Amazing Chinese Characters (22) Music or Happy - 樂

Many Chinese characters have more than one meaning, character Music and Happy or Joy share the same character,  we can guess that the music can make people happy. So they have very close relationship. So ancient Chinese used the same character for the either meaning.

its Shell Bone script is

a music instrument stand with bells on the top. Ancient Chinese musicians hit the different bells
with sticks to play music.

Its Bronze script is

Very similar to shell bone script.

Its Big seal script is

Similar to old scripts.

Its Small Seal script is

a better picture of a music stand with bells on top.

Its Clerical script is

still has some similarity, but not as good pictography as the two older scripts. The bells are not round, the stand legs are not touching the ground, the disconnection between the bells and the stand. The pictography is compromised greatly.

Its current song typeface traditional character is

樂

almost the same as Clerical script.

Its current song typeface simplified character is 

乐

It is easy to see that the simplified character is from the cursive script, which the pictography of the character is lost. 

Its Pinyins are "Yue4" for Music, "Le4" for Happy.