When I was young and learning this character 路, I was taught that 路 is related to 足 for people walking on 路 with 足. However nobody actually explained why 各 is used here. Now with our solid understanding of the original meaning of 足 and 各, we shall have a much better understanding.
Recall that 足 (with its Oracle Script 
) originally contains then meaning of "walking - 
towards the target place - 
", while 各 (with its Oracle Script 
) has the original meaning of "walking - 
towards our place 
". Looking at and , does not it show clearly the idea of a left hand traffic rule, same as shown in below image?
) originally contains then meaning of "walking - towards the target place - ", while 各 (with its Oracle Script ) has the original meaning of "walking - towards our place ". Looking at and , does not it show clearly the idea of a left hand traffic rule, same as shown in below image? |
| Left Hand Traffic |
That is right, 路 was created to mean road. And it does provide us the vivid view that ancient China adopted left hand traffic rule.
And from the way 路 was created, 路, unlike another Chinese character 道, normally refers to roads that are formed naturally by people who keeps walking on it.
As usual, let us check its evolution history to confirm our interpretation: (image taken from http://vividict.com)
And now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 路 inside:
 |
| Learn one Chinese Character a day - 路 |
 |
| 读万卷书 行万里路 |
No comments:
Post a Comment