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".

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