Amazing Chinese Characters (324) Do Not - 莫

 The shell bone script of character Do Not is

which is exactly same as character Evening or Old Age (Post 323). At the beginning of the shell bone script, the character express Evening or Old Age and Do Not, because after the sunset (evening), people are difficult to see (Do not see), or difficult to do anything (Do not do).

Because most people didn't know characters, the communication was in the very low level, the multiple meanings of the character didn't cause problem.

The big seal script of the character is

Same as the big seal script of character Evening or Old Age.

The small seal script of the character is

Same as the small seal script of character Evening or Old Age.

As time passed, people communcated more, and used the character more often, which meaning the character presents caused confusion. So back about 2000+ years, people changed the character a little bit to distinguish the different meanings.

The clerical script of the character is

The bottom becomes to be 大, which means Big. However, if it means Big in the character? We don't know. But it is now different from the character from clerical script of character Evening or Old Age, which is

The top is character Do Not, the bottom is character Sun (日), which emphasizes that the Sun is covered or hided, which is character Evening, not character Do Not because the sun is disappeared. 

The song typeface of the character Do Not is

莫

very similar to its clerical script.

Its Pinyin is Mo4.