Learn one Chinese Character a day - 疒

Looking at our new Chinese character today - 疒, it would be very hard to guess its meaning without knowing its Oracle Script.

So let us examine its evolution history first (image get from http://www.vividict.com) -

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 疒

Oracle Script of 疒 composed of two parts - left part is bed (床), right part is a person (人). To have a better idea, we rotate the drawing of 90 degrees anti-clockwise, we will get .

Now you might have already shout out is lying on bed. True. There are mostly two conditions we would like to lying on bed, one reason is we are tired, another is because of sickness.

As learnt in our last lesson that take a rest is already presented by 休, so was used to represent the meaning of lying on bed because of sickness.

Seal Script simplified part to an indicator , and eventually becomes 疒.

疒 is now only used as a Chinese Radical (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(Chinese_characters)). When you see any Chinese character with 疒, they are all related to sickness.

 Since 疒 is now only used as Radical, in today's Calligraphy, we use a Chinese character with 疒 as a replacement:

古道西风瘦马

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 休

Today we are going to learn 休, look at the character, its left part is 人, and its right part is 木. What would be its meaning with a person besides a tree?

We will have a clear idea with below image:

Take a break under the tree

Yes, 休 means take a rest. And 休 is also extended to mean our good feelings while taking a break under the tree.

Let us examine its evolution history to confirm our guessing: (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 休

From Oracle Script  , which is composed of man and tree . Following the same logic, is all the way simplified to its current form - 休.

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

清音俗世流,纷争何时休

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 床

When we were learning 片, we knew that:
Seal Script of 木 -
Seal Script of 片 -

And if we check the Seal Script of 床, we will have:

Seal Script of 床 - .

Evolution history of 床：(image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 床

Now it is very clear that 床 -  is left half of the wood  after being cut into two pieces. If you recall the Oracle Script of 片, you will realize that  is 片 as well. I guess after Chinese ancestors eventually invented a furniture for sitting or lying on, looked like such furniture, thus Chinese ancestors eventually borrowed to mean it.

床 - in ancient China, it was used to mean both Chair or Bed. As time passed, 床 is used to mean Bed only, for eventually there were dedicated furnitures for siting and sleeping separately. Thus another Chinese character 椅 was created to mean Chair only. From here we also know that Chinese ancestors already had wooden furnitures during Oracle Script period.

A typical 床 in ancient China

床 is later extended to mean something big and flat, like river bed, exactly the same idea as English.

During Seal Script period, there was already another variation created - by adding an extra wood  to emphasize 床 is created with wood. 

During Clerical Script period, had its  part transformed to that we had the new form . Current way of writing 床 is the continuation of .

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 床 inside:

风云三尺剑，花鸟一床书。

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 片

What is the meaning of 片? Let us see two pictures and we might get some idea out of it:
Seal Script of 木 - 
Seal Script of 片 - 

It is clear that cutting wood (木 - ), we will get 片 - . What will we get by cutting wood? Plank or Board.

Yes, 片 means Plank or Board or something thin, flat.
Chinese language normally uses same character for noun as verb as well.
片 also means cut something into thin & flat pieces, like 片肉
As a Plank or Board cut from wood is usually small, so 片 is extended to mean a small area or space.
片is later used as Chinese Classifier to count something flat or a area.

Let us examine 片's evolution history: (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 片

We can see that starting from Regular Script , its way of writing has been finalised.

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy as usual with 片 inside:

两岸青山相对出，孤帆一片日边来

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 森

Same as 焱 to 火 and 众 to 人, Chinese ancestors created 森 from 木.
Comparing to 林, 森 have more trees than 林, and as mentioned before, number three in Chinese language means a lot. 森, which is three 木, means lots of trees.

So 森 means Forest.
In the Forest, all plants are very closely compacted, thus 森 is extended to mean Dense.
As Forest also appears depressing or frightening, thus 森 is also extended to mean Gloomy.

In our spoken Chinese language, we normally use a phrase 森林 to mean forest. It is because while we speak to each other, we would like to add extra characters with similar meanings so that even if we did not hear part of the sentence clearly, with redundant information, we could still understand each other correctly. 

Now let us check 森's evolution history: (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 森

Interesting enough that Chinese ancestors drew as well to mean Forest. Most likelyfits better with aesthetic feeling, we eventually fixed the writing as 森, following .

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 森 inside:

丞相祠堂何处寻，锦官城外柏森森

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 林

Same as 炎 to 火, Chinese ancestors created 林 from 木.
Meaning of 林 with 木 is exactly the same as Woods to Wood in English.

林 means woods.
林 is later extended to mean a large amount of similar things or people in a certain area, similar to woods formed with many trees.

Let us examine whether there is any difference in ancient times when 林 was created: (image get from http://www.vividict.com/)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 林

We can see clearly that the form of 林 from Oracle Script period till now remains same logic and representation.

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 林 inside:

风林火山

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 棵

After we learnt 株, you might be thinking that adding 木 to 朱, we can create this Chinese Classifier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_classifier) 株 as counter for trees, but why not add 木 to other tree related characters to create the same Chinese Classifier?

Let us check the possible combinations before answering the question.
Adding 木 to 木 we can get 林, however 林 is already be used to mean something else - woods.
本 means root of a tree, while 末/未 used to mean treetop. They do not refer to a tree as 朱 does.
However adding 木 to 果 (Original meaning of 果 is a fruity tree) does provide us similar meaning as 株. 棵 is the new character we would like to learn today.

As shown above, 棵 is a Chinese Classifier character, and it is a little bit different than 株.
棵 is used as counter for plants, including trees. Like: a 棵 tree.

棵 is a newly created Chinese character whose evolution history cannot be found.

Let us enjoy its Chinese calligraphy:

把我化作一棵树