方

 Today we move on our learning journey to 方. This is a very simple Chinese character that provides little clue of what it is. Let us examine its ancient scripts to get more clues:

evolution history of 方

From its Oracle script , we can tell that it can be divided into parts of and . It is believed that represents man, and represents an ancient Chinese shackles used to exile criminals, as shown below:

方

方 originally means exile criminals into desolated border of a country.

From its original meaning, 方 is extended with following meanings:

1. border or side: for example: 四方形

2. Chinese ancestors believes that Heaven is round, while earth is a square at its border, 方 thus contains meaning of square: for example: 方方正正

3. a place at border means it is far away from central of the country, 方 has the meaning of local, for example 方言

4. 方 thus also has the meaning of a place or a county, for example 地方

5. exile to borders means travel to that direction: for example 方向

That is pretty much all for 方, time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 方 inside:

大风起兮云飞扬, 威加海内兮归故乡, 安得猛士兮守四方.