面

We have accumulated a lot of basic Chinese characters during our past learning journey that we can use to assemble more complex characters. While pick up low hanging fruits, we will continue to equip us with new basic characters like this one today: 面.

It is not that easy to guess the meaning of 面 by looking at its modern way of writing. As usual, 面's evolution history will help:

evolution history of 面

Inside the Oracle script , there is a drawing of , which we can recognize easily as drawing of an eye. is Chinese character 目. We can found its detailed explanation at  https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2011/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day_18.html

Its another Oracle script  emphasizes its relationship with a human.

When it evolved to Seal script , it is much clear that refers to eye. However what does the surrounding referring to? Combined with meaning of 面 we know today, is the outline of a face.

Chinese ancestors noticed eyes as the most obvious and important part of our face and draw it together with the outline of a face to represent the meaning of face:   .

When time passes,  was simplified to our current way of writing: 面, which pretty much lost its original drawing.

So 面 means face as noun. for example 面部.

面 can also be used as verb to mean facing or face to face. for example 面壁,  面谈.

What we facing can refer to a direction or position. for example 前面, 后面.

Face is what we can see from a person, 面 is also used to represent meaning of surface: 表面.

That is all for 面 today, time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 面 inside:

胜日寻芳泗水滨，无边光景一时新；
等闲识得东风面，万紫千红总是春。

福

During Chinese New Year holiday, you might have seen Chinese families put up couplets and 福 on their main doors to celebrate their most important holiday in a year.

Today we move on to explain what 福, which Chinese like the most, means and represents.

 As we learned with 祝 at https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/05/blog-post_23.html , left hand part of 福: 礻is Chinese Radical form of 示, which is the altar for worshiping, with details at https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/04/blog-post_26.html. So we know that 福 should be related to worshiping gods.

Then what does right hand part of 福: 畐 mean? 畐 seems to be composed of 一口田. Does 福 mean to pray to gods for having a piece of farm land? With such questions in mind, let us examine the evolution history of 福 to understand 福 better:

Evolution history of 福

Now we can see clearly from ancient scripts of 福 that its right hand side is the drawing of a wine vessel. It is particularly obvious with in and in . And during Bronze Script era, the vessel was simplified and transferred into , which was further simplified into 畐 in Seal Script. 

Below is a typical traditional wine vessel used in ancient China:

Examining carefully that we can see there is actually two hands offering onto altar. In 福's evolution process, the was simplified away.

福 is now obvious to have original meaning of offering wine to worship gods.

so 福 contains all the blessings, goodness and fortunes we pray to gods to grant us. To be more specific: Healthy, Wealthy, Safety and Peace. for example 福气.

And wine is brewed from rice. If an ancient Chinese family had extra rice to brew wine and not only that, they had wine reserved to offer to gods,  it was a clear sign of blessing that this family got a bumper harvest. for example 祝福.

That is all for 福, time to enjoy a Chinese art with 福 inside:

 

福