Learn one Chinese Character a day - 言

Before we move on to learn the Chinese character which means "100 million", we need to examine another Chinese character "言" first, which means "Say", "Speak" as verb or "Speech" as noun.

You might wonder why somehow "Say" can be related to the creation of a Chinese character which means "100 million"?

After our explanations with following a few lessons, you will grasp the idea clearly and appreciate the way "100 million" was created that way.

Let us look the evolution history of “言” first:  ( image get from http://www.vividict.com) 

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 言

Oracle Script was composed with(is mouth, while looks like the tongue of a snake) and an indicator  on top to emphasize the movement of tongue.

tongue of snake

Snakes hiss with their unique shape of tongues. Chinese ancestors noticed it and draw it to mean "using tongue to make sound (to speak)". It is quite a coincidence to the story in Bible, in which Satan changed its form to snake and talked to Eva to allure her to disobey the commands of God.

Bronze Script further added an indicator on top, while Seal Script again added another indicator  to emphasize “Speak” by movement of tongue.

When it evolved to Clerical Script  , it could be viewed as just a simplified version of Seal Script . Or our Chinese ancestors might already knew that while we are speaking, waves of sound （- three waves. note that three can mean a lot in Chinese） come out of our mouth "".

So "言" means "Say", "Speak" as verb.
"言" is extended to mean "Speech" as noun, for Speech is what we would like to speak about.

Let us end our lesson today with a Calligraphy as usual:

言念君子，温其如玉

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 万 | 萬

Same for the lesson on "千", please think again about the question “How would you create the Chinese character to mean ten thousand after knowing original meanings of 十， 百 and 千?”

Before answering the question, let us see 万 | 萬 evolution history first: ( image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 万 | 萬

Looking at Oracle Script of traditional version 萬, does it not look like a baby stretches out its hands to ask for something? Bronze Script added a handto mean to hold the baby.

Baby held in arm

It is now quite obvious that Chinese ancestors considered the next milestone of a person is "to have offspring". So  and   were used to mean next number after "千" as "Ten Thousand".
Evolved and been simplified further from Seal Script  to Clerical Script , it is very close to what we used now for traditional version of "Ten Thousand" - 萬.

As for simplified version 万, it suddenly appeared in Clerical Script. Chinese Linguists guess that it was related to Buddhism symbol 卐.

万  (Simplified Version) | 萬 (Traditional Version) means "Ten Thousand".

Some example numbers:

123456 - 一十二万三千四百五十六。

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy with "万 | 萬" inside.

北国风光，千里冰封，万里雪飘。

In Chinese numbering system, there is one more character "亿" after "万", and "亿" means "one hundred million". Again, if it were you, how would you create a character to mean "one hundred million"?

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 迁 | 遷

Let us look at "迁" more closely. It consists of "千" and a (walking),  We have learnt "千" and know that its original meaning is "moving". Since "千" is eventually used to mean "Thousand" only, Chinese ancestors added  to "千" to create another character "迁" to mean the same - "Move". As "迁" contains the meaning of "moving to a new place for changes", it can have meaning of "Change" as well.

"迁" is the simplified version, to understand the traditional version "遷", We will have to see its evolution history first: ( image get from http://www.vividict.com) 

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 迁 | 遷

Oracle Script of "遷" is missing here. The reason I think is because "千" was used during that period.
As "千" is eventually only used to mean "Thousand", Chinese ancestors needed to create a new character to mean "Move".

Bronze Script  consists of （Many hands  packed up bags ）and (邑，which we will learn later, means Foreign Land). So  means "packed up and move away to a foreign land".

While Seal Script removed  and added (walking), it also added (population) to bottom of to get . So  means "people packed up and moved".

When it came to Clerical Script , itspart has been changed to ,with part been simplified to . It became very similar to what our traditional Chinese character is - 遷.

As a conclusion, 迁 | 遷 means "Move", it can mean "Change" as well.
In certain idioms, 迁 | 遷 contains the full meaning of "packed up and move away to a foreign land" or "people packed up and moved".

Note that "千" and " 迁 | 遷" has the same pronunciation.
while for "九" and "究", they have similar pronunciation. "七" and "切" have similar pronunciation as well,
You can always listen to the pronunciation of Chinese characters online at https://translate.google.com

Let us end our lesson today with a Chinese Calligraphy:

君讳遷

Next lesson we will continue to "Ten Thousand", get ready!

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 辵

辵 is a very special Chinese character. Its original usage no longer exists, while it is now a commonly used radical when forming other Chinese characters.

Let us examine its evolution history to gain a solid understanding of its meaning （image get from http://www.vividict.com）:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 辵

 Oracle Script  consists of  (cross junction of a big road) and (foot). It means "walking on the road".

Seal Script  simplified it with  ( one side of a cross junction) and (foot).

Clerical Script  and Regular Script  further simplified them to our current way of writing and becomes a common radical. By adding  to a Chinese character, that character will then contains the meaning of "walking".

We will see such a Chinese character "迁" in our next lesson.

Before that, it is time to enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy.

悟道