Learn one Chinese Character a day - "目"

from studying Chinese character "众" or "眾", we get know of "目", which means eyes.

let us see the evolution history of "目" to understand why it means eyes. (image fromhttp://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "目"

Oracle script  and Bronze script is just the drawing of eyes of human beings. When comes to earlier Seal script , it is to mean that eyes  are under eyebrow  on face . when it came to later stage of Seal script, eyebrow  and eyes  were simplified to be to become . it is very close to what we used now: "目".

So the original meaning of "目" is eyes. and for we see the world through eyes, "目" is extended to mean See as well.

As usual let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy art with "目" inside:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "目"

In this calligraphic art writing, there are 3 characters we already learnt - "目", "日", "一".

As we already learnt "日", What do you think the meaning of "旦"?

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "日"

from studying Chinese character "众" or "眾", we get know of "日", which means sun.

let us see the evolution history of "日" to understand why it means sun.

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "日"

In early stage of Oracle script  is composed of  outside, which Chinese ancestors usually used to mean the space, while inside referring to a circular object. Chinese ancestors created this character to mean Sun in understanding that Sun is the most important star to us in the whole universe space. later Oracle script and are just the simplified version of . Guess it is nature of people that we are always lazy in what we are repeatedly doing. 

When it evolved to Seal script , it is already to have connected to its rectangle boarders. The way of writing "日" became more abstracted. 

so "日" means Sun, and since during the daytime Sun is always there shining upon us, "日" also means Daytime. referring to the same perception, "日" is extended to mean a Day. 

Let us enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy to end our today's learning:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "日"

 I am sure that you can already recognize two Chinese characters from above calligraphy art - "日" and "眾".

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "口"

When we were learning the Chinese character "众" or "眾", we have gotten aware of "口",  and it is already told that it means mouth.

let us see why it is to mean mouth. image get from http://www.vividict.com/

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "口"

 Does the original Chinese character Oracle script , Bronze script , Seal script  all looks like the mouth of human being in the following picture? Chinese ancestors noticed that only human being's face is not covered with hair and it is clearer to see our smile lines than other species.

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "口"

when it evolved to Official script , it is simplified to what we are using now - "口".

as you can see that "口" original meaning is mouth of human being, it has extended meaning as human being as well.  for example "人口" which means population.

and "口" is also eventually used to mean the mouth of all other species. 

Since "口" is also the gateway for human beings to eat, "口" is also to mean the place where people, cargo and etc pass through - like "口" of the door(in Chinese is "门"), we normally say "门口".

as usual, let us enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy -

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "口"

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "众"

Last time we have learned "人", today we will look at "众". Look carefully, "众" is composed by three "人".

recall that three can mean a lot in Chinese language. three "人" which is "众" means a lot of people. And as you already learn original "人" is silhouette of a farmer, "众" has a more primitive meaning as a group of labour workers.

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "众"

Let us now see the evolutionary history of "众", image get from http://www.vividict.com/ 

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "众"

 Oracle has two different writings:  or  lower part of both characters are three person. upper part, which you have not learnt yet,  means mouth,  means sun. so in Oracle writing,  means a group of people work under commands or  means a group of people work under sun. 

When this Chinese character evolved to Seal script,   it is a group of people work under (Chinese Character - eye), which means under watching or monitoring.  

 Official script , has changed the lower part from  to for simplifying the writing. 

as modern Chinese characters, there are two different systems - Traditional Chinese & Simplified Chinese.

Traditional Chinese system still use "眾" while Simplified Chinese system uses "众"

And look at Regular script in the evolutionary history, Chinese Ancestors already started to use "众". 

As usual, let us enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy with   "眾" or "众" inside.

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "众"

Since we already get accessed to  ,and , in our following lessons, we will focus on these three characters.

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "人"

As usual, let us see the evolution history of Chinese character - "人", (image get from http://www.vividict.com/)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "人"

 In Oracle,  is to mimic the image of a species who is standing on its legs with vertical arms, which is very close to us the human-being. once it evolved to Seal , as China civilization has already evolved to agriculture at that time,  is more close to a farmer who works hard in the field. while time passes, Chinese simplified the way of writing for  to Scribe .  is already very close to what we use now - "人"

From the evolution history of   "人", we can know how Chinese ancestors differentiate human-being from other species of the world. Human-being is the only species who stand on its legs with hands free for work, and as agriculture become more and more important, silhouette of a farmer is used to present all human-beings. 

 "人" means human-being. 

a farmer works in the field

As you can see that Chinese character system is Hieroglyphs, that is the reason why only Chinese characters can have Calligraphy art for Chinese writings are basically drawings.

enjoy a Calligraphy with  "人" inside:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "人"

Next day we will look at another Chinese character - "众". You can give it a guess?