Amazing Chinese Characters (218) Fortune - 福

The shell bone script of character Fortune is

On the left bottom is a sacrifice table, on the right is a wizard who sprinkles wine on the table for the sacrifice ceremony. People did the sacrifice for good fortune.

The bronze script of the character is

The left is Radical Show, the right is the rice wine jar (Post 473), no sprinkle of wine. We can think that the meaning should be similar to the shell bone script: a sacrifice for Fortune.

The big seal script of character Fortune,

Similar to the bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

similar to the big seal script on the left, the right part changed a little bit.

The clerical script of the character is

The left is sacrifice table, which changed a little bit from the older scripts. The right part is similar to that in small seal script.

The song type face of the character is

Its Pinyin is Fu2.

I have to point out that 福 is the most popular character in China, even used more than 龍 (Dragon). Most if not all Chinese families have had at least once to stick 福 on the door or window or both in Spring festival, or wedding, more times upside down, because "福 upside down" pronounces same as "Fortune is coming" in Chinese.

Amazing Chinese characters (217) Magnificence - 华（華）

The big seal script of character of Magnificence is

which is same as character of 花 - Flower (See Post 69). They were the same originally

The small seal script of Magnificence is

which is similar to 花 (Flower) in small seal script.

The clerical script of Magnificence is

which is different from the character Flower of clerical script as the one blow.

The top is grass radical to indicate the character is related to grass type plant. The bottom is 化，which means Change. I guess that is from running or cursive script, which simplifies the character for fast writing.

Traditional song typeface is

華

Same as the clerical script.

Simplified song typeface is

华

In most cases, the Pinyin for 华 is Hua2. In comparison, Pinyin for 花（Flower) is Hua1, very close. Both characters are used as family names. 花 has the same pronunciation as Hua1, however 华 is pronounced Hua4 as a family name.

Chinese say China as 中华, 中 means middle, here is 中国 because ancient Chinese believed that China was in the center of the world, so China is a country in the center of the world: 中国（国 is country).

Chinese say themselves as 华人（Magnificent People). 华人 =  Chinese (in race, not nationality).

Another interesting thing about 华/華 is that Chinese call huge colorful decorated lantern as 华灯 （灯 is lantern) because it looks like flower.  （The small ones in family is not 华灯）

- 华灯 in Tiananmen Square

Amazing Chinese characters (216) String - 串

The bronze script for character String is

which is a string of beads

or a string of meat balls

The big seal script for this character is

very similar to the bronze script.

It is like sugar-coated haws, a famous food in north China.

The stuff may not always ball-alike, could be other shape. The following is a string of old copper coins, which was used as money in China 70+ years ago.

The small seal script for the character is

very similar too.

The clerical script for the character is

Similar to old script except the round circles become squares.

The song typeface of character String is

串

Same as the clerical script.

Its Pinyin is Chuan4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (215) Left - 左

The shell bone script of character Left is

which is like a left hand.

In comparison with character Right in shell bone script,

which is a mirror image of Left.

The big seal script of Left

the bottom is character Tool, a mortise-tenon structure. The left hand holds the 工 beam structure, why? 

The small seal script of Left is

Similar to the big seal script.

The clerical script of Left is

the top changed a lot, we could imagine that the half curve in small or big seal scripts becomes to be a straight light, the long bent to right line becomes to be bent to left.

Right now the top of Left is same as the top of Right in clerical script.

The bottoms are different, Left has 工, Right has 口.

The song typeface of Left is

左

Which is almost same as its clerical script.

The Pinyin for Left is Zuo3.

Amazing Chinese characters (214) Right - 右

The shell bone script of character Right is

which is a right hand. 

We learn character Hand in big seal script

The difference is that the hand in character Right is a moving hand, but the hand in character Hand is a static hand, no moving. Character with the former hand means catching, hitting, moving, holding, etc. Character with the latter means something related to hand.

The big seal script of character Right is

There is a Mouth under the hand.  Ancient Chinese put the right hand in front of mouth to pray. But it evolved to pure Right later on.

The small seal script of Right is

which is similar to the corresponding big seal script.

The clerical script of Right is

The top changed a lot. The half circle in old scripts become less curved, and the middle horizontal turning to downward line becomes pure horizontal line, which is easy to write, but less pictography.

The song type face is

右

The Pinyin for character Right is You4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (213) Sparrow - 雀

The shell bone script of Sparrow is

The top three dots is character Small. The bottom is a bird.

Its big seal script is

The top is character Small, and the bottom one is bird. We can see its similarity to shell bone script.

We learnt character Bird, which big seal script is

which means all birds, the character Sparrow normally means small birds.

The small seal script of character Sparrow is

which is similar to its big seal script.

The clerical script of character Sparrow is

which is still similar to older scripts.

Its pinyin is Que4

Amazing Chinese Characters (212) Winter - 冬

The shell bone script of character Winter is

which is a two knotted rope. Chinese used to knot rope to record things happened. Two knotted rope means end of something, including end of a year. Chinese believed that the year starts in spring, and end in winter.

Its bronze script is

which is similar to the shell bone script.

Its big seal script is

Similar to bronze script.

Its small seal script is

which changed dramatically. The top is a rope crossing a line as knots, the bottom is Ice, which is only exist in winter when people go to river to cut the ice and transport them back in the underground storage to keep the food for long time.

Its clerical script is

which changed again from small seal script, especially the top, the bottom became two big dots.

Its Pinyin is Dong1.

Amazing Chinese Characters (211) Autumn - 秋

The shell bone script of character Autumn is

which is a picture of cricket which are seen everywhere in autumn.

There is another shell bone script of Autumn

which is a cricket in a hole, which means that the weather is getting cold, cricket is back to hole for winter.

The big seal script of the character is 

on the left is Rice plant, on the right is Fire, totally different from the shell bone script.

Why it changed so big? The Pictography Dictionary explains that people miswrote the Rice as cricket   + Fire. I disagree. I think that people just created the character from different description of the autumn: the Rice plant means that it is the harvesting season, the Fire means that it is a red season (red looks like fire). The fruits are red, the leaves are red, the clouds are red, and more are red in autumn.

The small seal script of the character is

similar to big seal script except the Fire on left and the Rice on right, exchanged position.

The clerical script of the character is 

similar to big seal script 

The song typeface of the character is 

秋

Its pinyin is Qiu1.