Sunday, June 13, 2021

Amazing Chinese characters (417) Noon - 午

 The shell bone script of character Noon is

What is the above? Dictionary of Pictography explains that it is a pounding rice pestle like the one below


Many disagreements.

Let's see the bronze script of the character

Which is obvious not a pounding rice pestle because the sharpe pointed end. 

What is many others thinking? They think that it is either a rope (like the shell bone script), or a wood stick or metal dagger like device (like the bronze script), which is hanging on, people can decide the time based on the angle of the shadow of the device under sunshine.  

I agree with that it is a device to determine the time, not pounding rice pestle.

The small seal script of the character is

which is similar to the bronze script, even though Dictionary of Pictography thinks it is like a pounding rice pestle. 

The  clerical script of the character is

The top curve becomes two strokes.

The song typeface of the character is

Its Pinyin is Wu.

午 is used not only Noon, but Morning - 上午,and Afternoon - 下午, which are most used words. 

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