仌

The character today 仌 is a Chinese Radical, which is essential to known before moving on to understand other Chinese characters like 冰, 冬 and etc.

From the shape of 仌, it looks like a drawing of mountain ridge, however we already knew that in Chinese - 山 (https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2012/01/learn-one-chinese-character-day_15.html), was drawn as  as its Oracle Script. With the understanding of 冰 and 冬, 仌 is actually a drawing of ice, to be more accurate, probably ice flood of Yellow River:

ice flood of Yellow River

仌 is simplified as 冫in modern Regular Scripts, which is used to add the meaning of cold or icy in the Combined Ideogram Chinese characters, like 冰 and 冬 mentioned above. 冬 has an old form of writing as  in case you are wondering.

That is all for 仌, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 仌 inside:

冰庵

 

税 | 稅

With our understanding of 禾 and 兑, today we are examine the meaning of their combination: 税, whose Traditional Chinese character is 稅, comparing the Traditional Chinese character of 兑 as 兌.

As we know, 兑 contains the original meaning of collecting (something) from the clan then dividing or allocating it among people by the chief of the clan.

China used to be an Agricultural country for tens of centuries, 禾 is the most important living supplies and symbol of wealth of Chinese people. Adding 兑 to 禾, it is to represent the meaning of government of  Chinese dynasty collecting 禾 as Tax from Chinese citizens, which will be used by the government for infrastructure, military, welfare and other expenses.

So 税 | 稅 is to mean Tax. for example 税收.

And Farmers in China also used to borrow farmland / seeds from their landlords in Spring and payback their landlords with certain portion of their harvests in Autumn as interests promised.

税 | 稅 can also be used to mean Interests. 税息.

As usual, to understand the character 税 | 稅 better, let us examine its evolution history:

Evolution history of 税

We can tell that there is no major differences in writing 税 from Bronze script till current modern Regular scripts.

Time to enjoy Chinese calligraphy with 税 inside:

荆树有花兄弟乐；书田无税子孙耕。

兔

This year is Rabbit year of Chinese New Year, which in Chinese character is 兔. 

a typical image used for Chinese Rabbit Year

Let us study this Pictogram character to understand how it was created and evolved into current way of writing:

evolution history of 兔

From it Oracle script , we can tell that as a Pictogram,  is a simpler drawing of , with emphasizing a few unique features of a rabbit - long ears, harelip and short tail.

The short tail was slowly simplified into a  in our Regular script - 兔.

兔 means Rabbit, Bunny, Hare or any Rabbit-alike creatures. for example 小白兔.

That is all for 兔, here I wish everyone a Healthy and Prosperous Chinese New Year of Rabbit in 2023!

兔年大吉

 

利

With our understanding of the the meaning of 禾, there are a few low-handing fruits in the Chinese characters tree for us to pick up. Besides 秋 we just learnt, 利 is another one.

利 is obviously composed of two parts: 禾 and 刂. And we already know that 刂 is indeed a 刀 when it is used as a Chinese Radical. So the most reasonable scene that 利 represents is probably following picture:

Harvesting

What is the underlying meaning that Chinese ancestors tried to represent here? The food or wealth that is being collected.

And as usual, examining the evolution history of 利 always helps:

Evolution history of 利

From its Oracle script, and its Bronze script:, there were two extra dots in the script: , which is believed to mean grains.

As skipping drawing of the  would not undermine the representation of 利 itself, we can see that they were eliminated starting from Seal script:  and result in our modern form 利.

so 利 has the meaning of benefits, wealth, goodness that comes together with 禾. for example: 利益. And it can be used as verb to mean benefit as well. for example 利己.

And farmers grow 禾 from small grain seeds in Spring and later harvest abundantly in Autumn. 利 thus contains the meaning of collecting of extra / multiplied gains from labor or time. for example 利息.

Also not forgetting the 刀 part of the 利, it enables 利 to contain the meaning of sharp, for example 利刃.

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

苟利国家生死以；岂因祸福避趋之。