Amazing Chinese Characters (735) Distinguish - 辨

The bronze script of character Distinguish is

The left and right are similar to character Pungent (Post 733), the top has no dot, meaning tongue, not pungent. The middle is character Person (Post 37). The person listens to two people debating with tongue moving to say. The middle person try to distinguish who is right or whose argument is better.

The big seal script of character Distinguish is

Similar to bronze script, but the left and right are character Pungent now, the top have a short horizontal line.

The small seal script of character Distinguish is

Similar to big seal script, except the middle one looks like character Knife (Post 61). Character People and character Knife are similar, sometimes difficult to tell.

The clerical script of charactre Distinguish is

The two sides are characters Pungent, the middle character People changed to dot + a left falling stroke, which has no connection to character People. Why? I don't know.

The Pinyin of the character is Bian4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (734) Debate - 辩（辯）

The big seal script of character Debate is

The left is character Pungent (Post 733), the middle is character Say (Post 158), the right is another Pungent. The character means that two people (using their tongues) debate (say).

The small seal script of character Debate is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Debate is

The middle character Say are all straight lines, two character Pungent are similar to small seal script with minor change.

The Pinyin of the character is Bian4.

Why should we learn Chinese pictography 16 September 2024

Amazing Chinese Characters (733）Pungent - 辛

The shell bone script of character Pungent is

which is tongue of human, the top short line is called indicative point which is to locate the location the character meaning focuses on, here is the pungent food people on the tongue, which is strong, causing suffering on tongue. The character means spicy taste in most of time, but bitter sometimes. 

The bronze script of character Pungent is

The indicative point on tongue disappeared, just the tongue left, which causes confusion, some dictionary wrongly defined it as a dagger.

The small seal script of character Pungent is

 

The indicative point (the pungent food) on tongue is back, the tongue is more complex than that of shell bone script.

The clerical script of character Pungent is

Similar to small seal script, but the big curve becomes straight line, the short line on the top, and the small curve become dots.

The Pinyin of the character is Xin1.

We say ”辛苦“ offer, 辛 is pungent, 苦 is bitter. But 辛苦 is used to describe tough, difficult, suffering life, not taste any more.

 

Amazing Chinese Characters (732) Elder Sister - 姐

The big seal script of character Elder Sister is

The left is character Woman (Post 20), the right is character Moreover (Post 729). The elder sister is the girl who is first old enough get married with man, she could have sex life. 

As I mentioned in Post 729 about character 且, which may be an ancient hoe according to Mr. Wu Zheng. It could be Ok to say that the oldest sister is the one who could work with hoe. 

The small seal script of character Elder Sister is

The left is character Woman, the two arms across in front of the chest. The right is character Moreover.

The clerical script of character Elder Sister is

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

The Pinyin of the character is Jie3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (731) Thick - 粗

The big seal script of character Thick is

The left is character Rice (Post 163), the right is character Moreover (Post 729). The character means that the man who has enough foods could growth higher and bigger including the genital. 

According to Mr. Wu Zheng, character 且 is ancient hoe, which is reasonable to say that if a person who has enough rice to eat, have more energy to use hoe to work. 

The small seal script of character Thick is

Similar to big seal script, except the left character Rice, in big seal script, there are three grains on the top, and three grains on the bottom, in the small seal script, the middle grains on top connected with the one on the bottom, becomes a vertical line, not two grains.

The clerical script of character Thick is

The left is Radical Rice, the right is character Moreover.

The Pinyin of the character is Cu1.

Amazing Chinese Characters (730) Ancestor - 祖

The bronze script of character Ancestor is

The left is character Display (Post 329), the right is character Moreover. The ancient Chinese worship male genital, which indicates ancestor.

According to Mr. Wu Zheng, the character 且 is ancient hoe, which I partially agree. Therefore, we may say that our ancestor was people who used hoe, implying that they were farmers.

The big seal script of character Ancestor is

Similar to shell bone script except the left part has a dot on the top.

The small seal script of character Ancestor is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character 

Left is the Radical Display, the right is character Moreover.

The Pinyin of the character is Zu3.