Learn one Chinese Character a day - 立

before we continue with our next character related to 犬, today we study another brand new character first - 立. Simple character like 立 is usually harder to guess its meaning as there will be much less clues available.

Let us see whether its ancient scripts can help us or not. (image taken from: http://vividict.com)

Evolution history of 立

it's Oracle script is composed of two parts, upper part is the Oracle script of 大 (details can be reviewed at https://xiongzou.blogspot.sg/2016/01/learn-one-chinese-character-day_10.html), which originally means adult; and its lower part is a horizontal line .

so 立 was created with the original context of "a big adult standing on the ground", as shown below, from which many different meanings have been developed:

立

naturally 立 means standing up, for example 站立.

stand up normally means for person, what if we make something to stand up straight? thus 立 has been used to mean "setup something upward", for example 竖立.

and Chinese ancestors did not stop here. recall that 大 has the meaning of big, 立 thus contains the meaning of "something big and obvious has been put up which is known to many people". in English, it is very close to establish or found, for example 立功, and 立国.

remember what we have learnt 天? 天 is actually a drawing of sky (一) above people (大) while 立 is a drawing of people (大) standing on earth (一).  I think it is then quite naturally in Chinese to describe heroes with some idiom like: 顶天立地.

As time passes, we can see that its clerical script  transformed a lot to lose the shape of 大 and eventually is finalized as 立.

before ending our lesson today, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 立 inside:

泉眼无声惜细流，树阴照水爱晴柔；
小荷才露尖尖角，早有蜻蜓立上头。

With the understanding of 立, maybe we can know what 位 means already?

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 伏

Same as 突, our character today is also created with 犬: 伏, which is composed of 亻( which is 人) and 犬. What does it mean here?

There could be some different possible combinations as listed below:
a. Hunter and a hunting dog;

b. Hunter (does hunting with) a hunting dog.

c. Hunter acts like a hunting dog;

We can easily strike out option a, as that does not contain any useful context that Chinese ancestors would waste a character for.

For options b and c, it is hard for us to jump to conclusion. Its ancient scripts might help us to understand its meanings: (image taken from http://vividict.com)

Evolution history of 伏

we can see that from its Bronze Script and Seal Script till the current modern form 伏, the concept and components has not been changed at all!

From option b above, it is to describe the scene that hunters, together with their dogs, ambush and besiege the prey. The YouTube video below demonstrates the concept of ambush precisely, and it vividly explains what 伏 means. 伏 has the meaning of ambush.

From the video above, we can tell that 伏 has also the meaning of lower down (one's body) or lie on one's stomach. For example: 伏案疾书.

And from above video we can also see that lions pulled the buffalo down to the ground by force. 伏 thus contains the meaning of being subject to. for example 伏法. Actually we can conclude the same meaning as "being subject to" when we see somebody lower down his body before another authority.

伏

if 伏 is used as verb, then it can be used to mean "making somebody / something to be subjected to (by force)", for example 降龙伏虎.

降龙伏虎

From option c, it should be describing the scene that Hunter lower down his body to hide himself carefully like a hunting dog in order not to alert the prey. We get the same meaning of lower down (one's body) as that from option b.

now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 伏 inside:

老骥伏枥，志在千里