Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Amazing Chinese Characters (643) Meal - 饭

 The bronze script of character Meal is

The left is character Eat - 食(Post 190), the right is character Anti-, Against, Reverse (Post 430). The character Eat is to eat the food on the utensil directly, 

The shell bone script of character Eat is
The top triangle is the mouth, the bottom is the food and utensil, the mouth bites the food. 

The Meal is character Eat + Reverse, meaning the food moving to the mouth. Some people believe it to be pilaf in which people use their fingers to grab rice, then turn the hand to face up (reverse the hand), and send the rice to mouth. The "Reverse" is to reverse the hand.

However, we don't know what the normal way ancient Chinese ate? Of course, not take the food from mouth to utensil, not use fingers grabbing the food with palm down (unable to send the food into mouth).

I think that the most likely the way ancient Chinese ate is to move mouth to the food, the reverse is to move the food to the mouth. The character Eat - 食 above is the normal way: bite the food on utensil, therefore move food to the mouth, no matter use fingers or chopsticks is reverse. 

The best food for pilaf is rice, the character Meal also means Rice, which is match my explanation. In Shang Dynasty, the agriculture was not very developed, people hunted more, ate more meat. The meat were cut big chunks, difficult to use hand to grab or use chopsticks to get it into mouth, easily to bite. Rice became main food in later time, people could easily to get rice into mouth with fingers or chopsticks. 


The big seal script of character Meal is

The left is character Eat, the right is character Reverse.

The small seal script of character Meal is
Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Meal is
Eat and Reverse.

The simplified song typeface of character Meal is

The left is Radical Eat, the right is unchanged.

The Pinyin of the character is Fan4.







Monday, December 4, 2023

Amazing Chinese Characters (642) Sell - 贩

 The big seal script of character Sell is


The left is character Shell (Post 194), the right is character Anti-, Against, Reverse (Post 430). Shell was currency in ancient time, "return currency" means that I had the shell, but I used to buy something, right now I sell something to get the currency (shell) back to me. 

The small seal script of character Sell is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Sell is
The left is character Shell, the right is character Reverse.

The simplified song typeface is
The character on the left is changed from traditional song typeface 貝 to simplified song typeface 贝. The right is same, no change.

The Pinyin of the character is Fan4.



Amazing Chinese Characters(641)Return - 返

 The bronze script of character Return is


The left top is left half of character Walk or Road (Post 96) 

The bottom is character Stop or Foot (Post 93).


Total left means walking on the road. 

The right one is character Anti-, Against, Reverse (Post 430).

Walking in a reverse direction is Return.

The big seal script of character Return is
The left top and the bottom together mean the walking on the road, the right top is character Reverse.

The small seal script of character Return is


The left from top to bottom is the Radical Walking the right is character Reverse.

The clerical script of character Return is

The left and bottom is radical Walking, the right is the character Reverse.






Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Amazing Chinese Characters (640) Ocher - 赭

 The big seal script of character Ocher is

The left is character Crimson (Post 272), the right one is character -ist, -or, -er (Post 220). Crimson means a person was on fire, and the right one means fire. Therefore, the character means Ocher, the over burned color, or the Ocher pigment used in Chinese painting.


The small seal script of character Ocher is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Ocher is
Changed a lot, but still the Crimson is on the left, and the -ist, -or, -er is on the right.

The pinyin of the character is Zhe3.





Saturday, November 18, 2023

Amazing Chinese Characters (639) Room - 屋

The big shell script of character Room is 


 The top 

is character Body (Post 423), the bottom is character To (Post 298). Body means people who go to a room. 

The small seal script of character Room is 

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of character Room is 
The top Body is similar to older script, the bottom To just pull all curves to straight lines.

The Pinyin of the character is Wu1.

There is another character Room - 室 (Post 290) , both are exchangeable. There is a subtle difference, 室 emphasizes the Inside of the Room, there may be many 室 under the same roof: bedrooms, bathrooms, classrooms. 屋 is more like a small house for relax and sleep, meaning close to House.


Sunday, November 12, 2023

Amazing Chinese Characters (638) Embarrassed - 尬

 The big seal script of character Embarrassed is

The left is character Nine (Post 443)

which means that a person kneeling down, bending his back, extending his arms forward, to explore inside of small hole, or crack which is too small to squeeze in; or he is trapped in the small space, couldn't get out. 

The right part is character Scables, indicating the person is searching the surface of the small hole, or crack. 

The situation, and the posture of the person is embarrassed because he has to twist his body, hopeless. 

The small seal script of character Embarrassed is

The left is character Dog (Post 116), which is a mistake. It should be character Nine like the one below

Mr. Li Si, the creator of the small seal, made a simple mistake.

The right is character Boundary, which is right.

The clerical script of character Embarrassed is 

The character Nine is on right and bottom, and character Boundary is on right.

The Pinyin of the character is Ga4.






Amazing Chinese Characters (637) Fall Sleep - 寐

 The big seal script of character Fall Sleep is 

The uptown U is a house, the left under the ceiling is character Bed Board (Post 635), plus a 一 on top, become character Ill, but here is not ill, is lying down on bed. The right part under ceiling is character Not Yet (Post 338), which also means "Future". There is no person, but there is bed, the character Not Yet means some situation not sure, not clear, blurred. When people fall sleep, their minds go to dream where nothing is real, nothing is clear, similar to the uncertain future. 

Besides, the character means that people sleep in house, and on bed, not outside, not on chair, not on floor. It is very formal sleep.

The small seal script of character Fall Sleep is
Similar to the big seal script.

The clerical script of character Fall Sleep is

The top is Radical House, the bottom are characters Bed Board, and Not Yet. The 一 on top of Not Yet missing, most likely is to eliminate intentionally.

The Pinyin of the character is Mei4.


Saturday, November 11, 2023

Amazing Chinese Characters (636) Scables - 疥

 The big seal script of character Scables is

The left is character Bed Board (Post 635) + the top short horizontal line means Ill or Disease. Ill people normally lays on bed with a headboard to prevent the patient falling down. the inside is character Boundary (Post 270). The scables is skin disease. Skin is a boundary of body. The character is Disease + Boundary.

The small seal script of character Scables is

Similar to big seal script, the big difference is the character Person under the 一 on the right top, but it is small seal script of character Person Post 37).

The clerical script of character Scables is
The top and left is the Radical Ill, the bottom 介 is character Boundary.

The Pinyin of the character is Jie4.





Amazing Chinese Characters (635) Bed Board - 爿

 The shell bone script of character Bed Board is

A vertical bed. If we turn it 90 degree,  it will be a normal simple bed. Why is it vertical? Because ancient people didn't have paper, they wrote characters on bamboo slips which are very narrow, difficult to draw bed horizontally. They are many other shell bone scripts are vertically drawn.

The big seal script of character Bed Board is
Similar to shell bone script, but more rounded, very like a vertical 兀.

The clerical script of character Bed Board is

Some similarity to older scripts.

The Pinyin of character Bed Board is Pan2.

The character is not used alone, but widely exist in the compound characters.










Amazing Chinese Characters (634) Border - 界

 The big seal script of character Border is

The left is character Field (Post 3), the right is character Boundary (Post 270). The boundary of field is Border dividing the field. 

The small seal script of character Border is

Similar to the big seal script.

The clerical script of character Border is
The top 田 is character Field, and the bottom 介 is character Boundary. This structure of the script is different from the older scripts which is that the Field is no the left, and the Boundary is on the right. 

The song typeface has both structures characters: 界,畍, they have the same meaning. But simplified song typeface abandoned the 畍.

The pinyin of the character is Jie4.