Learn one Chinese Character a day - 路

When I was young and learning this character 路, I was taught that 路 is related to 足 for people walking on 路 with 足. However nobody actually explained why 各 is used here. Now with our solid understanding of the original meaning of 足 and 各, we shall have a much better understanding.

Recall that 足 (with its Oracle Script ) originally contains then meaning of "walking - towards the target place - ", while 各 (with its Oracle Script ) has the original meaning of "walking - towards our place ". Looking at  and , does not it show clearly the idea of a left hand traffic rule, same as shown in below image?

Left Hand Traffic

That is right, 路 was created to mean road. And it does provide us the vivid view that ancient China adopted left hand traffic rule. 

And from the way 路 was created, 路, unlike another Chinese character 道, normally refers to roads that are formed naturally by people who keeps walking on it. 

As usual, let us check its evolution history to confirm our interpretation: (image taken from http://vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 路

And now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 路 inside:

读万卷书
行万里路

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 箭

For the character today - 箭, we are now fully prepared to dissemble it to guess its meaning. It should be quite obvious for us that 箭 is composed of  and 前.

is actually 竹 while it is used as a Radical. So 箭 must be something related to 竹. 

And as for 前, most of us think 前 is only a phonetic element - 箭 pronounces as jiàn,  while 前 pronounces as qián. After knowing original meaning of 前, we now know 前 provides more than just phonetic function here. Same as 剪, 前 was added to 箭 to mean something made by 竹, piercing or cutting forward like a knife.

Now possible candidates are very limited. Following picture shows what that something is:

箭 - arrows

It is possible that during certain period of ancient China, entire arrow including arrow heads were made from bamboo directly. Metal arrow head might appear later when metallurgy technology was developed in China.

Recall that we have learnt 矢, which means arrow as well, what could be the difference between 矢 and 箭? 矢, with its pronunciation similar to 石, I believe that 矢 was made with stone as its arrow head in stone age. Oracle script of 矢 -  could probably tell us already. Does not its arrow head look like a stone bound to head of an arrow?

So 箭 means arrow.

Let us examine its evolution history to get better understanding of 箭: (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 箭

And now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 箭 inside:

归心似箭

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 石

石 is another pictograph character. From its current form, it can be dissembled into two parts, 厂 and 口. 口 is actually drawing of a stone, however if we just draw 口 to mean stone, it would be very confusing, as 口 can also mean mouth, gate and etc. Thus Chinese ancestors added 厂 ( which originlly means cliff, details please check our previous lesson of 厂) to mean this 口 is related to cliff, which gives 石, and it is then clear for us to know it means stone.

We can confirm our observation by looking at its evolution history (image yaken from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 石

From Oracle Script of 石 - , I guess that it might contains other context inside this character. In ancient China, people lived in caves under cliff - . To prevent big animals from hurting them, people would put big stones - at the entrance to block them away. It is possible that is the original meaning of 石 actually? And such behavior of putting stone at the entrance of a house eventually became a habit, and along the time habit became culture. Chinese people started to place stone statues of lions and etc besides the gate to protect the household, as shown below:

Stone Statues at the entrance of a house

That is it, 石 means stone.

And let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 石 inside:

石魂

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 厂

厂 is another typical pictograph Chinese character. It is too abstract for us to reason its meaning even from its Oracle Script - . It is actually the drawing of primitive living place - cave of ancient Chinese people, similar to the picture below:

Live in a cave

Original meaning of 厂 refers to a simplest shelter formed naturally under a cliff. 

Please remember 厂's original meaning. We will see many other Chinese characters, which contains 厂, are related to this original meaning of 厂.

And as people no longer lived inside a cave, 厂 is eventually borrowed to mean buildings which are specious with simple structure for workers to work inside, like those workshops of a factory. Of course modern factories can have very complicated workshops now.

厂

Below is the evolution history of 厂: (image taken from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 厂

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 厂 inside:

王福厂

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 剪

Looking at our new character today - 剪, we can easily divide it into two parts: 前 and 刀. You might have wondered before that why scissors (剪) is somehow related to ahead (前)?

We have learnt 刀 long time ago, which means knife. While 前, which we just learnt, originally describes the scene that "a boat cut through the surface of water", as shown below:

The boat riding waves

What kind of cutting tool has similar effect while in usage? I guess you have got some ideas now.

Take a breath, we will reveal the answer after examine its evolution history first: (image taken from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 剪

Now look at the image below, isn't the pattern similar of usage of scissors comparing to boating image above?

scissors cut paper

It is interesting to know that Seal Script of 剪 is same as that of 前 - . Chinese ancestors must noticed the similarity between boating and usage of scissors when they created 剪.

Yes, 剪 means scissors as noun, while it is used as a verb, it means use scissors to cut.

I guess it should now make more sense to you while you look at 剪? Anyway let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 剪 inside:

碧玉妆成一树高，万条垂下绿丝绦。
不知细叶谁裁出，二月春风似剪刀。

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 前

At the end of our last lesson of 舟, I showed you the a Bronze Script - it is composed of two parts: (foot) on (boat). what did Chinese ancestor would like to present here? Looking at the same picture shown in our last lesson might give us more ideas:

boating

The original meaning of is clear now - stepping on boat (to move it forward). And it was eventually borrowed to mean forward or ahead, which is what boating for!

So we have got the meaning of 前 by checking its Bronze Script, How about its form in other period of ancient China, especially its Oracle Scripts? Let us examine its evolution history as usual: (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 前

 One Oracle Script of 前 -  is to mean step () on a boat () and make it moving ( - 行).
Seal Script started to add  (刀) to to vividly describe the scene that a fast moving boat with its fore part dividing the water like a knife.
Clerical Scripthas mistaken  to  while has  been simplified to . Whenever we see  as a Radical of one Chinese character, it is always related to knife or sharpness. After Clerical Script period,  was further simplified to  and finalised at Regular Script - 前. Till then, 前 has lost almost all context which its Oracle Script or Bronze Script has.

We are lucky that archaeologist recovered the evolution history for us that we can now better understand our Chinese characters.

That is it, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 前 inside:

努力向前