Besides the most common hands 手 and 扌，there are 10 hidden hands in Chinese characters you may not recognize. These hands reflect the activities of hands, origins of many characters.
The most common hands in Chinese
Speaking of 手, we all know Chinese characters were created by the hands of the ancient people. Language is reflection of life. Hands are so important in our life. How important are hands in Chinese characters?
手 is a pictogram and serves as semantic component to form characters such as 拿 take，拳fist，扶 hold up，持，etc. When 手 is on the left of a character, it is changed into 扌提手旁.
There are about 740 charactes composed of手and 提手旁.
Is this the whole story of the hand 手in Chinese?
Let’s think about it!
Chinese characters come from life, and life is created by hands. Our hands are so versatile and we can use them to do various things. Therefore, there are serveral different hand shapes in Chinese.
手 and 扌提手旁 are the most common hand shapes. Everyone already knows they denotes activities related to hands. Besides, there are other shapes of hand you may not know or recongnize. Now, let’s get to know them one by one!
The 10 hidden hands in Chinese character
The first hidden hand 寸，one of the most important hidden hands
寸 is a simple compound composed of a hand and a horizontal line.
That horizontal line indicates the position of pulse on the wrist, and the distance between this point and the wrist is called 寸. This is how the measure word 寸 came from.
This word 寸 is a very important part of Chinese culture, especially for traditional Chinese medicine because this postion is where a doctor feel the pulse, and therefore it is called 寸口.
The distance between the pulse and the wrist is 一寸, aproximately equal to 3.3 centimeters. Accordingly, the figurative meanings “short” and “tiny”of寸 were adopted such as
寸步 a tiny step，
寸土 a very small piece of land,
鼠目寸光 short-sighted，
手无寸铁 bearehanded, etc.
The one-inch punch by Bruce Lee 寸拳 is a perfect use of 寸！
In addition, 寸 can form characters as a semantic component. Characters composed of the semantic 寸 express hand-related meanings such as
夺 seize，
封 seal，
寻 search，
射 shoot，etc.
The second hidden hand 攵, one of the 10 hidden hands having a cognate
攵 pū , a hand holding a wooden stick.
Let’s study a character first.
教, a teacher is supervising the children learning knowledge with a stick in his hand.
教 best explains the meaning of 攵.
攵 serves as a semantic component to form characters to express hand-related actions or extended meanings, such as 收 （put away, collect, harvest, receive），攻 (attack, assault, work at)，放 (release)，敬 (offer politely, serve) etc.
The third hidden hand 攴, one of the 10 hidden hands having a cognate
攴 pū, a cognate of 攵, also serves as a semantic component to form characters expressing hand-related meanings such as
敲 knock
寇 invade.
You will see 攵 more often than 攴 in Chinese because 攵 can form mroe characters than 攴.
The fourth hidden hand 又, one of the 10 hidden hands highly used in Chinese
又, yòu, a highly used word. We use this word almost everyday. 又 indicates the repetition or continuation of an action. Why it is related to actions? Because it’s actually a hand.
双手 best explains the origin of 又. 又 servers as a semantic component to form characters expressing hand-related meanings such as
发 launch, send out, deliver, distritute, emit,
变 change, become,
取get, take, fetch, seek, adopt,
及 reach, come up to, can compare with.
The fifth hidden hand 殳, the most violent hand
殳 shū, a pictogram depicting a hand holding a wooden weapon. You can understand better this semantic component from the words
毁 destroy,
投 throw, drop,
殴(毆 beat up, hit ),
殺 kill.
Characters composed of殳shū express meanings related to actions, violence, etc.
The sixth hidden hand 爫, a hand to live and love
爫 zhǎo, a hand. The character 采 is the best example of this semantic component. Ancient China was an agricultural society, and every year people picked or gathered fruits, tea leaves, and crops. Characters composed of the semantic 爫 denote an action related to the hand such as
争 (爭 contend, compete, struggle for)
or express extended meanings such
爱 love，and
受 receive, accept, suffer, be subjected to.
The seventh hidden hand 彐, a hand to write
If you know this character 秉, which means hold, won’t you have curiosity about why it means hold? Obviously, it’s because of 彐 jì. 彐 is also a hand. Characters formed by 彐 such as
兼 anex, bring together，and
聿 rule, administer
express hand-related meanings.
The eighth hidden hand ナ, a hand to make friends
Don’t you wonder why 友 is composed of ナ and 又? 友 means friend. These two components are two hands. Two people get their hands together to help each other because they are friends. Charactres composed of ナalso express hand-related meanings such as
左 left,
右 right,
有 have,
灰 The residue that can be touched by hand after the fire is extinguished is ash.
The ninth hidden hand 廾, a hand to appreciate
廾 gǒng, a pictogram of two hands holding something. Let’s see the most representative examples.
Two hands open a bolt, it’s 开; two hands holding a piece of jade to apreicate, it’s 弄 (extended meanings: get, manage, handle)
The tenth hidden hand 八, a hand to share
The most representative character of this component is 具. Why “具有” means “have/possesss”？Because both 具 and 有 are related to hands. Just now we have learned 有, which is composed of ナ. 具, composed of 八, also has to do with hands, because 八 is a pair of hands holding an object.
There are other characters composed of 八 such as
共 two hands holding an object → extended meaning: to share, together, common，
典 two hands holding a book → extended meaning: standard, law，
兵 two hands holding a weapon → extended meaning: soldier,
兴 two hands holding a plate → extended meaning: rise
That’s for the ten hidden hands in Chinese characters. These ten hidden hands totally can form aproximately 150 characters.
The ten hidden hands and compound words
Compared with the most common hand shapes 手 and 扌, their abilities of forming characters is not very powerful, but that does not mean that the chracters formed by these hidden hands are not important. Don’t forget the compound words! The characters formed by the hidden hands can form again numerous compound words for example:
争 can form many compound words such as 争气，战争，争取，争吵，争夺，争辩，纷争，力争，争光, etc.
开 can form many compound words such as 开始，开展，开心，开放，开设，离开，张开，开口，盛开，开启，公开，etc.
and so forth…
We hope this article on the 10 hidden hands can stir your interest in learning and exploring this language. Actually each Chinese character tells us a story, arousing our curiosity and imagination! And they can bring us back to the ancient people’s society and let us witness their life, feelings and thoughts.
You may also wannt to check out the video version.