Amazing Chinese Characters (248) Thunder - 雷

The shell bone script for character Thunder is

Both have lightning (Electricity, see Post 247) in the middle, and two 口 in the left one, and two 田 in the right one. The 口 and 田 are big wheels. Ancient Chinese believed that the big sound of thunder was from the big wheel rolling of war-God vehicle in the sky.

The big seal script for character Thunder is

 the middle is lightning because thundering happens with lightning often. There are 4 big wheels of war-God around the lightning.

The small seal script for character Thunder is

The top

is Rain (Post 8) because the Thunder is always accompanying with raining. The bottom are 3 big wheels. But the lightning disappeared. Ancient Chinese might have thought that the thundering is with raining more than lightning.

The clerical script for character Thunder is

The top is Rain, and the bottom is one wheel (looks like Field).

Its Pinyin is Lei2.

(Other related blogs
Creative Chinese Calligraphy - https://creativechinesecalligraphy.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-beautiy-of-creative-calligraphy-1.html)
Chinese Calligraphy History - https://leweishang.blogspot.com/2016/02/picto-calligraphy-new-way-to-write.html)

Amazing Chinese Characters (247) Electricity - 电（電）

The shell bone script for character Electricity is

which is lightning. The original meaning is lightning.

 The bronze scrip of the character Electricity is

on the top is character Rain, the bottom is the shell bone script of Electricity because ancient Chinese found that the lightning was happening with raining.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to the bronze script.

The small seal script for the character is

The top is Rain, and the bottom is lightning, changed a lot from the old scripts.

The clerical script for the character is

similar to its small seal script.

The song typeface of the traditional character is

電

similar to clerical script.

The song typeface of the simplified character is

电

which is the bottom part of the traditional character with a little bit modified - the vertical stroke is out of the 曰. It is more like to shell bone script.

Its Pinyin is Dian4.

The character means electricity, the lightning is 闪电, a combination with 闪, which means Flash.

Amazing Chinese Characters (246) Kindness - 善

The shell bone script for character Kindness are

Like you may have known the fact that there were many forms of one character before small seal script. So we have 4 forms of Kindness here, but actually there should have more than 4. I got the four forms from Calligraphy Dictionary, which only select the forms are confirmed by experts.

The top

is Sheep or Goat. The bottom are Eyes.

All four forms are a head of Sheep or Goat (Chinese don't distinguish Sheep from Goat, both shares the same character 羊).

All four emphasize the horns and eyes. The horns are just indicator of sheep. Ancient Chinese thought that the eyes of sheep represent Kindness.

The big seal script for the character is

The top 

is 羊 （Sheep or Goat) .

The bottom two

are Say (言，see Post 158）.

The character is changed a lot. The eyes are replaced by two Says. It seems that ancient Chinese at that time thought the Sheep's baa or bleat is better to present kindness.

The small seal script for the character is

The top is 羊 (Sheep or Goat), the bottom is 言 (Say), but only one because one Say is enough.

The clerical script for the character is

The top is 羊 (Sheep or Goat)

The bottom is a simplified 言 (Say). The change is unclear, so it is a little bit confused to figure out why it becomes to be like this.

Song typeface of the character is

善

Its Pinyin is Shan4.


(Other related blogs
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https://creativechinesecalligraphy.com/)
Chinese Calligraphy History -
https://leweishang.blogspot.com/)

Amazing Chinese Characters (245) Lid - 盖（蓋）

The bronze script for character Lid is

The top are two grass, right below the grass are two ^, which is the lid. The bottom is utensil, U should be food in the utensil.

I don't know why there are grass on the top of the lid. I guess is that the lid is very hot after cooking so people use grass to cover the handle to avoid being burned when opening the lid.

The big seal script for the character is

 Right now we see the cover or lid like a 大，which is the lid. The sides of 大 has grass, as I mentioned above, it is used to protect hands to be burned.

The clerical script for the character is

Top is grass, 大 becomes to 去，which should still be the handle of lid, and the bottom is the utensil.

This character also means Cover,  as 铺盖 - blanket。

The traditional song typeface is

蓋

Almost same as its clerical script.

The simplified song typeface is

盖

Top becomes the top of Sheep - 羊, but it still looks like a lid, the lid of bamboo steamer as below.

Because it is made from bamboo, the handle is not too hot, so the grass on the top disappear. Actually, most lid handles were wood long time ago, people did use grass to protect being burnt any more.

Its pinyin is Gai4.

(Other related blogs

Creative Chinese Calligraphy - https://creativechinesecalligraphy.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-beautiy-of-creative-calligraphy-1.html)

Chinese Calligraphy History - https://leweishang.blogspot.com/2016/02/picto-calligraphy-new-way-to-write.html)