Learn one Chinese Character a day - 溢

Answer revealed, 溢 is the character we mentioned in our last lesson that Chinese ancestors created in place of 益. Following the same way how 沙 was created, water was added to 益 to create 溢 to present the original meaning of 益 - water overflows.

And that is consistent with our observation that: when water is used as Radical to form other Chinese characters, it is normally simplified as .

We then would also not be surprised that 溢 pronounces exactly the same as 益.

And eventually 溢 is extended to mean overflow of anything. For example overflow of buffers in C programming language.

To confirm our understanding, let me go through the evolution history of 溢: ( image taken from  http://vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 溢

As we can see that Oracle Script of 溢 is same as that of 益 - 

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

福杯满溢