Learn one Chinese Character a day - 穴

In our last lesson, we learnt that "九", whose original meaning is "crawling around to explore unknown environment.", is used to mean number Nine now. Chinese ancestors then need to create a new one for the meaning of “Explore” as what they did for "七" and "八"。

Before that it is necessary to prepare ourselves with a new Chinese character "穴".

Let us see its evolution history first as usual (image get fromhttp://www.vividict.com):

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 穴

Oracle Script , looks like the image , which is a Pictograph character. (象形 xiàngxíng: Pictographs, in which the character is a graphical depiction of the object it denotes. Examples: 人 "person", 日 "sun"). It means "Cave in a mountain".

Seal Script is still similar as Oracle Script , however when it evolved further to Clerical Script , it was simplified to what is using now - "穴".

"穴" means Cave,
It also has extended meanings, such as "Hole" or "Burrow"

It is now time to enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy with 穴 inside:

千里之堤，溃于蚁穴