Sunday, April 18, 2021

Amazing Chinese Characters (371) Wind - 风(風)

 The shell bone script of character Wind is

What is the above? I didn't find the answer. But some people think it as a flying bird, some others think it as ancient flags blown by wind. I think it as hanging ropes blown by wind. Anyway, something is blown by wind, people feel the wind. 

The big seal script of the character is


There is a 几 on the top, which is the wind, the inside and lower part is Insect.

People are confused the character, how could an insect mean wind? 《象形字典》- The dictionary of pictography says that ancient people made mistake: the Insect should be Bird.

Well, I understand why ancient people use insect to mean wind. The insect is locust. When too many locusts hatched out, which occurred very often in ancient time while no pesticide exist, they flight together  to form a horrific locust wind. They follow the nature wind, so people could see what the wind looks like, which is the best way to describe wind, a no color, invisible air flow.

The small seal script of the character is


The top a hat alike is wind, the bottom is insect.

The clerical script of the character is

The outside 几 is wind, the inside is insect.

The song typeface for traditional character is
Same as the clerical script

The song typeface for simplified character is
Inside becomes X, which destroys the pictography.

Its Pinyin is Feng1.



No comments:

Post a Comment