Learn one Chinese Character a day - 王

Today we examine a new Chinese character 王, from its composition, we can see that it is formed with 三 and |. During our lesson of Chinese character 三, we knew that it refers to Heaven, People and Earth. The | in middle of 王 connects them. In ancient China, the person who could communicate with Heaven and Earth would be chosen as leader of the tribe.

So 王 originally meant leader of a tribe, and as the society was developing and growing big, 王 was used to mean King of a kingdom eventually.

王 was later used as a Family Name in China as well.

To confirm our observation, let us examine its evolution history: ( screenshot taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org )

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 王

Oracle Script of 王 denoted the same idea clearly as well thatis "an adult man 大, standing on earth with his head touching sky."

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 王 inside:

旧时王谢堂前燕，飞入寻常百姓家

Next lesson we will move on to 皇, can you guess its meaning?