Learn one Chinese Character a day - "手"

Today we check another new Chinese character - "手", which is drawing of a part of a human body.
Before you can do a wild guess, let us see its evolution history as usual first - (image get fromhttp://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "手"

Oracle script of  "手" is still missing, its Bronze script ,  is the Pictograph of a Hand with all fingers fully open, as the picture below -

手

Have to admit that you need very good imagination ability to predict that  refers to Hand. Oracle script might be much closer to the picture above. But the basic idea is still there.

Seal script  followed the path of  and eventually evolved to current "手".

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

慈母手中线， 游子身上衣

Look at the poem "慈母手中线", as we have learnt "中", so meaning of 手中 here is "inside the hand".

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "马"

"马" is the simplified Chinese character as "馬" is the Traditional character. It is probably kind of hard to guess its meaning from its currently way of writing, let us check its evolution history - (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "马"

 Oracle script of "马" - is a drawing of "an animal with long face, big eyes, flying mane, long tail with hoof". I rotated the original picture by 90 degrees -which is more clear to above description. When we imagine an animal running fast with mane flying, the first jump into our mind is definitely - Horse, as the picture below.

"马" or "馬"   

Bronze script simplified the writing but with an empathize on Horse's major characteristics - Flying Mane, Seal script  and Clerical script followed the path of Bronze script and eventually we have what we are using now as Traditional Chinese character . During Regular script, also emerged and is now adopted as Simplified Chinese character.

"马" or "馬" now specifically means Horse. However when it is used as part of a " 会意 huìyì: Logical aggregates" character, it refers to its most primitive meaning "an animal with long face, big eyes, flying mane, long tail with hoof", like "驴" (Donkey,) which is an animal looks like "马" and works besides a house ("户").

There is a very famous painter in China whose name is 徐悲鸿 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Beihong). He is well known of his wonderful Chinese Ink Painting of Horses. Below is one of his artworks.

马 - 徐悲鸿 

As usual, let us end our learning today with a Chinese Calligraphy with "马" or "馬" inside -

卧马居

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "化"

We have learnt "人" and some of the 会意字, created with "人", (会意 - huìyì: Logical aggregates, in which two or more parts are used for their meaning. This yields a composite meaning, which is then applied to the new character.) which are "从", "比", "北". Today we check for "化". Let us look at its evolution history first - (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "化"

"化" in Oracle scriptis composed of  ( A man walking upright to one direction ) and  (A man headstand walking to opposite direction). Chinese ancestors thought the biggest change is that a man's behaviors are completely reversed. And thus  means Change. And it is then extended to mean Transform as well.
Bronze script, Seal script are still close variation of Oracle script . While Clerical scriptis greatly simplified to be close to what we are using now - "化".

To end today's learning, as usual we enjoy a Chinese calligraphy art with "化" inside:

造化钟神秀，阴阳割昏晓。......  会当凌绝顶，一览众山小。

Above poem is describing one of five greatest mountains in China. Below is one of its pictures.

会当凌绝顶，一览众山小。

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "六"

We are still having a few numbers left to check. Currently we have already learnt "一" to "五". Today we will look at "六". It takes me quite some time to understand why our Chinese ancestors came out the idea that "六" means Six.

Here is most convincing explanation. "六" is a 假借字 (假借 jiǎjiè: Borrowing, in which a character is used, either intentionally or accidentally, for some entirely different purpose.) from "陆".

"陆" -Oracle script is  ，with its right hand side component. And "六" - is a simplified way of writing.  is to mean a land fully covered with plants and grasses. A fertile land with abundant plants is a place full of changing, growing, and evolving process.

As we have learnt from "三", three “一"s are to mean Sky, Earth and Anything in between. However each element should have a pair to re-produce and multiply so that everything in the universe can change, grow and evolve. So two times of "三", which is Six, contains the meaning of "changing, growing and evolving" of the universe.  "六" - Six, is borrowed from "" then simplified to  and we get what we are using today. And you will also no longer be surprised to see that Chinese sometimes use "陆" - to mean Six as well.

So ”六“ means Six.

"陆" means Land (In special scenarios, it also means Six). We can explain it in more detail when we get into this character "陆".

