Learn one Chinese Character a day - 声 | 聲

Our character today is 声 | 聲. We can see that Simplified version 声 is just the top-left corner of its Traditional version - 聲.

To have a good understanding of the character, we need to work with 聲, which is composed of 声, 殳 and 耳.

We have known that 耳 means ear, and 殳 means "holding a stick". What does 声 mean here? We need to seek help from its ancient scripts, as shown below: (Image taken from http://vividict.com)

evolution history of 声 | 聲

From its Oracle Script , there are four parts:  (声), (耳), (殳) and (口). Some linguist claimed that  is a certain kind of music instrument, which may be made by stones， foris quite similar to 厂. We have learnt that 厂 is drawing of a stone cliff.
 If is a music instrument, then it is a quite reasonable guess that is kind of hangingwith some strings ().

Combining  and , we will have an image as shown below:

石罄

Now we are clear about what the Oracle Script represents: hitting () a stone music instrument () while singing (  ) , which is to entertain audiences by hearing (). Or in short,  is "listening to musics / songs in a concert".

Another version of Oracle Script -is simpler: listening () to music instrument ().

When it evolved to Seal Script ,  was changed toto emphasise the holes in the stone music instrument to differentiate it from normal stones. is already very close to what we have today: 声. And Chinese ancestor considered to be a redundant information while representing the meaning of . That is why has no longer 口.

That is all. 声 | 聲 thus means sound, or music.

As music are pleasing, when we want to say somebody with good reputation, we use 声 | 聲 to describe that. For example 声名远播.

We have done our learning today, it is now our time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 声 | 聲 inside:

诗情画意, 琴韵书声