Saturday, March 6, 2021

Amazing Chinese Characters (343) Fantasy - 幻

 The shell bone script of character Fantasy is


The left is the spider silk, and the right is a branch of tree according to 《象形字典》- Dictionary of Pictography. The spider silk on a tree branch is not clear, and swinging in the air, looks like fantastic stuff.

The bronze script of the character is 


The spider silk is hanging on a branch.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

The branch is disappeared.

The clerical script of the character is

The left is silk radical which indicates that the character is silk related. The right one is the branch. A great change from pictography to ideogram, but understandable.

There are some different explanations for this character. One of them is to consider that it is a rope not spider silk, hanging on a branch because the uptown of small seal script of the character


is Giving. If it is rope, you may give to someone who is in danger, needs help. If it is a spider silk, difficult to think how it could help anyone.

So it may be disputable.

Its Pinyin is Huan4.


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