Amazing Chinese Characters (340) Minister - 臣

 The shell bone script of character Minister is

a big opening eye watching upward, which originally means that a person who is a servant of someone, could be wife of husband , housekeeper of host, or minister of king or empire. So he/she is always bent down in front of his/her boss, ready for any orders, and worried for being blamed by the boss. Right now Minister is the major meaning, all other meanings can only be found in the old movies, or books.

The bronze script of the character is

 Similar to the shell bone script except there is a dot in the middle of the eye.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to to shell bone script.

The small seal script of the character is

The middle rectangle is the eye, but you couldn't know if you didn't know the older scripts. This is the price people have to pay when they changed all curves to straight lines, you write faster, but lose the pictography of the character.

The song typeface of the character is

臣

 Its pinyin is Chen2.

臣 means Minister, but it is used for ministers in the old days, such as Qing Dynasty ministers, or the ministers of foreign countries which constitutional monarchy, but not for current China ministers. 部长 is the title for Chinese ministers nowadays, meaning Director of Department.