Pictographic Meaning of Chinese characters (14）Walk/Road, Jade Tablet, Street - 行，圭，街

 Shell bone script for Walk/Road

It's simply a crossroads. Ancient people used the road to signify Walk (movement or travel).

Big seal script for character Walk/Road

Still depicts a crossroads.

Small seal script for character Walk/Road

Shows a crossroads, but for aesthetic reasons, the two ends are closed off. This was an oversight by Mr. Li Si.

Clerical script for character Walk/Road

The horizontal path is still vaguely visible, while the vertical path is less clear. However, we can still see the resemblance to the earlier script forms.

Shell bone script for character Jade Tablet

This character represents a jade tablet used in ancient rituals.

A discovered ancient jade tablet 

Big seal script for character Jade Tablet

A simplified depiction of the jade tablet.

Small seal script for character Jade Tablet

Very similar to the large seal script.

Clerical script for character Jade Tablet

Also similar to the large and small seal scripts.

Now let's look at the character Street.

Shell bone script for character Street

The character Jade Tablet - 圭 is in the middle of character Walk/Road. In ancient times, rituals were specifically conducted at major crossroads in cities, and this place was called street.

Bronze script for character Street

In the bronze script, Jade Tablet is absent, but there are footprints, indicating many people walking. A crossroads with many people walking is called a street.

Big seal script for character Street

Shows a crossroads with Jade Tablet in the middle, indicating a place of rituals.

Small seal script for character Street

Similar to big seal script.

Clerical script for character Street

The character Walk/Road (crossroads) with Jade Tablet in the middle is Street. Later regular script and Song typefaces retained this structure.

This explanation provides an insightful look into the historical and structural development of these Chinese characters, highlighting their evolution from oracle bone script to clerical script.

Pictographic Meaning of Chinese characters (13) New Year's Greetings - 拜年

 The Bronze Script for '拜' - Worship

The left side of the Shell Bone Script: on the right is '麦' (wheat), and on the left is '手' (hand). In ancient times, during the ceremony of worshipping heave"New Year's Greetingsn, people held wheat ears in their hands to pray for good weather and bountiful harvests.

The Big Seal Script for '拜' - Worship

Two wheat ears, no hand.

The Small Seal Script for '拜' - Worship

On the left is a hand, and on the right is a wheat ear. It looks somewhat like a hand, but with an added horizontal stroke at the bottom to distinguish it.

The Clerical Script for '拜' - Worship

On the left is a 'hand', but the vertical stroke extends outward. On the right is a wheat ear.

In ancient times, food was precious, and holding a wheat ear in one's hand while paying respect was a very formal and solemn act. However, as productivity increased and wheat ears were no longer so precious, people stopped holding wheat ears when paying respects. Later, it became common to hold incense while praying to Buddha or ancestors.

Now, let's look at '年' (Year).

The Shell Bone Script for '年' - Year

At the top

is the '禾' character, which represents a rice ear.

At the bottom

is a person.

This can be understood as a person holding a rice ear and threshing it to separate the grains from the stalks.

Or, a person carrying a rice ear home.

In any case, it represents the autumn harvest season, marking the end of a rice-growing cycle.

The Big Seal Script for '年' - Worship

At the top is a rice ear, and the person below is represented by a stroke and a curved vertical line to the right.

The Small Seal Script for '年' - Worship

At the bottom is a person

with a horizontal line added.

This character is '千' (thousand). '千' is the original character for '迁' (to move), indicating that the original meaning of '千' was 'to move', symbolizing people moving the rice ears back home.

The Clerical Script for '年'

The top is 禾 （rice seedling), the bottom is 千，not easy to figure out because it lost the pictography.

The Chinese originally paid respects for the New Year and later also paid respects to Bodhisattvas. The year represents a cyclical recurrence, a sacred holiday worth celebrating. Although we no longer worship heaven, people still exchange New Year's greetings with each other. However, they no longer hold wheat ears or incense.

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Pictographic Meaning of Chinese characters (12) Eternal and Far – 永远（遠）

 The Shell Bone Script for character Eternal

The middle part resembles a person 

with streams on either side. Ancient people saw long rivers flowing from distant places, heading towards unreachable, eternal destinations. Rivers flow continuously and eternally without interruption, so they believed this was 'eternity'. If a person immersed themselves in the river, they could merge with the river and attain 'eternal life'. The idea of 'being with mountains and rivers, shining with the sun and moon' embodies 'eternity'.

 

The Bronze Script for character Eternal

 

Similar to the Shell Bone Script.

 

The Small Seal Script for character Eternal

 

The middle part is a person, and streams flow on either side.

 

This character closely resembles the character for character water

 

The difference is that the middle part of character Eternal is a person, but character Water is a bent line for water flow. The sides for both characters are water flow. 

 

The Clerical Script for character Eternal

The middle part is not like a person anymore, the sides are not like water flow too. Without understanding the evolution of Chinese characters, one cannot deduce this meaning. Therefore, studying pictographic Chinese characters must be combined with their evolution to understand their origins and development.

 

The character for 'eternal' also closely resembles the character for 'water'.

