来 | 來

Today we reach the last Chinese character 来 that is needed to know before we can understand the next sentence of 《论语》: 有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？

Looking at 来 and its traditional counterpart 來 itself, there is no much information provided. However recalling 木 we have learnt, 来 |  來 seems to be related to plants with roots drawn at the bottom. To confirm our guess, let us examine its ancient scripts:

evolution history of 来

Now when we look at the Oracle script of 来: or , it is quite clear that it is some kind of herb. But why not grass you might ask? It is because we have already known that grass is represented by character 草.

If you knew the meaning of the Traditional Chinese character 麥, you would have realized that 来 | 來 has some connection with 麥, which is shown below:

wheat

Does not  vividly outline the ripe wheat with its ears hanging down in above picture?  

Yes, 来 | 來 originally represents the meaning of 麦 | 麥, which is wheat.

As you can see that eventually evolved to Clerical script, which is almost the same as its Traditional character we used now: 來.

Wheat is an agriculture crop Chinese ancestors imported from foreign countries, and wheat is taken as a blessing gift from heaven which helped to feed Chinese people for centuries. 

来 | 來 was then borrowed to mean comes from or arrives from. For example 来访.

And 来 | 來 can also be used to represent the meaning of to come or to arrive. For example 未来.

As mentioned above, since 来 | 來 has been used to represent different meaning other than wheat, Chinese ancestors created a new character 麦 | 麥 for it.

That is pretty much all for 来 | 來, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 来 | 來 inside:

盛年不重来，一日难再晨；
及时当勉励，岁月不待人。