秋

Our character today is 秋, which we mentioned during our Middle Autumn Festival. With knowledge of 禾 and 火, we can try to reason why 秋 was created to represent Autumn.

China used to be Agricultural country, farmers burnt the straws of 禾 after harvest in order to eliminate pests, harmful germs and weeds, as well as to fertilize the land. Chinese ancestors draw this representative scene in Autumn to represent Autumn.

burning the straws after harvest

As usual, we will always examine evolution history of 秋 to confirm / understand more about it:

evolution history of 秋

Oracle script of 秋:   is obviously an insect, which is believed to be a cricket. As stated by one of the Chinese poetry in famous 《诗经》: "五月斯螽动股，六月莎鸡振羽。七月在野，八月在宇，九月在户，十月蟋蟀入我床下。" Cricket is taken as a symbolic of Autumn by Chinese. 

cricket

Oracle script added fire under the insect, It is probably to represent the common practice that farmers burn their straws to eliminate pests.

Starting from , 禾 started to appear as part of 秋, which can be a result of increasing importance of 禾 in Chinese agriculture. As  is a simpler way of writing, 秋 followed this trend in its Bronze script  and eventually transformed into its current Regular script: 秋.

So 秋 means autumn, for example 秋天.

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 秋 inside:

春花秋月何时了？往事知多少。小楼昨夜又东风，故国不堪回首月明中。
雕栏玉砌应犹在，只是朱颜改。问君能有几多愁？恰似一江春水向东流。