Let us see "六" evolution history - (image from http://www.vividict.com)

六 - Six

And let us see "陆" evolution history - (image from http://www.vividict.com)

陆 - Land / Six

As usual, we enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with "六" inside to end this lesson.

泰和六年

 In above picture, we should recognize "五", “六”, "月", "二", "日", "人", "三", "四".

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "明"

As what we have partially mentioned before, Chinese characters are developed based on six principles, referring to the famous book "说文解字"

1. 象形 xiàngxíng: Pictographs, in which the character is a graphical depiction of the object it denotes. Examples: 人 rén "person", 日 rì "sun", 木 mù "tree/wood".
2. 指事 zhǐshì: Indicatives, or ideographs, in which the character represents an abstract notion. Examples: 上 shàng "up", 下 xià "down", 三 sān "three".
3. 會意/会意 huìyì: Logical aggregates, in which two or more parts are used for their meaning. This yields a composite meaning, which is then applied to the new character. Example: 東/东 dōng "east", which represents a sun rising in the trees.
4. 形聲/形声 xíngshēng: Phonetic complexes, in which one part—often called the radical—indicates the general semantic category of the character (such as water-related or eye-related), and the other part is another character, used for its phonetic value. Example: 晴 qíng "clear/fair (weather)", which is composed of 日 rì "sun", and 青 qīng "blue/green", which is used for its pronunciation.
5. 轉注/转注 zhuǎnzhù: Transference, in which a character, often with a simple, concrete meaning takes on an extended, more abstract meaning. Example: 網/网 wǎng "net", which was originally a pictograph depicting a fishing net. Over time, it has taken on an extended meaning, covering any kind of lattice; for instance, it can be used to refer to a computer network.
6. 假借 jiǎjiè: Borrowing, in which a character is used, either intentionally or accidentally, for some entirely different purpose. Example: 哥 gē "older brother", which is written with a character originally meaning "song/sing", now written 歌 gē. Once, there was no character for "older brother", so an otherwise unrelated character with the right pronunciation was borrowed for that meaning. 

<<说文解字>>

“明” is a Chinese character created with the combination of "日" (Sun) and "月" (Moon). It is a typical Logical aggregates character. Without checking the evolution history of it, we can already start to explain and extend its meanings.

Since “明” is he combination of "日" (Sun) and "月" (Moon) in the same word, it is to be "Bright".

And in a bright environment, you can see your surroundings clearly, so “明” is extended to mean "Understand" as a verb and "Clearly / Publicly" as adv.

And for “明” contains "日" and "月", if we see the Sun then the Mood, it means that one day has passed and it will be next day already. so “明” is also used to mean “Next” when it is used together with time related characters. Like 明日, recall that 日 can also mean "Day" besides "the Sun", 明日 means "Tomorrow". 

Now let us see what is the evolution history of  “明”  (image get from http://www.vividict.com) -

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "明"

As you can see early stage Oracle script of “明” -is composed by  at left and at right-hand side, while now “明” with 日 at left and 月 at right.

Now let us end our lesson by enjoying a Chinese calligraphy with 明 inside -

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "明"

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "月"

Today we learn another Pictographs character "月". As usual, we see whether we can guess its meaning from the evolution history (http://www.vividict.com).

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "月"

Oracle script of "月" is . it is composed of a semi-circular object () with some darkness inside. Bronze script is more close to the actual image of the object. You might already know its meaning, I show a picture of the meaning of this Chinese character  below -

月 - the moon

So "月" means Moon.
As "月" changed from full moon to full moon again, it is one Month in Chinese Lunar Calendar. "月" also means Month.  

Although "月" is full and bright sometimes, most of the time it is semi-circular. That is the unique outlook of moon compared to other stars or sun in the sky. Chinese ancestors observed this characteristics of moon and draw  to represent it.

Seal script of  "月" -  changed a lot and it followed actually another Oracle script of  "月" - . When it came to Clerical script (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_script) , it is close to what we are using now.

let's end our today's learning by enjoying a Chinese calligraphy art with "月" included:

人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全

As we have already learnt "月" and "日", what will be the meaning of "明"?