerical script long falling-right stroke, and still get a tight structure. Otherwise, the Support on right, if you want a typical clerical script long falling-right stroke, you would make the character too wide.

The pinyin of the character is Chi4.