Wednesday, November 7, 2018

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

Which is almost same as its clerical script.

The Pinyin for Left is Zuo3.