秋 | qiū

In Mandarin Chinese, 秋 (Pinyin: qiū 🔊) is a noun that means “autumn”, “harvest time” and, by extension, “year”, “period”, “time”. For example, 千秋 qiānqiū means “a thousand years” (and, figuratively, “a long time”). 秋 is found in many interesting compound words and expressions including

• 春 + 秋 = 春秋 (chūnqiū): literally, “spring and autumn” but figuratively a year, year’s time, person’s age, time in general...
• 中 + 秋 + 节 = 中秋节 (zhōngqiūjié): Mid-Autumn Festival
• 一 + 日 + 三 + 秋 = 一日三秋 (yīrìsānqiū): “a single day apart seems like three years”
• 春 + 花 + 秋 + 月 = 春花秋月 (chūnhuāqiūyuè), from the last poem by Li Yu: “the flowers of spring and the autumn moons”; a metaphor for a wonderful time spent in a beautiful location

秋 is an ideogrammic compound of 禾 “grain” and 火 “fire”. According to engYes,

In autumn, the Ancient Chinese would burn the fields to kill the locust eggs, in order to prevent them from eating the crops the following year.

Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters provides rather different explanation:

The relevant oracle bone form of this character is 禾 grain/rice + 束 bundle → bundle and compact/shrink harvested crops in autumn/fall. The character was later reinterpreted, as shown by a seal inscription form that is 禾 plus an element combining 火 fire and 龜 turtle → dry and shrink the size of harvested crops (as turtle meat is dried over a fire; compare 焦). The present form repositions 禾 and 火 while eliminating 龜. Note also the variant form 龝, which combines 禾 and 龜.

More photos related to autumn and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

夏 | xià

In Mandarin Chinese, 夏 (Pinyin: xià 🔊) means “summer”. There are other, mostly obsolete, meanings of this word. Just to be sure that they are really talking about summertime, the Chinese use compounds with 季 “season”, 夏季 (xiàjì), or 天 “day”, 夏天 (xiàtiān). Some other compound words of 夏 include

• 夏 + 仲 = 仲夏 (zhòngxià): midsummer
• 夏 + 历 / 曆 = 夏历 / 夏曆 (xiàlì): Chinese calendar
• 金 + 春 + 沙 = 金夏沙 (Jīnxiàshā): purely phonetic rendering of Kinshasa (the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)

With ten strokes, 夏 is the most complex hanzi of the four seasons. According to Wiktionary, it all started with

an ideogrammic compound: 日 (“sun”) + 頁 (“head; man”) — man under the scorching sun; summer.

A number of modifications ensued until the character reached its current shape.

More photos related to summer and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

季 | jì

In Mandarin Chinese, 季 (Pinyin: jì 🔊) is a noun that means “quarter of a year” or “season”. 四季 (sìjì), naturally, refers to four seasons, i.e. 春 (spring), 夏 (summer), 秋 (autumn) and 冬 (winter). Some other compound words of 季 include

• 季 + 风 = 季风 (jìfēng 🔊): monsoon
• 雨 + 季 = 雨季 (yǔjì): rainy season
• 花 + 季 = 花季 (huājì): the flower of one’s youth
• 月 + 季 = 月季 (yuèjì): China rose (Rosa chinensis)

According to Wiktionary, 季 is an ideogrammic compound of 禾 “grain” and 子 “a child”, “a seed” etc.

More photos related to rice, cereals, grains and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

禾 | hé

In Mandarin Chinese, 禾 (Pinyin: hé 🔊) is a noun that means “rice plant” or, more generally “grain” or “cereal”. As a radical, 禾 is found in many hanzi related to crops and farming.

According to Wiktionary, 禾 is a pictogram of a plant stalk. I’m sure you’ve noted the similarity with 木 “tree” and 米 “rice”.

