梅 | méi

In Mandarin Chinese, 梅 (Pinyin: méi 🔊) means “Chinese plum”. 梅 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 每 (měi 🔊) and semantic 木 (“tree”).

In Japanese, a simplified form of this character is used, 梅 (as 毎 is a simplified version of 每). The famous haiku by Buson goes:

梅遠近 南すべく 北すべく Ume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku Plum-blossoms here and there, It is good to go north, Good to go south. (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

The compounds of 梅 include

• 梅 + 花 = 梅花 (méihuā): plum blossom
• 梅 + 子 = 梅子 (méizi): Asian plum (the fruit of Prunus mume)
• 梅 + 雨 = 梅雨 (méiyǔ): the East Asian rainy season (as plums ripen during the rainy season)
• 入 + 梅 = 入梅 (rùméi): beginning of the rainy season
• 松 + 竹 + 梅 = 松竹梅 (sōngzhúméi): the Three Friends of Winter, i.e. pine, bamboo and plum, the plants which do not wither in winter. In Japanese, 松竹梅 (shōchikubai) together are the three auspicious symbols of the Japanese New Year and also a three-rank system (where 松 is top, 竹 is middle and 梅 is bottom).

More photos related to plums, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.