他 | tā

In Mandarin Chinese, 他 (Pinyin: tā 🔊) is a personal pronoun “he” or “him”. It also can mean “other” or “another”.

According to Wiktionary, this character is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 亻, a radical form of 人 “person”, and phonetic 也 (yě 🔊, which, however, sounds nothing like tā). Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that 他 is

a variant form of 佗, and thus the meanings another person → other; separate.

他 did not become gender-specific until 20^th century:

Originally gender-neutral before the 1910s, when modern 她 (tā, “she; her”) was coined; now usually refers to males (also occasionally refers to females).

他 is used in many compounds in the meaning “other”/“another”:

他 + 人 = 他人 (tārén): other people; others 他 + 日 = 他日 (tārì): another day 他 + 国 = 他国 (tāguó): foreign country 他 + 心 = 他心 (tāxīn): ulterior motives

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你 | nǐ

In Mandarin Chinese, 你 (Pinyin: nǐ 🔊) means “you” (singular informal, like German du, Russian ты or Spanish tú) or “your”. This is probably the first Chinese pronoun everybody learns without even realising: the greeting 你好 (nǐ hǎo 🔊), 你 + 好, literally “you good?”, except this is not a question. (Nor, for that matter, is “how do you do”.)

According to Wiktionary, this character is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 亻, a radical form of 人 “person”, and phonetic 尔, which is a simplified form of 爾. Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters gives a different explanation:

尓 (= 爾) (adhere) + 人 person → person with close and ongoing relations with oneself → you. Compare 儂. Note the variant form 儞.

Curiously (for us), in written Chinese there is a difference between feminine and masculine second-person pronouns:

In traditional Chinese, 你 may be used to specifically refer to a male person, while 妳 can be used for a female person. In simplified Chinese, only 你 is standard.

A combination of 你 “you” and 我 “I”, 你我 (nǐwǒ), rather unsurprisingly, means “you and I”.

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我 | wǒ

In Mandarin Chinese, 我 (Pinyin: wǒ 🔊) is a pronoun meaning “I”, “me”, “my”, or “self”, or (in literary or formal use) “we”, “us”, or “our”. You’d think this word, common as it is, should be among the easiest to write. Wrong.

According to Wiktionary, this character is

a pictogram of a rake-like tool or weapon (note the oracle bone script form) <...> It was already borrowed for sound to mean “I” since the oracle bone script. Folk etymology considers it to be an ideograph of a hand (手) holding a weapon (戈) to protect oneself.

Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

The relevant oracle bone form of this character is a variant of 戈 spear/halberd, indicating a weapon/knife with a serrated blade (i.e., a blade the teeth of which are in alignment).

The Uncle Hanzi’s page shows the evolution of the pictogram from “rake” to its current form.

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门 | mén

In Mandarin Chinese, 门 (Pinyin: mén 🔊) is a word of many meanings, all of which are ultimately derived from “gate”:

1. gate; door; entrance; opening
2. valve; switch
3. knack, way of doing something
4. school of thought
5. class, category
6. measure word used for academic subjects, courses and branches of technology

门 is a simplified form of the traditional character 門. Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters describes 門 as a

depiction of a curving, double-doored gate, the doors adhering tightly in concealing what lies behind it.

It won’t surprise you then to know that a half of this character, 戶, means a single door.

I find the traditional character more pleasing aesthetically and easier to remember; the simplified one 门 is easier to write but it makes me think rather of a fridge door or power switch ⏻ than of the “real” gate.

The many compounds of 门 include

• 门 + 口 = 门口 (ménkǒu): entrance
• 门 + 人 = 门人 (ménrén): door guard
• 出 + 门 = 出门 (chūmén): to go out; to leave home for a far place; to get married (of a woman)
• 龙 + 门 = 龙门 (lóngmén): gateway to success; fame; glory
• 山 + 门 = 山门 (shānmén): monastery gate
• 水 + 门 = 水门 (shuǐmén): floodgate, sluice, water valve
• 玉 + 门 = 玉门 (yùmén): “jade gate” (literary, figuratively) palace; (euphemism) vulva

as well as Chinese toponyms such as

• 金 + 门 = 金门 (Jīnmén): Kinmen (Quemoy)
• 下 + 门 = 下门 (Xiàmén): Xiamen (Amoy)
• 天 + 安 + 门 = 天安门 (Tiān'ānmén): Tiananmen, “Gate of Heavenly Peace”.

