which is a drawing from the real open shell, seeing from the front.
Its big seal script is
It looks like a shell from different direction.
Its small seal script is
which is similar to the big seal script, but lost some pictography.
Its clerical script is
similar to the small seal script.
The Song typeface for its traditional character is
貝
which is very similar to the clerical script.
The Song typeface for its simplified character is
贝
The pictography is completely lost for reducing three strokes, which is not a smart change.
Because the shell was used as currency in ancient time, all characters containing a 貝 mean something related to "wealth", "money", "fortune" , or "rich", which will be discussed in later posts.
Its pinyin is Bei4.
