Saturday 24 March 2012

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "手"

Today we check another new Chinese character - "手", which is drawing of a part of a human body.
Before you can do a wild guess, let us see its evolution history as usual first - (image get fromhttp://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "手"
Oracle script of  "手" is still missing, its Bronze script  is the Pictograph of a Hand with all fingers fully open, as the picture below -
Have to admit that you need very good imagination ability to predict that  refers to Hand. Oracle script might be much closer to the picture above. But the basic idea is still there.

Seal script  followed the path of  and eventually evolved to current "手".

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with "手" inside:
慈母手中线, 游子身上衣
Look at the poem "慈母手中线", as we have learnt "中", so meaning of 手中 here is "inside the hand".

Sunday 18 March 2012

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "马"

"马" is the simplified Chinese character as "" is the Traditional character. It is probably kind of hard to guess its meaning from its currently way of writing, let us check its evolution history - (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "马"
 Oracle script of "马" - is a drawing of "an animal with long face, big eyes, flying mane, long tail with hoof". I rotated the original picture by 90 degrees -which is more clear to above description. When we imagine an animal running fast with mane flying, the first jump into our mind is definitely - Horse, as the picture below.

"马" or "  
Bronze script simplified the writing but with an empathize on Horse's major characteristics - Flying Mane, Seal script  and Clerical script followed the path of Bronze script and eventually we have what we are using now as Traditional Chinese character . During Regular script, also emerged and is now adopted as Simplified Chinese character.

"马" or "" now specifically means Horse. However when it is used as part of a " 会意 huìyì: Logical aggregates" character, it refers to its most primitive meaning "an animal with long face, big eyes, flying mane, long tail with hoof", like "驴" (Donkey,) which is an animal looks like "马" and works besides a house ("户").

There is a very famous painter in China whose name is 徐悲鸿 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Beihong). He is well known of his wonderful Chinese Ink Painting of Horses. Below is one of his artworks.
马 - 徐悲鸿 
As usual, let us end our learning today with a Chinese Calligraphy with "马" or "" inside -
卧马居

Saturday 10 March 2012

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "化"

We have learnt "人" and some of the 会意字, created with "人", (会意 - huìyì: Logical aggregates, in which two or more parts are used for their meaning. This yields a composite meaning, which is then applied to the new character.) which are "从", "比", "北". Today we check for "化". Let us look at its evolution history first - (image get from http://www.vividict.com)
Learn one Chinese Character a day - "化"
"化" in Oracle scriptis composed of  ( A man walking upright to one direction ) and  (A man headstand walking to opposite direction). Chinese ancestors thought the biggest change is that a man's behaviors are completely reversed. And thus  means Change. And it is then extended to mean Transform as well.
Bronze script, Seal script are still close variation of Oracle script . While Clerical scriptis greatly simplified to be close to what we are using now - "化".

To end today's learning, as usual we enjoy a Chinese calligraphy art with "化" inside:

造化钟神秀,阴阳割昏晓。......  会当凌绝顶,一览众山小。


Above poem is describing one of five greatest mountains in China. Below is one of its pictures.
会当凌绝顶,一览众山小。