Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Amazing Chinese Characters (347) Aware - 觉(覺)

 The big seal script of character Aware is

The top 2 X are counting sticks, two hands on each side, a person is teaching how to counting. The middle door-alike is the person's legs. The bottom is a big eye with two legs (simplified body). The little guy on the bottom is learning the counting, and finally understands, so opens his eye big: I got it.

The small seal script of the character is


The top is similar to big seal script. The middle 目 is character Eye with a body of two legs.

The clerical script of the character is 


Similar to the small seal script.

The song typeface of traditional character is

Same as clerical script.

The song typeface of simplified character is

It lost all pictography of the character.

The original meaning and still the major meaning os the character is Aware, which is not directly from the vision but some thinking involved. When it means Aware, it is pronounced Jue1.

However it has another meaning: Sleep, when it is pronounced Jiao4. Most of time, it is used with 睡(the character for Sleep as a verb) to form a combination of word: 睡觉, in which 觉 is noun. 

It is a little bit odd that the character means Aware and Sleep, two opposite meanings. I have not figured out why. 


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