Wednesday 26 April 2017

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 闷 | 悶

Have you tried to guess the meaning of 闷 | 悶 ? Obviously it is composed of a heart (心) and a door (门 | 門). 

Referring to Oracle drawing of 門, it is a two-panels door, which is closed, 闷 | 悶 should be created to represent the idea of  having a heart (心) inside a closed door (门 | 門) . So what does 闷 | 悶 mean? A picture explains better than a thousand words, as shown below:
闷 | 悶

And its evolution history might help us to understand its meaning better, as shown below: (image taken from http://vividict.com)
evolution history of 闷 | 悶
It has been pretty much the same presentation from its Bronze Script till its current form. For example its Seal Script is exactly composed with the same components:  and .

When somebody closes his heart, it means he cannot / wont express his emotions to others, thus become unhappy. 闷 | 悶 is thus used to mean depressed; bored; in low spirit. For example, 闷闷不乐. Like the image shown below:
闷闷不乐
When somebody got depressed, he would have the kind of feeling that he cannot breathe properly. Thus 闷 | 悶 is also used to mean airtight;sealed;covered, or to describe an environment or situation which makes people becoming depressed or hard to breathe. For example:

That is all, time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 闷 | 悶 inside:
助林泉逸兴,舒胸襟孤闷。

Sunday 16 April 2017

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 闻 | 聞

As we have prepared ourselves with 耳, and 门 | 門, today we examine our new character - 闻 | 聞. What meaning of it would you guess? After you have seen below picture, you could understand almost everything 闻 | 聞 is to represent, almost indeed.

闻 | 聞
So it is obvious that 闻 | 聞 was created with the meaning of heard by ears behind a door, which is used to mean listen carefully, as verb

And 闻 | 聞 has been extended to mean news or messages heard as noun.

And now 闻 | 聞 is also used to mean smell. It is a bit hard to explain why, since it has nothing to do with nose. What I can guess is that in ancient China, smell pronounces same as 闻 | 聞 and it was then borrowed to represent the meaning of smell as well.

We can double confirm our reasoning with evolution history of 闻 | 聞 below: (image taken from http://vividict.com)
evolution history of 闻 | 聞
Its Oracle Script is a drawing of a person () trying to listen clearly with an emphasise of his ear ().

That is all for 闻 | 聞, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 闻 | 聞 inside:

闻过则喜

Our next character will be 闷 | 悶, can you try to guess its meaning?


Wednesday 5 April 2017

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 联 | 聯

Today we study another Chinese character related to 耳 - 联, whose Traditional version is 聯. 

From its Simplified version - 联, it is composed of 耳 and 关. What does it possibly mean here, close ears to stop hearing?

And looking at its Traditional version - 聯, there is another possible comprehension. Here, which we have studied while learning 關, presents the meaning of "using rope to tie up 门闩". So 聯 might have the meaning of "tie up ears"?

As usual, Let us check its evolution history to get some help in reasoning its meanings. Image taken from: http://www.vividict.com
Evolution history of 联 | 聯
Looking at its Oracle Script , it is composed of (耳) and . If we recall the Oracle Script of 丝 (), we can see that does represent a meaning of "ear connected with silk" or "ear is tied up together as those cocoons does".

Recalling how 取 was created, 聯 did follow the same concept. Soldier tied up ears of enemies using ropes so that he could claim his military reward after a war.

Seal Script of 聯 - used  (丝) itself directly to emphasise the meaning of "tied up" with silk rope.

Starting from its Clerical Script , it used the , a part of 關, to present the meaning of "tie up".

We now know that 联 | 聯 does not mean "close up ears to stop hearing".

联 | 聯 means to link, to connect, to combine, or to joint as verb. For example: 联盟, 联手

And 联 | 聯 also means together or continuously as adv. For example: 联欢

That's all for today. It is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 联 | 聯 inside:

珠联璧合