And not just Chinese: for example, 水门, apart from “floodgate”, is also a literal translation of Watergate. As the back-formed suffix -gate is used in English to form the names of scandals (such as Climategate, Irangate, Nipplegate etc.), so does 门 in Chinese.

In Japanese, 門 is pronounced mon or kado. We already read a haiku by Buson featuring gates; here are some more:

埋火や 夜ふけて門を たたく音 許六 Umorebi ya yo fukete mon wo tataku oto A banked fire; It is deep night; Knocking at the gate. Kyoroku

門口に 來て凍るなり 三井の鐘 一茶 Kadoguchi ni kite kōrunari Mii no kane Reaching the gate, The bell of Mii temple Freezes. Issa (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos of gates, doors and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

鹿 | lù

In Mandarin Chinese, 鹿 (Pinyin: lù 🔊) means “deer”. (You may have recognised it as a part of 塵, the traditional form of 尘.) Can you see a deer in this character? Me neither, but on Uncle Hanzi’s page you can see the evolution of the pictogram which, indeed, used to look like a deer. According to Wiktionary,

Current form is highly abstracted — legs have transformed to 比 — note grouping of front and rear legs, which are bent — head has transformed to middle component (similar to 凸/曲), while antlers on top and extended lip/mouth on left transformed into 广. This transformation occurred during seal characters.

Some compounds of 鹿 include

• 水 + 鹿 = 水鹿 (shuǐlù): sambar (Cervus unicolor)
• 驯 “tame” + 鹿 = 驯鹿 (xùnlù): reindeer
• 驼 “humpback” + 鹿 = 驼鹿 (tuólù): moose; elk
• 鹿 + 骇 “to frighten” = 鹿骇 (lùhài): frightened like a deer
• 指 + 鹿 + 为 + 马 = 指鹿为马 (zhǐlùwéimǎ): to be a false witness (literally: “to point to a deer and call it a horse”)

In Japanese, 鹿 is pronounced shika. Deer are prominently featured in Japanese poetry.

三度啼て 聞えずなりぬ 鹿の声 Sando naite kikoezu narinu shika no koe Three times it cried, And was heard no more, The voice of the deer. Buson

鹿ながら 山影門に 入日哉 Shika nagara yamakage mon ni irihi kana The slanting sun: The shadow of a hill with a deer on it Enters the temple gate. Buson

山寺や 縁の上なる 鹿の声 Yamadera ya en no ue naru shika no koe A mountain temple: The voice of the stag On the verandah. Issa (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos of sea glass @ Shutterstock.

尘 | chén

In Mandarin Chinese, 尘 (Pinyin: chén 🔊) is a noun that means “dust”, “dirt”, “ashes”, “cinders” and so on. Figuratively, it also means “dirty thing”, “war”, “warfare” — well, war is a dirty thing. In Buddhism, 尘 refers to the mundane world, mortal life, etc.

尘 is said to be a simplified form of the traditional character 塵. Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters explains the origin of 塵 as

鹿 (long herd of) deer + 土 earth → dust kicked up by an advancing herd of deer → dirt → trash; waste.

Therefore, the 鹿 part somehow got simplified to 小, which, you may recall, on its own means “small”.

On the other hand, Wiktionary says:

According to the Kangxi dictionary, 尘 is an ancient form of 塵.

In any case, 小 “small” + 土 “earth” → 尘 “dust” makes perfect sense to me, and 尘 is easier to remember, read and write than 塵.

Some compounds of 尘 include

• 灰 + 尘 = 灰尘 (huīchén 🔊): dust
• 风 + 尘 = 风尘 (fēngchén): (literally) windblown dust; (figuratively) hardships of travel; vicissitudes of life; prostitution
• 红 + 尘 = 红尘 (hóngchén): (literally) dust; (figuratively) bustling places, human society; worldly affairs etc.
• 玉 + 尘 = 玉尘 (yùchén): (literary) snow; petal
• 沙 + 尘 = 沙尘 (shāchén): dust and sand; yellow dust (in the air)
• 沙尘 + 暴 = 沙尘暴 (shāchénbào): dust storm, sandstorm; calima

More photos of dust, earth, ashes, snow, petals and sea glass @ Shutterstock.