Learn one Chinese character a day - 卡

As what mentioned in our last post, our character today is 卡. 卡 is a compound ideographs character which was created quite recently, during Regular Script period. Could you try to guess its meaning?

Recall what we have just learnt, 上 and 下.  is not卡 composed of, but not exactly, 上 and 下, with 一 of 上 / 下 overlapped? Yes,卡 has the representation of "not 上 and not 下", which is used to describe a situation that somebody or something is stuck at a position that he cannot move. for example, 卡住.

a cat is 卡 at the door

As same Chinese character can be used as verb, 卡 means "stuck somebody or something at a position that he cannot move", for example: 卡脖子

卡住脖子

when English word card is introduced to China, it sounds quite similar to 卡. And also卡 has "上 and 下", which can present well the meaning of card which has prints at both sides. Yes,卡 means card. For example 贺卡.

贺卡

Now it is time for us to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 卡 inside:

引斌尖卡

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 下

We have learnt 上, Then to your best guess, what would be the meaning of 下, whose Oracle Script is ? Before revealing the answer, let us examine its evolution history first: (image taken from http://vividict.com/)

evolution history of 下

that is right, 下 is the opposite of 上. To refer back to explanation of 上, please visit https://xiongzou.blogspot.sg/2017/10/learn-one-chinese-character-day.html

For 上 has the meaning of "upward or above or up", 下 thus has the meaning of downward or below or down. For example 向下.

For 上 has meaning of "on, on top of, upon and etc", 下 thus has the meaning of below, beneath or under, for example 下面.
For 上 has meaning of "superior", 下 thus has the meaning of subordinate. For example 下属.

For 上 has meaning of "preceding, previous or last", 下 thus has the meaning of following, next or subsequent. For example 下次.

For 上 has the meaning of "go up", thus 下 has the meaning of "go down". for example 下楼. 

下, as a very frequently used Chinese character, has still many other subtle meanings besides what we listed above, however they are a good starting point for us to know what 下 means.

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 下 inside:

听雨读简书，灯下著文章。

And with understanding of 上 and 下, can you guess what could be the meaning of 卡？