Learn one Chinese Character a day – 立

To guess the meaning of 立, we should examine its evolution history as usual: ( screenshot taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 立

Oracle Script of “立” –might not be very clear. Meaning of its Bronze Script  should be very obvious – A man standing on earth (which is  under feet).

Yes, or its current way of writing – 立 means Stand.

Of course it has many extended meanings as well. All of them are related to “make somebody or something to stand (up)”

From these two Characters 天 and 立, it is then easy to understand why Chinese describe a true man as “顶天立地” – which is “Standing upright on earth with head touching sky” if translated literally.

It is now time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy in a painting with “立” inside:

小荷才露尖尖角，早有蜻蜓立上头

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 天

We have learnt 大 and 夫, and know that 夫 is 大 wearing a hairpin. What will be the meaning of 天 then with the dash  on top of 大?

What is on top of a standing man? You might have some ideas already. Let us examine its evolution history first to see whether we can get more clues there: ( image get from http://www.vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 天

Oracle Script is the drawing of a man  with an emphasize on his head .  used to mean Head of a man. This original meaning can only be seen in ancient articles, like “刑天舞干戚，猛志故常在”.

When it slowly evolved along the way, Bronze Scripthas started to simplify  to solid dot. And it was further transformed to become in Seal Script and in Clerical Script, which is very close to what we use now – 天. Recall that can be used to mean Sky or Earth during our lessons for Chinese character “二” and “三”. So the above a standing man can only be Sky. That is why 天 is eventually used to mean Sky, while it is no longer used to mean Head. That is also why 天 has a subtle meaning of Above Head when it is grouped with other Chinese characters.

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with “天” inside:

春江浮浅渚，去住任飞鸿。秃管缘偏厚， 痴钱债不空。亦知俱梦幻，未敢问天公。 手把南华读，遽然待折衷。裁以黄磁竹， 赏之白玉卮。年年上元节，多放两三枝。

And our next lesson will continue with another Chinese character, whose Oracle Script is , guess what could be its meaning?

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 妻

We have just learnt Husband in Chinese, today we move to a new Chinese character “妻”, which means wife.

How did Chinese ancestors create a Character to mean Wife? It is then necessary to examine its evolution history to admire the creativity shown by ancient Chinese. (screenshot taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org ):

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 妻

Recall that we have learntmeans lady or girl, so Oracle Script is to mean that a lady uses her hand to tie up her hair .  Below is an image showing the process:

Tie up hair

In ancient China, when a lady was married, she would tie up her hair for the ceremony, and keep her hair tied up to show her marriage status, which is pretty much the same concept of wearing a marriage ring.

That is why was used to mean Wife by Chinese ancestors. Modern writing 妻 reserved most original drawing with a “女” at the bottom and (which is still showing the concept of handling something with hand) on top.

We have learnt “夫” in our last lesson and gotten to know how it was created. “夫妻” is to mean “Husband and Wife”. As we can see that both “夫妻” would tie up their hair for the marriage. That is probably there is a commonly used phrase as “结发夫妻” where 结发 means “tie up hair” precisely.

Now it is time to end our lesson today with a Chinese calligraphy art:

奴仆勿用俊美，妻妾切忌艳妆。

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 夫

In our last lesson, we have learnt “大”, today we continue with “夫”. You might have noticed that “夫” is to add a to top part of “大”, what did Chinese ancestors want to express here?

Evolution history of “夫” might help us to know its meaning and the logic behind. (image get from http://www.vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 夫

Ancient Chinese believed that not cutting hair was one way of showing filial affection to their parents. I Chinese, it is written as 身体发肤，受之父母，不敢毁伤，孝之始也. Details on Filial Piety can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_piety . We will see many Chinese characters created with this philosophy and culture behind.

When a young man grows up, he will have to start tie-ing up his long hair. Below is a typical image of having hair tied up with a hairpin in ancient China.

Tie up hair with hairpin

When one’s hair grows to such length, it means that young man is becoming an adult. So “夫” ( “大” with a Hairpin –  on top ) means Adult Man. And adult man can marry a wife, “夫” is then extended to mean Husband. As “夫” refers to male, it is also used to mean He.

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with “夫” inside:

【陟】陞皇之赫戲兮，忽臨睨夫舊鄉。 僕夫悲余馬懷兮，蜷局顧而不行。

 

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 大

What is the meaning of “大”? We have learnt the the Chinese character which means People or Person – “人”. What is “大” then? Does not it look like a person straddling with two arms outstretched?

Let us examine its evolution history first: ( image get from http://www.vividict.com/ )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 大

It is also very clear that “大” followed the same pattern from its Oracle Script till now. Oracle Script is drawn to mean an adult man originally. In Chinese language, an adult is called “大人”, who is much bigger in size comparing to small kids. And eventually 大 is borrowed to mean Big. As an adult is older than kids, 大 can also mean Older.

From its meaning of Big, 大 is further extended to mean Very.

And an adult has strong body, 大 is also used to mean Outstanding or Capable.

As usual we will end our lesson today with a Chinese calligraphy.

大中初温其於大圣慈寺作天王帝释。笔法臻继父之从，世称高绝。

 

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 豕

Today we will learn a Chinese character 豕 to help us understanding better why Oracle Script of “肉” is .

