元

Before we move on to our character 远 or its Traditional counter party - 遠, we need to prepare ourselves with good understanding of 元 and 袁 first.

Today we will study 元. It is quite clear that, 元 is composed of 二 and 儿. Does it mean 2nd kids in the family? Sounds interesting. Let us see if we can confirm our guess with its ancient scripts.

evolution history of 元

Looking at Oracle script of however,  its upper part in Oracle Script is actually Chinese character 上 (details can be found at https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2017/10/learn-one-chinese-character-day.html) instead of 二. Since refers to a person without doubt, the drawingthus should contain two potential meanings:

1. something above a person: sky or heaven.
2. upper part of a person: header.  

Actually both are the original meaning of 元. Just another Chinese character 天 was created to dedicate to mean sky or heaven.

for example in 元气, 元 means sky or heaven. and in 元首, 元 means head.

Same as English word head and heading, our Chinese character 元 contains the same context and is borrowed to represent meaning of first, beginning, origin, above or primary. 

Till now we full prepared ourselves to understand the first public holiday in China, which is 元旦. Translation of 元旦 literally is first sunrise, which means first day of a year!

Do not forget the meaning of sky and heaven that 元 represents as well! As great as the sky, 元 is also used to mean great.  for example: 元勋.

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

元德

衣

Today we need to detour to a new Chinese character 衣 before we can continue our journey to 远 | 遠.
Looking at its modern form 衣, there is almost no clue for us to guess its meaning. Let us examine its ancient scripts, as usual, to see if there is any hints to get.

Evolution history of 衣

With its Oracle scriptand , Bronze script , and Seal script , if you knew the meaning of 衣, and were familiar with Chinese culture, it would be pretty clear to you that is the drawing of the object that 衣 represents, as shown in below picture:

衣服

Yes, 衣 is the drawing of an upper garment or clothing. for example 大衣.

衣 naturally contains the meaning of covering or wrapping, thus 衣 is also used to represent wrapping items in certain scenarios, for example 糖衣炮弹.

Looking back at 衣's evolution history, when 衣 came to Clerical script , it has transformed to become very similar with what we write today.

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

朱雀桥边野草花，乌衣巷口夕阳斜；
旧时王谢堂前燕，飞入寻常百姓家。

 

 

友

 We have learnt 朋 in our last post. Today we move on to the character which is always used together with 朋 as 朋友, which means friend.

what does 友 mean here?  Recall what we have learnt when we studied 有 (https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2015/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day_29.html) and 又 (https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2015/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day_27.html), we can tell that 友 is composed of two hands. And we would not be surprised that 友 sounds much like 又 as well as 有.

However till now, we cannot give any reasonable guess for what 友 represents. As usual, its ancient scripts should help us to have a better understanding of 友, as shown below:

evolution history of 友

From its Oracle script, it is quite clear that  is drawing of two hands (both right hands) (to work / point to same direction). It is more likely the same idea of picture below:

One of its Bronze script variant , with an extra 口 underneath two hands. We believe it means to SAY: "let us work together".

Thus 友 originally means "two person who works together for the same goal or purpose". That is why it is explained by 《文解字》 as "同志为友", which is translated to English as: people who share the same 志 are 友. What does 志 mean? 志 means where your heart is. Details can be reviewed at https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2016/08/learn-one-chinese-character-day_9.html .

Please note the subtle differences in the meaning of 友, comparing to 朋 in its original meaning.  But now 友 is always used as friend. For example 好友.

If 友 is used as verb, it means to make friends with. 友爱.

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

独山莫友芝书

自

Our new Chinese character today is 自. Looking at this modern form, it is not possible to guess the meaning of 自. Let us go through its ancient scripts and probably we will get hints there:

evolution history of 自

Oracle script might still be too simple to guess. but its Bronze script shows very clearly what 自 represents:

 

自

Now if we look back at its Oracle script , it is clear that also vividly represents the drawing of nose, but without mustache, as well. 

If you know the Chinese character which means nose - 鼻, now you can immediately tell that 鼻 is composed of 自 and 畀. From the regular pattern of how Chinese characters were created, 自 should be related to nose.

From the evolution history of 自, laziness of human nature demonstrates its power again, 自 is simplified from complex to , and further simplified during Seal script era:  . is every close to what we are writing today: 自.

Yes, 自 originally means nose, which is eventually replaced by the new character 鼻, for 自 was eventually borrowed to represent different meanings.

During our daily conversation, we usually point to our noses to mean me or myself. And sometimes even point to other-body's nose to mean him. Chinese ancestors took this scenario to use 自, which is nose, to mean me or self. for example 自己.

自己

 

The same hidden meaning of nose should be presented in western culture as well. In the fable story of Pinocchio, whenever he lied, his nose would grow longer, which probably represents the result of growing ego of a person.

And nose is the vital organ for breathe and airflow starts from it. 自 thus also contains the meaning of from, start and since. for example 自从.

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

和气人长寿；心宽福自来。

朋 | 倗

We have successfully interpreted the meaning of the sentence: "学而时习之，不亦悦乎？" its next sentence is "有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？" In our following learning journey, we will prepare ourselves to understand it properly.

