于 | 於

Before we move on to the last Chinese character 乎 of the sentence: 学而时习之，不亦乐乎, we need to know how Chinese character 于 is created.

Due to simplicity of its modern form 于, most information has been lost along its evolution. Let us see what we can get from its ancient Oracle or Bronze scripts:

Evolution history of 于

As we can see, its Oracle script starts with a very complex drawing  . What is it representing? If you know the meaning of 竽, you might realize that  is probably the drawing of an ancient Chinese music instrument. One of its modern version is as shown below. And if you are interested, you can go to youtube to listen to its sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FusN8AKUK48

竽

Lately it was simplified by drawing important part of , which is . I do believe that demonstrates the air flow channel as well as the reed inside the music instrument). Then it is further simplified to .

We can see the same simplifying procedure in Bronze Script as well: from to .

And eventually it was settled down to the most simplified version in Clerical Script period and now as .

As to its Tradition version ,  It was actually originated from another source related to bird but borrowed to present the same meaning as 于. One of the Oracle script of  is . Since our main purpose of studying 于 is to help us understanding 乎 later, we will leave  for future explanation if needed.

Now we know that 于 is first used to represent a musical instrument originally, which is now replaced by 竽.

After the simplifying,  is also kind of emphasizing the location of the most important part inside where sounds made from.  于 is eventually borrowed to be used as a preposition to contain following meanings:
1. at, in, on;   for example: 生于中国
2. of;   for example: 属于
3. from;   for example: 取之于民

And since originally 于 was the musical instrument, people, who made a living by performing with it, chose 于 as their family name. 于 is thus also used as surname / family name in China. For example 于谦.

That is all for 于 | 於, it is now time to enjoy Chinese calligraphy with 于 | 於 inside:

业精于勤荒于嬉；行成于思毁于随。

祝

When we were studying 兄, I mentioned about 祝 which can be used to help understanding how 兄 was created. Today we continue to examine 祝 to complete the puzzle.

Some of you should have already seen that 祝 is composed of Radical 礻 and 兄.  礻 is actually how 示 is written when it is used as Chinese Radical. We can confirm it with 祝 's ancient scripts.

Evolution history of 祝

We can see that in Oracle Script period,   (兄 ) was directly used as 祝 in certain cases. To differentiate 兄 and 祝, Chinese ancestors started to add 示 to 兄 to make it clear that they are two different characters, for example:  and .  then eventually during Clerk Script period, 祝 was simplified to , which is almost the same as Regular Script we are writing today: 祝.

So what does  represents? most likely as shown as below image (taken from )http://www.guoxuedashi.com/:

Pray before altar

In Chinese tradition, during a worship or memorial ceremony, family or clan leader (兄) would pray for the others.  祝 thus has the meaning of pray to gods or wish for good fortune. for example 祝福.

And 祝 can also be used as noun, referring to wizards, monks or someone-alike who pray for their believers. for example 庙祝.

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

但愿温恭直谅之友来。。。<<客座私祝>>

示

Today we move to a new ideogram or pictogram Chinese character 示. You might be wondering why 示 can be an ideogram and pictogram character at the same time? It will be explained with its ancient scripts together with their evolution history.

evolution history of 示

As we can see from above that there are two origins of 示.  Oracle scripts, and  are now considered as pictograms of altar or altar with a god‘s tablet, as demonstrated by below image: (borrowed from http://m.guoxuedashi.com/xiangxingzi/970mx/)

worship to god

Another origin  is more ideogram. recall what we have learnt about the philosophy of Chinese ancestors while study our Chinese character 二, 三, 王 and 士.  一 on top represents heaven or sky, vertical  has the meaning of communicating with heaven (which means god).

 further emphasize the idea by using , which we know to be the Oracle script of 上,  andto represent the processing of communicating with god above (上).


Regarding  and , some indicative dots were added into  and . Like what Israelis do during their worship to God, Chinese ancestor also provide sacrifice with blood on altars. These dots are believed to represent blood of the sacrifice sprinkled around altars.

With the explanation above, we see that both origins actually have the same representation and meaning:  communicate with god above to receive the signs revealed.

Starting from Bronze Script and Seal Script, all different writings of 示 is aggregated to  and , and eventually finalized as current 示.


So 示 means show or reveal something (signs, results, information) to someone. for example 示意.

And obviously 示 is related to the process of worshiping god, any character created with 示 as its radical shows a clear indicator that such character is also related to the process of worshiping god. for example 祝.

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

训俭示康

悦 | 悅

Today we will study a new character 悦, which is composed of 忄 and 兑. 悅 is not strictly its traditional version, but kind of an variant of 悦.

We have already known that when heart （心）is used as a Chinese radical, it will be written as忄. And 兌 is what we just learnt in our previous post: "兄 is dividing among his clans". So 忄 plus 兌 | 兑 is to represent the meaning what (people) feel in their heart when they get their share they deserved: happy and gladness. for example: 愉悦.

悦 | 悅 can also be used as verb to mean:  to make (somebody) happy or glad. for example: 女为悦己者容.

Before we continue to enjoy the Chinese calligraphy, let us see whether there is any more clues we can get from its ancient scripts:

evolution history of 悦

Unfortunately there is no Oracle script found for 悦, but I assume it should be the same as 兑. 

And as we can see from the character discovered from War State period that it was to write 心 below 兑, instead of left to 兑. And Seal Script quickly changed to put 心 at left hand side.

That is all, now it is time to enjoy our Chinese calligraphy with 悦 inside:

翰墨联知己，诗书悦雅怀

兑 | 兌

Today we move to character 兑, whose Traditional version is 兌. 兌 not particularly different from its Simplified counterpart - 兑, but we can tell that it is related to 兄 we just learnt. What does the header  or represent here, together with 兄?

Before guessing its original meaning, let us examine its ancient scripts first:

 We can see that there is no obvious difference between 兌 and its ancient scripts shown above.

兌, which is 兄 plus . As we have know, 兄 is the person with authority in the family.  should be 八, which we also know to contain the original meaning of divide. So 兌 is to present that oldest brother excises his authority to divide (something) among his clans.

while Simplified version 兑 is more likely to represent the 兄 is speaking  or commanding.

During the process of dividing benefits among clans, people would exchange their shares with others for something they are more interested in. 兑 is thus used to mean exchange. for example: 兑换.

And during the same process, 兄 would fulfill his promise to clan members who contributes more, 兑 thus also contains the meaning of fulfill or realize (the promise or agreement). for example 兑现诺言.

That is all for 兑, time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 兑 | 兌 inside:

春播一禾，秋兑一梦。