Learn one Chinese Character a day - 鸟 | 鳥

Today we are going to check another Pictogram character - 鸟, whose traditional version is 鳥.

Once you know the meaning of 鸟 | 鳥, you will like its traditional version 鳥 more. 鳥 is a closer drawing of the object it represents.

Let us examine its revolution history as shown below : (image taken from http://vividict.com)

evolution history of 鸟 | 鳥

Its Oracle script is a drawing more than a proper character. I assume you would already know what , or  or  refers to?

Starting from Oracle script, to Bronze script, then Seal script, till its current modern form,  鳥 inherits most of its ancient scripts, while 鸟 is simplified too much.  

鸟 | 鳥 is another example which explains why we appreciate our traditional version 鳥 more than its simplified counter party - 鸟.

yes, 鸟 | 鳥 means bird. And  is indeed a vivid drawing of a singing bird.

鸟 | 鳥

that is all for 鸟 | 鳥, now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 鸟 | 鳥 inside:

海阔凭鱼跃；天高任鸟飞。

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 驭 | 馭

From today onwards, we start to pick up some of the low hanging fruits in Chinese character vocabulary . Our character today is 驭, whose Traditional version is 馭.

We have already learnt the character 马 is a drawing of horse, and original meaning of 又 is hand.

So what is the meaning of 驭 then? A natural guess would be "use hand (又) to control a horse (马)". As shown in below the pictures:

A recent photo:

驭马

 And a ancient Chinese drawing:

驭马图

We can double confirm our guessing with its evolution history: (image taken from:http://vividict.com)

evolution history of 驭 | 馭

Looking at its Bronze Script , we can see that it is composed of (马) and .  is drawing of "a hand holding something". Since it is related to 马, that something must be horsewhip. Below is a modern art which uses metal to represent .

驭

 When it came to Seal Script,  is simplified to , with its  simplified to . Amazingly the simplified Seal Script presents the meaning of  even better.

驭 | 馭 is thus the continual version of .

驭 | 馭 means "use hand to control a horse", for example 驾驭

For 驭 | 馭 has the meaning of control, it is then eventually used to mean "to control, to manage, to rule, or to supervise". for example: 统驭, 以简驭繁

That is all, now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 驭 | 馭 inside:

长辔远驭