Sunday, April 4, 2021

Amazing Chinese Characters (359) Open - 开(開)

 The big seal script of character Open is

A door 門 and two forked sticks. We can compare the character with the character Close - 关 (Post 358), in which, the sticks are 90 degree turned, the top of the stick touching the upper of the door, the forked cork touching the door (we couldn't see),  we only see the dot (joint) from behind. Now we see the two sticks are off the upper of the door, and turned 90 degree, not touching the door any more, which means that the sticks don't support the door, so the door is opened or could be opened.

The small seal script of the character is
Similar to the big seal script.

The clerical script of the character is

The Door -  門 is similar to the old scripts, but the two forked sticks are connected each other, which is wrong and misleading because it looks like the two horizontal bars to latch the door, which is to close or lock the door, not open the door. 

The song typeface for traditional character Open is


Same as its clerical script.

The song typeface of the simplified character is


Which is the inside of the traditional character. However because the misleading of this part as I mentioned above, most experts are confused on this character, why the two horizontal bars are connected for open?  I have just figured out after many years confusion.

Its Pinyin is Kai1.



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