Our character today is 朋. What does it mean by grouping two 月 together? We have learnt that 月 can represent either moon or meat when it is used as Chinese radical. You can review the related posts as below:

1. 月: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2012/02/learn-one-chinese-character-day_17.html

2. 肉: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2015/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day_28.html

3. 背: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2015/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day_31.html

So does 朋 means a lot of meat or kind of meaning "bright" like 明? After we see its Oracle scripts, it will be clear that 朋 has nothing related to 月 or 肉, as shown below:

evolution history of 朋

We can see from its Oracle script  of 朋 that it looks actually like a bunch of something stringed together. In one of Chinese classic literature《诗经》, there is a sentence called: “既见君子,锡我百朋”, which is translated into modern Chinese as: After visiting the officer, he rewarded me one hundred of 朋. It is a clear proof that 朋 is something related to currency. In ancient China, Chinese people started their currency with beautiful 贝. Details related to 贝 can be found here: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2016/05/learn-one-chinese-character-day_9.html

With above understanding, below image is a good representation what 朋 actually is:

Now we reach to the conclusion that 朋 is the drawing of two group of 贝 stringed together.

From the concept of "group" coming from the original representation of 朋, 朋 thus is used to mean grouping of people, for example 朋党.

And looking at the , it does not mean group of people only, it means a group of people who share the same value and standard, like your friends. for example 朋友.

Again from , it is a drawing of two strings of 贝, tied in sequence, parallel to each other, hang from top down. It is further evolved to mean students (which is a group of people) study under a same teacher, and of course, they share the same values and standards. That is why ancient Chinese says "同处师门曰朋".

From the series related to Oracle script, we can easily tell why 倗 is a variant of 朋.

That is all for 朋, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 朋 inside:

有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？

Meaning of 学而时习之，不亦悦乎？

 As what we have mentioned in our last post, today we try to understand the meaning of the first sentence of the most important classic of Confucianism： 《论语》: 学而时习之，不亦悦乎？ To start, we will review the meaning of each Chinese character of it.

学 | 學: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/07/blog-post_22.html 
It is a drawing of the teacher shows the principle and knowledge of outside world to a kid sitting inside a house.

而: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/08/blog-post.html
It is a drawing of a lot of long beard, which represents the relationship of equality or similarity of things it connects.

时 | 時: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2016/10/learn-one-chinese-character-day.html
It represents the meaning of movements of Sun.

习 | 習: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2017/05/learn-one-chinese-character-day_25.html
It originally is drawing of a flying Sun, which represents the meaning of "keep doing something consistently as a routine".

之: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2016/08/learn-one-chinese-character-day.html
It originally means the place where the foot stands, then involves to be used as pronoun.

不: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/09/blog-post_22.html
It means not.

亦: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/10/blog-post_28.html
It means same, as well or too.

悦 | 悅: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/03/blog-post_28.html

It means happy, but more to it: Feeling happy because of fulfilling or achieving (something).

乎: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/07/blog-post.html

It means shout loudly, or it can be understood as modal particle.

Before you check out our answer below, please take the last chance to try to reason the meaning of the sentence "学而时习之，不亦悦乎？" yourself.

.

.

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And here we go the answer, which is probably different than what you can get from other sources, but we think it is a better translation:

Modern Chinese first: "如果我们能够学习世界运转的知识和规律，并和太阳每天的运行一样，持之以恒的运用学习到的知识来更好的了解这个世界，这种自我成就的感觉难道不也会让我们非常开心吗？"

English next: "If we can learn the principle and knowledge of the universe, and consistently practice what we have learnt, as routinely as how Sun moves every day in the sky, to reach a better understanding of the universe, does not this self-fulfillment and self-improvement make us very happy?"

If you have a different mother tongue, you are welcome to provide translation for your own mother tongue. And of course if you have different translation for modern Chinese or English, you are welcome to provide your version as well.

That is all for today, let us enjoy again another Chinese calligraphy of "学而时习之，不亦悦乎"

学而时习之，不亦悦乎

乎

Our character 乎 today looks related to 于, which we have just learnt, with extra two indicators added. However looking at 乎, we cannot still guess its meaning yet. We will examine its evolution history to gain more ideas if any.

evolution history of 乎

From its Oracle script ,  relating to its current meaning, it is believed that it is a drawing of  coming out of , where  represents air flow or sound, and  represents a music instrument - horn.  Such usage of  can be approved by another Chinese character 号, which we will get into in near future. Below is image of a typical horn used by Chinese:

号角

When it came to Bronze script era -we can see that it is kind of changed to a drawing of  (the airflow or sound) made inside . here should be referring to 于, instead of a horn.

Why then did Chinese ancestors changed the music instrument in 乎 from a horn to a 竽? The meaning of 乎 can probably help to explain. 乎 was used during Oracle Script era to mean originally "making a very load sound", which was eventually represented by a new character 呼. While 乎 itself is then used as modal particle at the middle or end of a sentence and also it is used to represents a much more gentle sound.

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

顺乎天而应乎人

Now we have learnt all the Chinese characters of the first sentence of 《论语》: 学而时习之，不亦悦乎. Do you understand it now and then is able to translate it into English properly?