Sunday, May 19, 2024

Pictographic Meaning of Chinese characters (2) Bird (鸟/鳥)and Flight(飞/飛)

 The shell bone script of character Bird is

A bird standing sideways.

The big seal script of character Bird is

Still a bird standing sideways, clearer than the Oracle Bone Script, especially the feathers and claws.

The Small Seal Script for Bird is

Similar to the Great Seal Script. The feathers and claws below are similar. The head and eyes above have changed, mainly the head is not enclosed, and the eye is not a dot but a short horizontal line. It looks a bit odd, but it still resembles a head.

 


The Clerical Script for Bird

The curves are straightened, no longer pictographic. However, by comparing it with the Great Seal and Small Seal Scripts, we can deduce that the "" on top represents the head and eye. The four dots below represent claws, with the tail tucked in.

The Simplified Song Typeface of character Bird is

 

The simplified version changes the horizontal line representing the eye in the traditional character into a dot, making it more like an eye. However, the four dots below representing claws are changed into a horizontal line, completely losing the pictographic nature. It is a simplified character with both gains and losses.

 

Now let's look at the character for flight.

The shell bone Script dictionary does not have "" (our ancestors might have created this character, but it may not have been found or recognized). The earliest form in the dictionary is the Big Seal Script of the character:

 

It resembles a bird in flight. The top represents the head with feathers, and the bottom are the spread wings.

 

 

Looking back at the bird character, we can understand that the bird character represents a standing, static bird, while the flight character represents a flying, dynamic bird.

The Small Seal Script of character Flight is



Basically, the same as the Great Seal Script. Up to this point, the character belongs to pictographs.

The Clerical Script of character Flight is

 

The top right has a "", representing the bird's head and the feathers on the head. The lower part of "" represents wings and feathers on the wings. The left side is the character "", meaning "ascend". This character combines both pictographic and ideographic elements.

 

The Traditional Song Typeface for character Flight

 


The Simplified song typeface for Character Flight


 

Clearly represents only the wings.

 

 

 

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