Learn one Chinese Character a day - 莽

today we examine another character created with 犬 - 莽. Recall what we have learnt before: 莫 and 暮, we will see that 莫 and 莽 was created in the same way: the only difference is the middle part - 日 VS 犬.

Following the same reasoning we given to 莫 / 暮, 莽 represents: a (hunting) dog disappeared into high grasses, as shown below:

before continuing to examine its extended meanings, let us check the evolution history of 莽: (image taken from http://vividict.com/)

Evolution history of 莽

we can see that in Oracle script (, ) era, 莽 is created with "hunting dog inside woods". 

When it came to Bronze script () and Seal script () era, Chinese ancestors obviously thought that drawing of hunting dog inside grasses can present the idea of 莽 better.

bearing in mind of the evolution from Oracle script, to Bronze script and then to Seal script, based on the scene described, Chinese ancestors used 莽 to mean lush woods full of high grasses. for example 草莽.

Woods with high grasses is usually the place with few human activities, 莽 is thus used to mean desolated or uninhabited. for example 莽莽苍苍.

Normally only agitated and careless hunters would took their dogs to hunt preys inside lush woods with high grasses, this is why 莽 is also used to mean agitated and careless. for example 莽汉.

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

河西忆昔少年游,莽莽平沙石窟留。
我信春风能化雨,三危叠翠映高楼。