禾

Middle Autumn Festival, which in Chinese is 中秋节, is coming. It is one of the most important seasons Chinese families unite together to celebrate with mooncakes, lanterns and word puzzle games.

Looking at 秋, it is composed of 禾 and 火. We have learnt that 火 is a Pictogram character of fire at https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2016/02/learn-one-chinese-character-day_4.html. Today we proceed to learn what 禾 means.

If you have learnt with us what 木 represents, and it is used as part of 秋, which means Autumn, you might wondering 禾 was drawing of low hanging tree branches full of fruits. It is close. Evolution history of 禾 will tell you the correct answer:

evolution history of 禾

From its Oracle scriptand Bronze script, we realize it is probably not related to fruit trees. And indeed it is a drawing of following plant. Based on our understanding of ancient agriculture of Chinese, 禾 should be created to represent sorghum, millet or similar plants. With 秋 in mind, the harvesting time of 禾 is right around middle of autumn. 

禾

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

锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土；
谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆幸苦。

米

We have learnt 面 | 麺 before, today we study another character related to our daily food - 米. 

From its modern form of writing, it is not easy to reason its meaning. As usual, let us examine its evolution history to look for hints:

evolution history of 米

To be honest, it is still hard to tell what  represents. With the knowledge of meaning of 米, we can reasoning the logic of how Chinese ancestors created to mean rice, millet or any seeds requires grinding and removal of husk. I assume is indeed the drawing of using a wooden tool to remove husk of grains in ancient China:

连枷脱壳

Bronze script  was trying to represent 米 with the scene of its harvesting. Notice that right hand part of  is drawing of a knife (http://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2012/07/learn-one-chinese-character-day.html):

harvesting

Due to the lazy nature of human being, simpler version of 米 was kept as Seal script .

So 米 can be used to mean any grain seeds with their husk removed. for example 小米, 大米.

And as meter (unit of length) in English sounds very similar to 米, 米 is also used to represent meter, for example one meter is: 一米长.

米 is also a family name in Chinese, for example famous painter in Song Dynasty: 米芾.

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

当家才知盐米贵；养子方知父母恩。