Learn one Chinese Character a day – 王
January 31, 2016 Leave a comment
Today we examine a new Chinese character 王, from its composition, we can see that it is formed with 三 and |. During our lesson of Chinese character 三, we knew that it refers to Heaven, People and Earth. The | in middle of 王 connects them. In ancient China, the person who could communicate with Heaven and Earth would be chosen as leader of the tribe.
So 王 originally meant leader of a tribe, and as the society was developing and growing big, 王 was used to mean King of a kingdom eventually.
王 was later used as a Family Name in China as well.
To confirm our observation, let us examine its evolution history: ( screenshot taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org )
Learn one Chinese Character a day – 王 |
Oracle Script of 王 denoted the same idea clearly as well thatis “an adult man 大, standing on earth with his head touching sky.”
Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 王 inside:
旧时王谢堂前燕,飞入寻常百姓家 |
Next lesson we will move on to 皇, can you guess its meaning?