Learn one Chinese Character a day - "川"

Today we look at another Chinese character - "川", let us see whether you can guess its meaning by studying its evolution history: (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "川"

 is one of the Oracle script for "川". It looks like our modern roads with dotted lines to divide lanes. However there was no such concept in ancient China. Only till 秦始皇 (First Emperor of Qin Dynasty) came to power, he ordered his empire to produce carriages with standard width, then to construct roads referring to that size. That is very close to our modern concept of standard protocol for car sizes. When a carriage was built to that size, it was assured that it can be used all over the country. This is one of the highest achievement of 秦始皇 to China history. Another one is he unified the writing of Chinese characters. Both measurements (in Chinese 书同文，车同轨) result in tight union of Chinese people and economics.

 then is clearly NOT to mean road. Let us look at its components. refers to the river side with standing rocks as its banks. Andrefers to the torrent. The meaning of "川" is "small river with turbulent water flowing swiftly through valleys of mountains".
In some Oracle script  is composed of river () and man (, which is a man with head downward to mean flowing down the river.). As you can see from "川" -that river is one of the major transportation methods for ancient people living among mountains in China. And that is also why "川" is used to mean Drift and Travel. This meaning is however no longer frequently used except in some specific phrases like - "川资", where  "资" means Capital. In total "川资" means the Capital for Travelling.

The amazing view of a 川 in China 

Today we first time can enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with all Chinese characters learned - "四川". It refers to one of the provinces in China which has four major rivers within its borders.

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "川"

In traditional way of Chinese writing, the sequence is from top to bottom then right to left. It is because that Chinese ancestors wrote their articles on not paper but bamboo slices. Chinese calligraphy follows the traditional way.

Book wrote on bamboo

Learn Chinese from daily life - "Long"

Start from 23rd Jan 2012, it is going to be Chinese lunar new year of, which is in Chinese.  is the pronunciation. It is very close to pronunciation of LONG in English. By utilizing this similarity, there is a very interesting advertisement of a famous local brand of fruit juice - 

Chinese Long

The photo is a bit blur, the slogan is "For a Long and Fruitful life ..." while the image of the orange skin is shaped like a Chinese.

This is a kind of benefit of living in Singapore, we have the environment of two languages.

Enjoy a standard image of Chinese: 

Chinese Long

Normally in Chineseis translated to Dragon, however meaning of Chinese  is quite different from the evil dragon in English. Chinese  is the totem of China, it is more close to the meaning of Seraph(pl. Seraphim ). 

Know more about Seraph - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph

And know more abouthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B3ng 

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "山"

“山” is another Chinese character purely created from pictograph. To guess its meaning, let us see its evolution history (image get from http://www.vividict.com) - 

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "山"

Oracle script   is composed of three . As what we have learned, three "三" is used to mean "a lot" when Chinese ancestors created our Chinese characters, during our learning of "众". So you can see that  means a lot of .  Some of you might already know its meaning. You will see it much more clearly with following Chinese drawing:

山 - mountains

In later stage of Bronze script , you can see that it is already very close to what we are using now - "山".

so "山" means Mountains.

As usual, let us end today's lesson with Chinese calligraphy with "山" inside:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "山"

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "田"

"田" is the Chinese character purely created from pictograph. Below is the picture of a typical "田" in China -

Typical Farm Land in China

 And we can also see from the evolution history of "田" (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "田"

 The Oracle script writing of "田" is, which is composed of border of farm land  and  is to mean the horizontal ridges and is to mean the vertical ridges.
When it came to later stage of Oracle script,   was already simplified to , no difference from what we are using now - "田".

So "田" means farm land.  and "田" is also extended to mean the landscape of the similar formation, which produces products like salt, gas and etc.

"田" is now also a surname of Chinese.

Let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with "田" inside to end our today's learning:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "田"

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "字"

Since we have learnt a few Chinese characters, today we will try to understand how Chinese represent the meaning of character, which is "字". recall the meaning of "子", you might wonder how Character can be related to baby?

Let us have a look at its evolution history first: (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "字"

The Oracle script writing of "字" is missing, from its Bronze script , it means a man to build a house  (we will see lot of Chinese characters created with ),  get married then have their baby born to the family.  This is the original meaning of "字" - Man builds a house, marries his wife then become fruitful and multiply their descendants. This meaning only exists in ancient articles while is no longer used now.

While in ancient China, population of a tribe decides whether it is strong or not. People sometimes would steal the new born babies from other people or tribes to increase their own labours. Chinese ancestors then start to mark different symbols onto their babies to identify the parents they belong to. This extra step associated with original meaning of  is then represented with "字" as well. so "字" is probably the earliest tattoo on earth. The process to mark babies slowly evolved to be part of the rite of passage.

"字" means Character.

Let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with "字" inside:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "字"