Friday 26 August 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 早

Our character today is 早, which is composed of 日 and 十. What does it mean though? Very hard to guess. Let us check its ancient scripts to see whether we can get more ideas. (image taken from http://vividict.com)
Learn one Chinese Character a day - 早
Oracle Script of 早 - means  (the sun) is just above (grass). While its Seal Script shows its meaning even better:  (the sun) is just starting to shine as the seed starts to sprout (). When is that? Morning of a day.

Modern form of 早 is the continuation of .

Now as usual let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 早 inside:
几处早莺争暖树;
频来语燕定新巢。

Friday 19 August 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 甲

Our character today is 甲. From its current form, we would have no idea what it is. We definitely need the help of its ancient scripts. Will they help us to reason its meanings?

Let us examine its evolution history first: (image taken from http://vividict.com/)
Learn one Chinese Character a day - 甲
Oracle Script of 甲 was , which was too hard to differentiate from actual 十 (which we have learnt - ten). Thus Chinese ancestors added  to surround to get . What are the extra meanings the brought in to the character? Still quite hard to know.
Let us check its next variation in Bronze Script - . It does provide us more information. First the  changed to with a open mouth, and vertical leg ofsticks out of the open mouth, downwards (that is why I suspect that 甲 and 七 used to be same character in Oracle Script period with meaning of cutting through). We have just learnt in our last lesson that can have the meaning of grass. Now have we collected enough information to reason its meaning? The answer is yes. Let us see a picture below which reflects the vivid view of what  represents:
Middle one in the image above is what exactly  means.

So original meaning of 甲 is a seed sprouting with its coat opening up.

Eventually 甲 is used to refer to the hard coating of the seed. Then it is extended to mean hard skins of animals or scales of fish and reptiles. And it is also extended to mean something like nail. Because of the protection function of seed coat, shell, scale or nail, 甲 is also extended to mean equipments which protect human beings, like armour.

Do not forget the original meaning of 甲 as a seed starts to sprout that you would not feel surprised to know contains the meaning of being first place / best. And because of that, 甲 is also extended to mean first one in ten Celestial Stems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_stem). It is all because 甲 has the meaning of something starts to happen.

Now we have full understanding of the meaning of 甲, it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 甲 inside:
石鲸鳞甲动秋风

Sunday 14 August 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 卉

Today we move to learn a Chinese character related to plants - 卉. It is hard to reason its meaning from its current form. Let us examine its ancient scripts to see whether we can get more ideas: (image taken from http://vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 卉
 Bronze script is composed of three is still too simple to tell us anything. Checking its Seal Script -, does not one of its components -look like that shown in the image below?

Yes, or its Seal Script variation represents grass. Recall that when Chinese ancestors draw three same components to form one character, they meant a lot of that. Like what we have learnt before 众, 焱, 森 and etc. So or  means a lot of grass. And eventually 卉 become a general term for all types of grasses.

And recall again what we have learnt in the lesson for 竹, Chinese ancestors noticed the special characteristics of 竹 that its leaves are spreading downwards as . Here for grasses, their leaves are spreading upwards as .

Remember that  or  represents grasses while they are used as Radical to form other Chinese characters. We have plenty of them piled up in the queue.

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 卉 inside:
微物不能累;所憑者淨,則濁類不能霑。夫以卉木無

Tuesday 9 August 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 志

Looking at our Chinese character today - 志, we know that it is composed of 士 (scholar or officer) and 心 (heart). What is the meaning of the combination? the heart of a scholar, which represents something great to pursue full heartedly.

We get its current meaning naturally from combination of 士 and 心. However is this really how 志 was created long time ago? Let us examine its evolution history: (image taken from http://vividict.com)
Learn one Chinese Character a day - 志

From Oracle Script of 志 -, we can actually see that it was formed with  (which is 之) and  (which is 心). Now its meaning of 志 is even clearer - where your heart is. That is the precise meaning of 志. Now you will not be surprised that 志 (pronounces zhì) sounds very similar to 之 (pronounces zhī).

With the understanding of 志, now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 志 inside:
壮志凌云

Saturday 6 August 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 之

While looking at our current way of writing 之, we would not have any idea what it means. We have to get the help from its Oracle Script or other ancient scripts to understnd it correctly.

Here is the evolution history of 之: (image taken from http://vividict.com)
Learn one Chinese Character a day - 之

Now it is clear that its Oracle Script is composed of  (止 - foot) with a horizontal line (- under foot, it refers to earth). With these information, then we can start to guess its meaning.  which is 之, orignally means the place where the foot stands. Eventually 之 is used as Pronoun: him or her for any person, or it for anything. And 之 is also used as Modal Particle (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_particle), which does not have really any meaning except helping to pronounce a sentence more smoothly.

Let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 之 inside to end our lesson today:

之乎者也