Monday 31 October 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 盟

Our character today is a quite complicated one - 盟, whose components that we have already learnt before. 

Looking at 盟,  its upper part is 明 and lower part is 皿. And 明 can be further divided into 日 and 月. 

What is the meaning of 盟 here? Recall that 皿 is a container, 明 means bright and transparent. With further division of 明 to 日 and 月: 日, 月 is eternal and seen by everybody. To guess its meaning, following picture would help a lot:
In ancient China, while people or countries would become alliance, they shall hold a ceremony: cut their fingertips to drop their blood into a bowl of rice wine, announce their alliance to 日 or 月, drink the mixed blood, state the binding of their lives and interests, then broadcast the news to everybody. It has become part of Chinese culture. If you ever watched the hongkong mafia movies, you would probably see such ceremonies when mafias were forming alliances. 

From the character of 盟, 明 means to make it known, 日 and 月 represents the eternal witness. And 皿 is the container which collects blood. And evolution history of 盟 proved that blood is an essential of the 盟. (image below is taken from http://vividict.com)
Learn one Chinese Character a day - 盟
 Oracle Script of 盟 is not surprisingly same as that of blood - . Some of the Oracle Script was trying to differentiate 盟 from 血, they added Sun () to form . Bronze Script   followed the idea with 明 on top of 血. While it evolved to Clerical Script - , lower part was then no longer blood (), but container (). Now  which is almost the same as its current form - 盟.

So 盟 means to become alliances publicly through a solemn ceremony. In short, 盟 means alliance. For Chinese characters, as a drawing, have no difference in verb or noun, 盟 can also be used as verb to mean forming alliances.

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 盟 inside:
赞皇商盟

Sunday 23 October 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 血

As we mentioned in our lesson of 皿 that we are going to study the Chinese character of blood today.

Let us assume that we were going to create this new character, how should we represent the meaning of blood? To draw some liquid with red colour, or describe something essential for life?

However Chinese ancestor created it from a totally different angle. Below is the evolution history of 血: (image taken from: http://vividict.com)
Learn one Chinese Character a day - 血
Looking at its Oracle Script , it is composed of a  (what we just learnt - 皿) and (a drop of something). 

"Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar." , as quoted from the Bible, Chinese ancestors would sacrifice blood to their forefathers or gods as well.

refers to the blood collected in a container for sacrifice. And it is used to mean blood particularly. 

Its Bronze script  followed the same presentation of , but to simply to  andto . Seal Script  further simplified by following the Seal Script of 皿. Clerical Script started to have the initial form of our current writing: 血.

With our understanding, it now makes sense that 血 means blood

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

苍山如海,残阳如血


Saturday 15 October 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 皿

Today we moved to a new character 皿, what is its meaning? Drawing of Fence? Let us go through its evolution history to see whether we are right. (Image taken from: http://chinese-linguipedia.org)
Learn one Chinese Character a day - 皿

Looking at its Oracle Script ,we can now pretty much sure now that our guess of Fence is not correct. If we saw the object in following picture, we will then know that  is its Section:


Seal Script of 皿 - lost its original pictograph shape, but added handles at both sides. Then its Clerical Script -  further transformed for simplicity of writing. Along the time it finally evolved to current form - 皿.

Now we are clear that 皿 means wide mouth containers, like bowls, saucers and cups.

That is all. Now we can enjoy a Chinese calligraphy of 皿:
赵孟頫楷书字书法

Before ending our lesson today, will you be surprised if 皿 is used as a part to create a new Chinese character which means blood? Its Oracle Script is .


Wednesday 5 October 2016

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 时 | 時

Current form for Oracle Script and Seal Script  is 时, whose Traditional version is 時. What is its meaning? 

From its Oracle Script - , it is composed of  (之 which originally means "the place where the foot stands") and  (日 which means "the sun"). So the aggregated meaning of  is then - "where the sun stands". 
During Seal Script period Chinese ancestors added to   and to create  . As we have learnt in our last lesson, one(寸) is around 3.33 cm. So the aggregated meaning of  is "where the sun stands after it moves a distance (寸)".

Almost all ancient civilisations on earth set up their time system based on the fixed routine of Sun. Chinese ancestors invented a clock system - equatorial sundial. A sundial is a device that tells the time of day by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky, details please find it at wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial . The shadow of the pole decides which hour it is. Below is the image of an equatorial sundial in Forbidden City in Beijing:
Chinese Equatorial Sundial - 日晷
Chinese ancestors embedded this idea of “postion of the sun” into our character - 时 | 時, which is used to mean time

With Chinese Equatorial Sundial in mind, what does it mean by "the distance (寸) walked by the Sun (on the surface of Sundial)"? One hour exactly. That is why 时 | 時 is also used to mean hour.

As 时 | 時 has the original meaning of "where the sun stands", which contains the hinted meaning of current / latest. 

As usual let us examine its evolution history (image taken from http://vividict.com):
Learn one Chinese Character a day - 时 | 時

Now we have learnt the meaning of 时 | 時, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 时 | 時 inside to end our lesson today:

与时俱进