 

Let's see character Far.

The Shell Bone Script for character Far

 

It looks somewhat complex, but it is actually quite simple. On the right is half of an intersection, which refers to a road. The upper and middle parts on the left are the character for 'clothing', while the bottom part is the bronze script for 'clothing', which closely resembles the surrounding parts of the upper left.

Bronze script of character Cloth

Shell Bone script of character Road or Travel

In the Shell Bone Script for 'far', the circle in the middle of the 'clothing' character represents the body, the bearer of the clothing. The crossed lines at the lower right of the 'clothing' character represent 'hand'. The Shell Bone Script for 'far' thus signifies 'traveling with clothing'. If the distance is short and you can return the same day, you wouldn't need to carry extra clothes. If it takes several days, you need to bring clothes, implying a long distance travel.

 

The Bronze Script for character Far

 

The double-person radical on the left means 'road', similar to the right part in the Shell Bone Script, now placed on the left. The upper and lower parts on the right are 'foot', 

The Bronze Script for character Foot

the middle of the character Far is 'clothing'. Here, there is no 'hand', but there are two feet, emphasizing walking and the need to carry clothes for a long distance.

 

The Small Seal Script for character Far

 

The three curved lines at the upper left represent 'road', similar to the double-person radical in the Bronze Script. Below is 'foot', and the upper right is another 'foot', though it doesn't resemble much. The lower right is 'clothing', indicating the need to carry clothes for a long-distance journey.

 

The Clerical Script for character Far

 

The bottom part signifies 'related to walking', derived from the left part of the Small Seal Script. Some Clerical Script versions depict the bottom with three dots followed by a connection below (see the 'walking radical' section). The upper right part is a transformed 'foot', and the middle and lower parts are 'clothing'.

 

Simplified Song Typeface for character Far

In the simplified character for 'far', the character 元 apart from indicating pronunciation, has no other meaning. It also lacks the top dot and a short horizontal stroke, lost the pictography completely.

Understanding 'eternal' and 'far': for ancient people, 'eternity' meant a distance beyond needing to carry clothes, akin to a river flowing continuously forward, never stopping, reaching a place that can never be attained.

Eternal : endless time; Far: endless distance, they are together to mean Forever, ancient Chinese believed.

 

 

Pictographic Meaning of Chinese characters (11) Goodbye - 再见

 The Shell Bone Script for character Again

What does this represent? The Pictographic Dictionary explains it as follows:

 

"It resembles a bamboo cage used for fishing. Ancient people would split one end of a bamboo into many strips, weave them together with fine bamboo strands to form a gradually opening trumpet mouth. They then attached a funnel-shaped bamboo ring at the mouth, making it easy for fish to enter but hard to exit, trapping them inside the cage. Fishermen would retrieve the fish from the gaps between the flexible bamboo strips and place the cage back into the water, allowing them to repeatedly catch fish."

 

I agree with this explanation because my hometown, Zhijiang in Hunan, has such bamboo cages called "Zuan1 Zai3," which sounds like "zhuǎn zài" and might be the characters "钻再" (let fish enter but not exit the bamboo cage). In Zhijiang dialect, "zh" and "z" sounds are not distinguished. "钻再" signifies a bamboo trap for catching fish.

 

Here is the internal structure:

This is specifically used to catch mud eels. These traps are placed at the water inlets of rice fields, allowing the eels to enter easily but preventing them from escaping, similar to a trap or a hook without an actual hook.

 

It can be reused for many years, as bamboo is durable and doesn't rot easily. The meaning of character Again is associated with reusability.

 

Big Seal Script for character Again

 

This script resembles the bamboo trap for catching eels:

 

The Small Seal Script for character Again

 

It also looks like the eel trap:

 

The Clerical Script for character Again

 

Still resembling the bamboo cage.

 

"再" represents the bamboo trap used to catch eels, which allows eels to enter into the trap and be caught. This is a reasonable explanation.

 

Let's see character Meet.

 

Shell Bone Script of character Meet

 

A large eye above a human body, emphasizing the act of seeing:

 

The difference between "Look/See/Watch" and "Meet" is that Look/See/Watch is often one-directional and doesn't necessarily involve a person as the object. In contrast, Meet usually implies a two-way interaction and often involves two or more people. For instance, "I watch/see a movie" is natural, but "I meet a movie" is awkward. "When shall we meet?" is natural, whereas "When shall we look/see/watch at each other?" is uncomfortable.

 

Big Seal Script of character Meet

 

It still features a large eye and a human body.

 

Small Seal Script of character Meet

The 目 on the top is an eye (vertical), the below is a simplified body.

 

Clerical Script of character Meet

The top part remains 目 (eye), while the lower part represents a body, even though is not alike. As the character evolved, the gradually lost the pictography, or people less pay attention to its pictography, more to how easy to write. 

 

The simplified song typeface character of Meet

 The top part no longer clearly resembles an eye.

 

People put the two character together to form a word

Traditional Song Typeface

Again - Meet ! = Meet Again, means See you again or Goodbye.

Or 

Simplified Song Typeface