Learn one Chinese Character a day - 内

Today we will learn a new Chinese character 内, to better understand its meaning and how it was created, it is necessary for us to go through its evolution history first: (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 内

It is a bit hard for us to guess it meaning by looking at Oracle Scripts of 内, its Bronze Script, for example , is much easier for us to guess.  looks much like a house, while , which we have just learnt, represents enter, so overall meaning of  is "entering into a house". Obviously and confirmed by linguist, used to have same meaning as . Eventually these two characters departed to refer to different things. After entering the house, you are then inside the house, thus is used to mean inside. During the period of Seal Script , to simplify writing,was written together with the roof as . Now is very close to what we write today - 内.

So 内 means inside.

That is it. Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 内 inside:

海内存知己，天涯若比邻。