Evolution history of 豕 is shown below. ( image get from http://www.vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 豕

Oracle Script is drawing of a livestock with fat body and short legs. Bronze Script further emphasised the characteristics of round fatty belly. It would be much clearer if it was rotated to become. Only one type of livestock fits with these characteristics – Pig.

Now if we compare(肉) with (豕), then we will realise that (肉) is the body part the (豕) with head and tail removed. For evolution history of “肉” please refer to our previous lesson at http://xiongzou.blogspot.sg/2015/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day_28.html.

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 豕 inside:

鱼豕之讹，非独残断者难辨； 校雠之苦，若非忍耐者不堪。

 

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 乐 | 樂

Today we continue to show another proof that original meaning of “白” is thumb. From its Simplified Chinese character 乐, there is nothing we can tell. However from its Traditional version 樂, we can see clearly that top middle of 樂 is a 白. You might already start to wonder what is the meaning of “乐 | 樂” and how it is related to thumb (白)?
Let us disassemble樂 to see how it is composed. You might have found top partfamiliar as we just learnt it in our last lesson of “丝”, top middle part is 白 (thumb) and lower part is 木 (wood). Typical Chinese musical instruments are made of strings with silk and wooden frames, as show below: more can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_musical_instruments

Chinese Musical Instrument – 古筝

So plus 木 refers to a musical instrument, What did Chinese ancestors want to mean by adding 白 (thumb) in middle of    ? Looking at below image you will get a better idea.

Playing Musical Instrument

Musicians normally use their thumbs to test the accuracy of the pitches of strings then start the playing. A musical instrument itself would not make any sound. With fingers of a musician playing it, wonderful musics will be produced. That is why Chinese ancestors added 白 to middle of ( to create 乐 | 樂) to mean Music.

As hearing wonderful musics is an delightful entertainment, 乐 | 樂 was extended to mean Happy, Glad, Amused, Delightful as adj, and Happily,  Gladly as adv.

Let us examine evolution history of 乐 | 樂 to confirm our explanation above: (image get from http://www.vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 乐 | 樂

As you can see Oracle Script of “乐 | 樂” – is composed of (silk strings) and (wood), which is musical instrument. Starting from later stage of Bronze Script , 白 (thumb) was added to emphasise the playing of musical instrument for musics and entertainments.

樂 is then another proof that 白 refers to thumb as its original meaning.

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with “乐 | 樂” inside:

有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎

 

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 丝 | 絲

It might be hard to guess its meaning from current way of writing – “丝”, let us check the evolution history to see whether we can get any clue from that: ( image get from http://www.vividict.com  )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 丝 | 絲

It will help if we look at below image of the traditional way of having silkworms to generate their cocoon in the wooden frames.  Oracle Script is the drawing of two which is standing frames with silkworm cocoons.

silkworm cocoon

Seal Script continued Bronze Script  to emphasise the supporting legs of the frames. While it transformed to Clerical Script ,  was further simplified to dots . Modern Simplified Chinese “丝” again simplified  into a . While Modern Traditional Chinese character 絲 pretty much reserves the way of writing from Clerical Script  and its continuation Regular Script .

so “丝 | 絲” means the silk we can get from silkworm cocoons.

It is then extended to mean anything as fine as silk.

And it is then further extended to describe how subtle or fine a thing is

Now it is time to end our lesson today with a Chinese calligraphy:

终岁不闻丝竹声

 

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 伯

“伯” consists of two parts – left partrefers to a person as we taught before, while right part is “白”, which we just learnt that its original meaning is thumb. So what would be the meaning of “伯” then?

Thumb is the biggest among our fingers, Chinese ancestors used plus “白” to mean the oldest brother among the siblings, especially brothers. We can see from “伯” that “白” does mean Thumb originally.

“伯” was extended to mean “Older brothers of a father” or “Is used to address an elder man respectfully”

Let us still examine the evolution history of “伯”: ( image get from http://www.vividict.com )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 伯

Its Oracle Script  was composed of (Thumb) and (man). Another Oracle Script , Bronze Script and Seal Script followed the same pattern till our modern character – “伯”.

Now it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with “伯” inside:

世有伯乐然后有千里马。

In the calligraphy above there is another character 乐 or traditional character 樂, which is related to 白 as well. Before moving to 樂, let us look another Chinese character 丝 first in our next lesson.

 

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 白

Today we will learn a Chinese character which is a colour. Let us check its evolution history first: ( screenshot taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org )

Learn one Chinese Character a day – 白

Oracle Script and Bronze Script  are believed to be drawing of our thumb. Below is the image of a thumb. The middle line inside refers to the dividing line between the pink and white area on the fingernail. You might be grumbling already “How can a thumb be used to mean a colour?”.

Thumb

Looking at the image of a thumb above, Chinese ancestors must have noticed that obvious white area at the root of the fingernail. It is not easy to find something that Chinese ancestors could draw to mean white colour,  thus drawing of thumb was then borrowed to mean “White“

In our following lessons a few Chinese characters will be used to prove the guess that should be a drawing of thumb.

In Warring State Era, there is one variation of writing –, Seal Script and Clerical Script and current “白” were continuation of .

For now we are clear that “白” means White.

“白” is then extended to mean “Clear“, “Bright“, “Transparent“, “Without other things“, “Free“, “Worthless” and etc.

OK, it is time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with “白” inside:

白日依山尽，黄河入海流。欲穷千里目，更上一层楼。