Learn one Chinese Character a day - 渔 | 漁

Since we just learnt 鱼, today we examine a new character related to it - 渔. What does it mean? 

we already know that 氵 means water or river. Combination of Water / River and 鱼 can possibly have following meanings:

a. fish inside water;
b. fish outside water.

Fish inside water does not have any special context. However fish outside water does, especially if it is caught out of water by people.

Let us get more hints from its ancient scripts. below is the evolution history of 渔 (image taken from http://vividict.com/):

evolution history of 渔 | 漁

As we can see from its Oracle script , it is the drawing of ， which is a hand () holding a fishing rod (), to catch fish （）, like a Chinese painting below:

angling

While its another Oracle script is a drawing of hands casting nets () to catch fish ().

Another Oracle script is drawing of fish () outside river (), which is eventually adopted by Seal script  with river moved to left hand side of fish.  is then evolved into the modern form - 渔 | 漁.

So 渔 | 漁 means fishing. For example: 渔夫.

And catching fish means obtaining some benefits, 渔 | 漁 is also used to mean obtain or get as a verb. For example 渔利. Since fishing is to catch fish by force and is against the will of fish, when 渔 | 漁 is used as verb, it is a kind of derogatory term, which contains such hiding meaning of "by force and against the will of other people".

That is all for 渔 | 漁, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with it inside:

渔父笑，轻鸥举，漠漠一江风雨。
江边骑马是官人，借我孤舟南渡。

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 鱼 | 魚

Today we continue our learning journey to another Pictograph Chinese character - 鱼, whose traditional version is 魚.

It is kind of hard to guess the meaning with its current form: 鱼 | 魚. However once you see its Oracle script and Bronze script, you will definitely know what it means. 

Here it is: Oracle script of 鱼 is, and its Bronze script is . Is not it actually a stick figure of fish, as shown below?

fish commonly seen in China

To know how it evolves from to its modern form - 鱼, we need to examine its ancient scripts, as shown below: ( which is taken from: http://vividict.com)

Evolution history of 鱼

We can see that its Seal script  is still containing the most characteristics of 鱼. Then it is deformed into during Clerical script era, which became pretty much the same as what we write today as Traditional character: 魚.

So 鱼 originally means freshwater fish that is commonly seen in China. for example: 鲫鱼.

Then it is eventually used to mean most species who lives in water and has the shape of a fish, too. For example: 鲸鱼.

That is all for today, it is now time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 鱼 inside:

临渊羡鱼，不如退而结网