Watch picture and learn character (15）Bamboo - 竹

The evolution of character Bamboo

 

From left to right

 

Shell bone, big seal, small seal, clerical scripts 

 

Bamboo Leaves

 

The Pinyin of the character Vehicle is Che1.

 

Explanation

Shell bone script of character Bamboo: Two bamboo branches and leaves.

Big seal script of character Bamboo: Two bamboo poles with leaves dropping down. 

Small seal script of character Bamboo: Similar to big seal script.

Clerical script of character Bamboo: The leaves on the top, one is falling down left, another extending horizontally. The right pole has a hook in the bottom, not like real bamboo. 

Watch picture and learn character (14）Vehicle - 车（車）

The evolution of character Vehicle

 

From left to right:

Shell bone, big seal, small seal, clerical scripts, and simplified song typeface

 

 

 

Ancient Vehicle

 

The Pinyin of the character Vehicle is Che1.

 

Explanation

Shell bone script of character Vehicle: the top is the cover; the two sides of the bottom are wheels. 

Other forms of shell bone script

Before small script, the characters were not unified, one character could have many forms. 

Big seal script of character Vehicle: It is a bird’s eye view. The left are two wheels, and the right are two vehicle pullers.

Small seal script of character Vehicle: Only vehicle frame left; wheels are eliminated.

Clerical script of character Vehicle: Similar to small seal script. 

Simplified song typeface of Vehicle: similar to clerical script but the frame changed to a simplified form which is from cursive script, reduced some strokes but the pictography of the character is lost.

 

Watch picture and learn character (13）Woman - 女

 The evolution of character Woman

 

From left to right:

Shell bone, big seal, small seal, clerical scripts

 

 

Ancient woman kneeling on the ground

 

The Pinyin of character Woman is Nv1.

 

Explanation

Shell bone script of character Woman: A woman kneels on the ground, the two hands across in front of chest. The social position of women was very low in ancient China.

Big seal script of character Woman: The middle line is the body of the woman, very simplified. It is unclear if the woman kneels down or not. 

Small seal script of character Woman: The top is similar to that of shell bone script, but the left arm extends deep to the bottom. The middle long curve is the body and the leg(s). The full character is relatively symmetric, which is the typical characteristics of small seal script.

Clerical script of character Woman (informal): the middle long stroke is the body and leg(s) in small seal script, the two hands cross on the left. 

Clerical script of character Woman (formal): It is from turning the informal character Woman above counter clockwise 90 degrees, which is formal clerical script. Why? Because the people of Han Dynasty liked the typical clerical wave stroke – a long horizontal with wave curve stroke. In order to get it, they turned the character 90 degrees, which is unimaginable behavior.  

 

Watch picture and learn character (12) Turtle - 龟（龜）

 The evolution of character Turtle            

                                              

                            

                                                         

From left to right: 

Upper: shell bone script, bronze script, simplified song typeface.

Lower: shell bone, big seal, small seal, clerical scripts, and traditional song typeface 

 

                        

                            

Back view of turtle (left)                     Side view of turtle（right）

 

The character Turtle – 龜 is pronounced Gui1 （Pinyin）

Explanation

Shell bone scripts of character Turtle: 

The back view of turtle (the left top): the top is head, the middle is body, and there are 4 legs. 

The side view of turtle (the left bottom): the top is head: the top is bird head, the bottom is body, the left are two legs, and the right is the shell. 

Bronze script

Similar to back view of shell bone script, no side view of bronze script.

Big seal script of character Turtle (middle left): Similar to side view of turtle: the top is head, the right is shell, the left are legs, the center is body, and the bottom is the tail. No back view big seal script.

Small seal script of character Turtle: Similar to its big seal script of character. No back view small seal script.

Clerical script of character Turtle: Similar to older scripts, except the center is empty T, which is the body, more like the real turtle. No back view clerical script. 

 

Song typeface of Turtle (the left bottom): Simplified is similar to back view shell bone script: the top is the head, the middle 田 is the body, the long curve from the middle top to the right bottom is the tail. The 4 legs are eliminated. It is a very good simplification because the back view turtle is easier to draw or to write.

Traditional song typeface is similar to clerical script.

 

 

Watch picture and learn character (11) Music or Happiness - 乐（樂）

 Evolution of the character Music

 

From left to right: 

shell bone script, big seal script, small seal script, clerical script, simplified song typeface

 

Ancient Chinese Hanging Bells for Music

 

Explanation

Shell bone script of character Music or Happiness: the bottom is character Wood , the top are two strings of bells which are different in size. People can make music by knocking the bells. The character also means Happiness or Happy, because when people listen music, they feel happy.

Big seal script of character Music or Happiness: Similar to shell bone script, except there is one more big bell in the top middle.

Small seal script of character Music or Happiness: Similar to big seal script.

Clerical script of character Music or Happiness: some similarity to older scripts but the bells on the sides are not a circle, open straight lines, the character lost most pictography.

Simplified Song typeface: the top completely changed without reasons, just to make less strokes, but lost all pictography.

The Pinyin of the character：Le4， Yue4

Watch picture and learn character (10) Across - 交

 Evolution of the character Across

 

 

From left to right: 

shell bone script, big seal script, small seal script, clerical script

 

Stand with two legs crossed

 

Explanation

Shell bone script of character Across: a person stands with two legs crossed.

Big seal script of character Across: Similar to shell bone script, the legs without the turning points, which are knees, less like the legs, but still similar to legs.

Small seal script of character Across: the top half is similar to shell bone script, the middle circle is the body of the person, the two legs are straighter than that of big seal script. 

Clerical script of character Across: the change is too big to tell which is which, especially on the top. The bottom two strokes are not like legs anymore, but they are crossed.

 

The pinyin of the character Across is Jiao1。

Watch picture and learn character (9) Boat - 舟

Evolution of character Boat

 

From left to right: 

shell bone script, bronze script, big seal script, small seal script, clerical script

 

Boat

 

Explanation

Shell bone script of character Boat: a simple small boat structure.

Bronze script of character Boat: similar to shell bone script. The top line is open, I don’t know why.

Big seal script of character Boat: Similar to bronze script.

Small seal script of character Boat: the lower half is similar to older scripts, the top long curve line is the head of boat, which may be the more complex boat head such as the head of dragon boat.

Clerical script of character Boat: the structure of boat has similarity to older scripts, but the big simplification on the head dot replacing the long curve, the two dots in boat replacing the two lines, the middle long horizontal line extended to out of the boat to get a typical clerical script stroke “the Wave stroke”. The pictography is most lost, but people could write the character much faster, which the main purpose of people at that time.

 

The pinyin of the character Boat is Zhou1.

 

Watch picture and learn character (8) Shell - 贝（貝）

Evolution of character Shell

 

From left to right: 

shell bone script, bronze script, big seal script, small seal script, clerical script

 

Shell

 

Explanation

Shell bone script of character Shell: an opened shell.

Big seal script of character Shell: a living shell, the bottom is the open mouth of the shell. 

Small seal script of character Shell: Similar to big seal script.

Clerical script of character Shell: similar to small seal script, except the bottom of the shell, the two sides of the mouth become two dots.

Song Typeface of character Shell: the shell is empty inside, and completely open on the bottom, lost most pictography.

The pinyin of the character Shell is Bei4.