More photos related to rice, cereals, grains and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

田 | tián

In Mandarin Chinese, 田 (Pinyin: tián 🔊) is a noun that means “field”, “paddy” or “farmland”. 田 “is one of the 1000 most commonly used words” in the Collins Chinese Dictionary. Some compound words of 田 include

• 水 + 田 = 水田 (shuǐtián): rice paddy
• 油 + 田 = 油田 (yóutián): oil field
• 山 + 田 = 山田 (shāntián): archaic term for low-quality farmland. In Japanese, 山 (yama) + 田 (ta) is a stereotypical family name Yamada (as in My Neighbors the Yamadas)
• 田 + 鼠 = 田鼠 (tiánshǔ): vole
• 田 + 鸡 = 田鸡 (tiánjī): frog; more specifically, the Chinese edible frog (Hoplobatrachus rugulosus), called “chicken of the field” due to the similarity in taste

As a radical, 田 is found in many hanzi. We’ve seen it in 苗 “seedling” (grass emerging from a field), 男 “man” (working the field used to be a man’s job) and 黄 “yellow” (presumably, colour of earth).

More photos related to fields and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

苗 | miáo

In Mandarin Chinese, 苗 (Pinyin: miáo 🔊) is a noun that means “seedling”, “sprout”, “young” (of an animal), “descendant”, “offspring” and so on. Some compound words of 苗 include

• 苗 + 木 = 苗木 (miáomù): young tree, sapling
• 苗 + 子 = 苗子 (miáozi): a talented child, “budding”, “in the making”
• 火 + 苗 = 火苗 (huǒmiáo): tongue of flame

According to Wiktionary, 苗 is an ideogrammic compound of 艹 “grass” and 田 “field”. But what it has to do with 猫, “cat”? The origin of the word 猫 (māo) is purely onomatopoetic: the cat is an animal that meows 🔊. Likewise, the word for this very sound, 喵 (miāo), “meow”, is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 口 “mouth” and phonetic 苗.

More photos related to sprouts, shoots, seedlings and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

草 | cǎo

In Mandarin Chinese, 草 (Pinyin: cǎo 🔊) is a noun that means “grass”, “straw”, “thatch”, “herb”; by extension, any green plant without bark (or, to use Baldrick’s method of defining things, “not a tree”); “draft”, “sketch” (the scribble that looks like grass?). It also has acquired an euphemistic meaning of the similarly-pronounced vulgar word 肏 (cào).

According to Wiktionary, 草 is a

Phono-semantic compound: semantic 艸 (“grass; plant”) + phonetic 早. Originally referred to 皂, and later borrowed for the “grass” sense, replacing 艸.

艹 is a radical form of 艸. We’ve seen it before in such characters as 茶 “tea” and 花 “flower”.

More photos related to grass, herbs, straw and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

猫 | māo

In Mandarin Chinese, 猫 (Pinyin: māo 🔊) is a word for “cat” (Felis catus).

The Cat, as we know, was pushed into the water by the Rat so it missed the banquet with the Jade Emperor. Moreover, the folk story tells that

The cat eventually drowned, and did not make it in the zodiac. It is said that this is the reason cats always hunt Rats.

However, the Cat is the fourth animal in the Vietnamese zodiac, taking place of the Rabbit. One possible explanation is that Vietnamese, who adopted the zodiac from China, confused the pronunciation of the corresponding earthly branch 卯 (mǎo) with that of 猫 (māo).

猫 is a simplified form of the traditional character 貓 which is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 豸 “beast with long vertebral column” and phonetic 苗 (miáo). In apparent contradiction to Baldrick’s definition of dog, “not a cat”, 豸 got simplified precisely to 犬, “dog”, making the whole thing “a dog that says ‘miáo’”. Thus the Cat joined the Pig, 猪, and the Monkey, 猴 — but not the Tiger, 虎 — as another “kind of dog”.

More photos related to cats and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

Adventures of sumo wrestler cat @ My leçons de French.

