系 is a compound ideograph representing a hand holding two strands of silk. In bronze scripts, it depicts a hand holding three strands of silk. In seal and regular scripts, two strands of silk is changed to one strand and the form of hand 爪 is changed to丿, which means “tie or knot” Continue reading “系 a hand holding two strands of silk”
己 a curved rope
己 is a pictographic character, resembling a curved rope. 己 mainly serves as a phonetic component to form characters and also serves as a semantic component to express things related to a baby or infant. Continue reading “己 a curved rope”
逐 a foot is pursuing a pig
This character 逐 is very interesting. 逐 is compound ideographic character composed of 辶 and 豕. 辶 is a variant of 辵 and means “foot, walking”. 豕 is a pig. Continue reading “逐 a foot is pursuing a pig”
于 airflow passing obstacles
于 is a pictographic character. In oracle bone, the character depicts the airflow passing obstacles. For its original meaning, there are also other different versions. 于 serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Continue reading “于 airflow passing obstacles”
Numbers in set phrases
Numbers are not only for numbers. In Chinese, the numbers appear in many set phrases to express various figurative meanings. Continue reading “Numbers in set phrases”