Learn one Chinese Character a day - 各

We mentioned during the end of our lesson of 出 that we are going to learn how to present the meaning of guest. We have to admire Chinese ancestors again that they represented such an abstract meaning with a very simple Logical Aggregate character - . It is quite straightforward that it means "walking () towards gate of our house / place ()", that is what a guest would do. 

As a guest is a different person from the host, 各 is then borrowed to mean different people. Eg: 各自

And a guest is one person thus 各 is extended to mean each as well. Eg: 各个

Since 各 is borrowed to present different meaning than guest, Chinese ancestors then created a new one in place of it. We will learn it in our next lesson. You can give it a guess?

To have a better understanding how  transformed slowly to 各 now, we can check its evolution history below: (image taken from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 各

Its another Oracle Script added part to emphasize the extra meaning of "walking along the street". Modern writing 各 followed the simpler versionthough.

Remember Radical 夊, it represent the meaning of foot or walking while being used to form other Chinese characters. And Please also remember original meaning of 各 itself as well. when you see some other Chinese characters, like 路, 赂 and etc, contains 各, it will help your understanding meanings of those characters.

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 各 inside:

青山白云各得其所