年 | nián

In Mandarin Chinese, 年 (Pinyin: nián 🔊) is a generic term for a “year” as well as other related things such as “age”, “period of life”, “period of history”, “harvest” and “New Year”. Some compound words of 年 include

• 大 + 年 = 大年 (dànián): another word for “Spring Festival” (Chinese New Year)
• 千 + 年 = 千年 (qiānnián): thousand years; millennium
• 中 + 年 = 中年 (zhōngnián 🔊): middle age; middle-aged
• 新 + 年 = 新年 (xīnnián 🔊): New Year

According to Wiktionary,

In the oracle bone script and early bronze inscriptions, it was originally 秂, an ideogrammic compound and phono-semantic compound: semantic 禾 (“wheat; grain”) + phonetic 人 (“person”) — a person carrying wheat on his back — harvest.

(I am pretty sure it was rice, not wheat.)

In bronze inscriptions after the Western Zhou period, a stroke was often added to 人 to give 千 , which still acted as a phonetic component, and this form was inherited by later scripts. The current form is simplified from 秊.

More photos related to harvest, New Year and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

春 | chūn

In Mandarin Chinese, 春 (Pinyin: chūn 🔊) is a noun that means “spring season” as well as “vitality”, “energy”, “life”, “lust”, “passion”, “sexual desire” — many things that are associated with springtime. Some interesting compound words of 春 include

• 春 + 节 = 春节 (chūnjié): “Spring Festival” (Chinese New Year)
• 小 + 春 = 小春 (xiǎochūn): literally, “little spring” but in fact early autumn, Indian summer
• 春 + 风 = 春风 (chūnfēng): literally, “spring breeze” but also figuratively “favour”, “grace”, “education”, “teaching”, “guidance” and, you may have guessed, “lovemaking”

春 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 日 “sun”, semantic 艸 “grass” and phonetic 屯 (tún). In some historical forms of this character one can clearly see all three components. According to Wiktionary,

The character 春 itself is probably a variant of 屯 as they are equivalent for the meaning “spring” in Old Chinese literature.

More photos related to spring and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

节 | jié

In Mandarin Chinese, 节 (Pinyin: jié 🔊) is a word with a lot of meanings. As a noun, it can mean “joint”, “knot” (also as a unit of speed), “node”, “paragraph”, “segment”, “link”, “moral fibre”, “integrity”, “time period”, “rhythm”, “beat”, “season”, “festival”, “celebration”, “holiday” etc. As a verb, it means “to abridge”, “to limit”, “to control”, “to save” or “to use sparingly”. 节 is also a measure word, used for such assorted objects as batteries, school classes or train carriages. Naturally, there are many compound words using 节, for instance 春节 (chūnjié) “Chinese New Year”, 狂欢节 (kuánghuānjié 🔊) “carnival”, 五月节 (Wǔyuèjié) “Dragon Boat Festival” or 节节 (jiéjié) “step by step”.

节 is a simplified form of the traditional character 節, which is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 竹 (“bamboo”) and phonetic 即 (jí). According to Uncle Hanzi, its original meaning was “a joint of bamboo”. From this, with a bit of imagination, one can surely figure out all the other meanings of this word.

More photos of Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, carnival and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

☯ | tàijítú

In Mandarin Chinese, 太极图 (Pinyin: tàijítú) is a Taoist symbol ☯ representing T’ai chi, 太极 (tàijí), “great pole” or “supreme ultimate”. In Western popular culture it is known as “Yin-Yang symbol” or, less commonly, “Yang-Yin symbol”.

Le chat a trouvé Shanti // The cat has found inner peace

Juan Eduardo Cirlot wrote in his Dictionary of Symbols:

A Chinese symbol of the dual distribution of forces, comprising the active or masculine principle (Yang) and the passive or feminine principle (Yin). It takes the form of a circle bisected by a sigmoid line, and the two parts so formed are invested with a dynamic tendency which would be wanting if the division were by a diameter. The light half represents the Yang force and the dark half denotes Yin; however, each half includes an arc cut out of the middle of the opposing half, to symbolize that every mode must contain within it the germ of its antithesis. Guénon considers that the Yang-Yin is a helicoidal symbol, that is, that it is a section of the universal whirlwind which brings opposites together and engenders perpetual motion, metamorphosis and continuity in situations characterized by contradiction. The entrance to and exit from this movement lie outside the movement itself, in the same way that birth and death stand apart from the life of the individual in so far as it is conscious and self-determined. The vertical axis through the centre of the Yang-Yin constitutes the ‘unvarying mean’ or, in other words, the mystic ‘Centre’ where there is no rotation, no restlessness, no impulse, nor any suffering of any kind. It corresponds to the central zone of the Wheel of Transformations in Hindu symbolism, and the centre or the way out of the labyrinth in Egyptian and western symbolism. It is also expressive of the two counterbalancing tendencies of evolution and involution.

