Before we move on to the last Chinese character 乎 of the sentence: 学而时习之，不亦乐乎, we need to know how Chinese character 于 is created.
Due to simplicity of its modern form 于, most information has been lost along its evolution. Let us see what we can get from its ancient Oracle or Bronze scripts:
 |
| Evolution history of 于 |
As we can see, its Oracle script starts with a very complex drawing
. What is it representing? If you know the meaning of 竽, you might realize that
is probably the drawing of an ancient Chinese music instrument. One of its modern version is as shown below. And if you are interested, you can go to youtube to listen to its sounds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FusN8AKUK48
 |
| 竽 |
Lately it was simplified by drawing important part of
, which is
. I do believe that
demonstrates the air flow channel as well as the reed inside the music instrument). Then it is further simplified to
.
We can see the same simplifying procedure in Bronze Script as well: from
to
.
And eventually it was settled down to the most simplified version
in Clerical Script period and now as
.
As to its Tradition version
, It was actually originated from another source related to bird but borrowed to present the same meaning as 于. One of the Oracle script of
is
. Since our main purpose of studying 于 is to help us understanding 乎 later, we will leave
for future explanation if needed.
Now we know that 于 is first used to represent
a musical instrument originally, which is now replaced by 竽.
After the simplifying,
is also kind of emphasizing the location of the most important part inside
where sounds made from. 于 is eventually borrowed to be used as a preposition to contain following meanings:
1.
at, in, on; for example: 生于中国
2.
of; for example: 属于
3.
from; for example: 取之于民
And since originally 于 was the musical instrument, people, who made a living by performing with it, chose 于 as their family name. 于 is thus also used as
surname / family name in China. For example 于谦.
That is all for 于 | 於, it is now time to enjoy Chinese calligraphy with 于 | 於 inside:
 |
| 业精于勤荒于嬉；行成于思毁于随。 |
