Learn one Chinese Character a day - 象

today we move to a new pictograph character 象. it is also an animal. Could you guess which species it is?

Modern form 象 has been transformed a lot from its ancient scripts along the long history. If we look at its Oracle script and Bronze script , we will immediately know what it is: elephant, as shown below:

elephant

 As usual, below is its evolution history: (image taken from: http://vividict.com)

evolution history of 象

When it came to Seal script , it started to lose its photographic presentation, and became more abstract.

象 is a huge creature that impressed Chinese ancestors so much that they believed 象 could contains everything inside. thus 象 is extended to mean anything or everything. Since elephant does not really be able to put everything physical into its stomach, 象 usually refers to abstract things, like the form or looks of nature, human and physical materials,  for example 包罗万象 or 意象.

We have done our study today, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 象 inside:

大象无形