More photos related to Yang, Yin and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

阳 | yáng

In Mandarin Chinese, 阳 (Pinyin: yáng 🔊) is an adjective meaning “open”, “overt”, “protruding”, “positive” or a noun for “the sun”, “light” and, would you believe it, “male genitals”. All these meanings are related to Yang, “a principle in Chinese and related East Asian philosophies associated with bright, hot, masculine, etc. elements of the natural world”. According to Wikipedia,

Yang, by contrast <with Yin>, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, and active; and is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime.

阳 is a simplified form of the traditional character 陽, which is a combination of radicals 阝 (a simplification of 阜, “hill” or “mound”) and 昜 (“sunshine”, which has the same pronunciation as the whole 陽), thus translated as “sunny side of a hill”. The 昜 got simplified to one aspect of Yang, 日 “the sun”.

More photos of sun and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

阴 | yīn

In Mandarin Chinese, 阴 (Pinyin: yīn 🔊) is an adjective meaning “cloudy”, “overcast”, “dark”, “hidden”, “secret”, “insidious”, “negative” etc., or a noun for “the moon”, “shade”, “shadow” or “back”. All these meanings are related to Yin, “a principle in Chinese and related East Asian philosophies associated with dark, cool, female, etc. elements of the natural world”. According to Wikipedia,

Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity, and nighttime.

阴 is also a word for human “private parts”, that is, anus and (both female and male) genitals — maybe because they are supposed to be hidden?

阴 is a simplified form of the traditional character 陰, which is a combination of radicals 阝 (itself a simplification of 阜, “hill” or “mound”) and 侌 (which has the same meaning as the whole 陰), thus translated as “dark side of a hill”. The 侌 got simplified to one aspect of Yin, 月 “the moon”.

More photos of moon and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

辰 | chén

In Mandarin Chinese, 辰 (Pinyin: chén 🔊) is the fifth of twelve earthly branches. It corresponds to the Year of the Dragon (龙) of the Chinese zodiac; the third month; the hour of the Dragon (7 am to 9 am, “the time when Dragons are hovering in the sky to give rain”); and the direction 120° (where 0° is north). Its associated “fixed element” is Earth, 土. Note that the character 龙 refers to any common-or-garden dragon while 辰 refers only to the zodiac dragon.

Uncle Hanzi says that 辰 is a pictogram of “an Egyptian type hoe, or hoe type plow”. According to Wikipedia,

It has been proposed by one academic researcher that the Earthly Branch character may have been associated with scorpions; it may have symbolized the star Antares.

More photos related to dragons, zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

龙 | lóng

In Mandarin Chinese, 龙 (Pinyin: lóng 🔊) means “dragon”. Figuratively, it can mean “emperor”, “king”, “sovereign”, “chief”, “hero” and so on; and, by extension, “dragon-shaped object” and even “long object”. To me, this latter meaning offers a mnemonic for the pronunciation of 龙 (lóng).

The Dragon is one of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and is associated with the earthly branch 辰. According to Wikipedia,

The Chinese dragon has very different connotations to European dragon — in European cultures, the dragon is a firebreathing creature with aggressive connotations, whereas the Chinese dragon is a spiritual and cultural symbol that represents prosperity and good luck, as well as a rain deity that fosters harmony.

龙 is a simplified (beyond any recognition) form of the traditional character 龍,

originally a serpent with prominent whiskered mouth and eyes. Current form developed in large seal script, with serpent’s body on right (tail at upper right, legs on right), whiskered/fanged mouth at lower left, and eyes/crown at upper left. Left side was subsequently simplified and abstracted, with some influence of 立 and ⺼/月

while Uncle Hanzi says that it is “probably originally a cobra. Meaning dragon”.

More photos related to dragons, zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

巳 | sì

In Mandarin Chinese, 巳 (Pinyin: sì 🔊) is the sixth of twelve earthly branches. It corresponds to the Year of the Snake (蛇) of the Chinese zodiac; the fourth month; the hour of the Snake (9 am to 11 am, “the time when Snakes are leaving their caves”); and the direction 150° (where 0° is north). Its associated “fixed element” is Fire, 火. Note that the character 蛇 refers to any (real or otherwise) snake while 巳 refers only to the zodiac animal.

To me, the character 巳 looks more like a snake (cobra?) than 蛇, the actual character for “snake”. However, according to Uncle Hanzi, it is a “pictograph of a swaddled baby”.

More photos related to snakes, zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

蛇 | shé

In Mandarin Chinese, 蛇 (Pinyin: shé 🔊) means “snake”. The Snake is one of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and is associated with the earthly branch 巳.

According to Wiktionary, 蛇 is a phono-semantic compound of “semantic” 虫 (“the character originally represented a type of venomous snake ... 虫 eventually came to represent worms and insects as well”) and “phonetic” 它 (now pronounced tā, so you’d never guess). 它 also originally meant “snake”, so 蛇 is like “snake snake”.

More photos related to snakes, zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

冬 | dōng

In Mandarin Chinese, 冬 (Pinyin: dōng 🔊) is a noun that means “winter”. 冬 is also an alternative form of 咚, an onomatopoeic word that could be translated as “rat-a-tat-tat” (if it is a repeating sound like knocking on a door) or “bang”, “boom”, “thud”, “thump” (if it is a sound of something falling).

As for the origin of 冬, Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters provides the following explanation:

Originally, a depiction of food tied to a cord that winds about a peg. A seal inscription form adds 氷 <he must have meant 仌> ice → winter (season when preserved / stored food is consumed). Compare 蓄.

More photos related to winter, ice and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

虫 | chóng

In Mandarin Chinese, 虫 (Pinyin: chóng) is a word for “insect”, “bug”, “worm”, or, in Old Chinese, an animal in general. A compound of 大 and 虫, 大虫 (dàchóng), means “large insect”, but also has another, “literary or dialectal, euphemistic” meaning: “tiger”. (Good thing they eventually came up with less ambiguous 虎.)

According to Wiktionary,

The character originally represented a type of venomous snake, while the derivative 蟲 represented worms and insects (or insect-like things). 虫 eventually came to represent worms and insects as well, and the character 虺 was created to represent the original meaning.

To me, 虫 on its own looks like a pictogram of a flying (from left to right) insect, and nothing like a snake. It is considered to be a ”simplified” form of the traditional character 蟲, however, it seems more logical to consider 蟲 a “complicated” form of 虫. After all, 蟲 is just a pile of three 虫s. Another meaning of 蟲, “plague of insects”, makes perfect sense then.

虫 is also a radical that is found in many other hanzi. We saw it before as a part of 風, the traditional form of 风 (fēng). This is because “Ancient Chinese thought insects appear with wind”.

More photos related to insects and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

寅 | yín

In Mandarin Chinese, 寅 (Pinyin: yín 🔊) is the third of twelve earthly branches. It corresponds to the Year of the Tiger (虎) of the Chinese zodiac; the first month; the hour of the Tiger (3 am to 5 am, “the time when Tigers hunt their prey more and show their ferocity”); and the direction 60° (where 0° is north). Its associated “fixed element” is Wood, 木. Note that the character 虎 refers to an actual tiger while 寅 refers to the zodiac animal.

In classical Chinese, 寅 also means “respect”. Sure, tigers have to be respected. As for origin of the character, Uncle Hanzi mentions “hands straightening an arrow”.

More photos related to tigers, zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.