意 | yì

In Mandarin Chinese, 意 (Pinyin: yì 🔊) is a word with many meanings, one of which, by the way, is “meaning”. It also can mean “thought”, “idea”, “opinion”, “mind”, “heart”, “soul”, “conscience”, “intention”, “wish”, “desire”... Also, 意 is short for 意大利 (Yìdàlì 🔊), “Italy”.

At the base of 意 — or shall I say, at its heart? — is our old friend 心, “heart-mind”. But what’s on top? According to Wiktionary,

Modern form is a compound of 音 and 心 (“heart”). However, the top component is etymologically unrelated to 音.

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

As per 音 (contained) + 心 heart/emotions → keep contained in the heart (compare 念) → (deep) thought; mind; signification.

But I can’t find the meaning “contained” for 音. Instead, it has many other meanings, all ultimately related to sound, and it is pronounced yīn (🔊). So I think I can safely say that 意 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 音 and semantic 心.

Many compounds of 意 include

• 意 + 中 + 人 = 意中人 (yìzhōngrén): the person one has in mind, the object of one’s affections, one’s beloved
• 意 + 思 = 意思 (yìsi 🔊, yìsī): meaning, significance; interest, fun; hint, trace; opinion, view; token of appreciation; friendship, camaraderie
• 好 + 意思 = 好意思 (hǎoyìsi, hǎoyìsī): to feel no shame; to have the nerve; to dare
• 好 + 意 = 好意 (hǎoyì 🔊): good intention; kindness
• 美 + 意 = 美意 (měiyì): good intention; kindness
• 中 + 意 = 中意 (zhòngyì 🔊): to be to one’s liking; to catch the fancy of
• 生 + 意 = 生意: 1. (shēngyi): business, trade; 2. (shēngyì): vitality
• 大 + 意 = 大意 (dàyì 🔊): (n.) general idea, main points; (adj.) careless, negligent
• 天 + 意 = 天意 (tiānyì): will of heaven, God’s will, providence; will of the emperor
• 公 + 意 = 公意 (gōngyì): will of the public
• 心 + 意 = 心意 (xīnyì): feelings; intention, purpose, intent, inclination, disposition; friendly regard, affection
• 一 + 心 + 一 + 意 = 一心一意 (yīxīnyīyì): heart and soul; wholeheartedly
• 三 + 心 + 二 + 意 = 三心二意 (sānxīn'èryì): shilly-shally; half-hearted

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

鱼 | yú

In Mandarin Chinese, 鱼 (Pinyin: yú 🔊) is a noun that means “fish”.

鱼 is a simplified form of the traditional character 魚, where the radical 灬 gets replaced by 一. We’ve already seen this kind of simplification in the characters for horse (馬 → 马), bird (鳥 → 鸟) and crow (烏 → 乌).

According to L.J. Howell’s Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters, 魚 is

A depiction of the hard, dried skeleton of a fish.

Compounds of 鱼 include

• 人 + 鱼 = 人鱼 (rényú): mermaid, merfolk
• 金 + 鱼 = 金鱼 (jīnyú): goldfish
• 鱼 + 狗 = 鱼狗 (yúgǒu): kingfisher
• 鱼 + 子 = 鱼子 (yúzǐ): roe, fish eggs
• 鱼 + 网 = 鱼网 (yúwǎng): fishing net
• 鱼 + 水 = 鱼水 (yúshuǐ): (figurative) intimate relationship; inseparability

In Japanese, 魚 is pronounced uo (🔊).

底見えて 魚見えて秋の 水深し 子規 Soko miete uo miete aki no mizu fukashi The bottom seen clearly, The fish seen clearly, — Deep is the water of autumn. Shiki (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to fish, sea glass and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

鸟 | niǎo

In Mandarin Chinese, 鸟 (Pinyin: niǎo 🔊) is a noun for “bird”. You may remember seeing this character as a part of 鸡, “chicken”.

Wiktionary says that this word was

originally pronounced with a /t-/ initial <...> In many dialects, it changed to a /n-/ initial to avoid homophony with the vulgar word 屌 (diǎo, “penis”), which may ultimately have developed from the sense “bird”. Birds/fowl are characteristically associated with Chinese slangs for genitalia...

鸟 is a simplified form of the traditional character 鳥 which, according to Lawrence J. Howell’s Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters, “is a depiction of a bird with a long, curved and rising tail”. Historical forms of this character show great diversity, depicting birds in a variety of positions and orientations, but most of them look to the left.

Compounds of 鸟 include

• 水 + 鸟 = 水鸟 (shuǐniǎo): waterfowl
• 白 + 鸟 = 白鸟 (báiniǎo): swan
• 小 + 鸟 = 小鸟 (xiǎoniǎo): small bird; chick
• 蜂 “bee” + 鸟 = 蜂鸟 (fēngniǎo): hummingbird
• 啄 “peck” + 木 + 鸟 = 啄木鸟 (zhuómùniǎo): woodpecker

In Japanese, 鳥 is pronounced tori (🔊). Naturally, birds inhabit many a haiku.

鳥一羽 道づれにして 枯野かな 千那 Tori ichiwa michizure ni shite kareno kana A solitary bird For my companion Upon the withered moor. Senna

水鳥ゃ かたちに影の 腹合せ 眞原 Mizutori ya katachi ni kage no haraawase The breast Of the water-fowl Meets its reflection. Mahara

小鳥來る 音うれしさよ 板びさし 蕪村 Kotori kuru oto ureshisa yo itabisashi The sounds of small birds On the pent-roof, — What a pleasure! Buson (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to birds and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

乌 | wū

In Mandarin Chinese, 乌 (Pinyin: wū 🔊 or wù 🔊) is either a noun meaning “crow”, “raven”, or “rook”, or an adjective for colour “black”. It looks like this latter meaning arose as a short for 乌黑, “black as a crow” (or a raven, or a rook, in Chinese it’s all the same).

乌 is a simplified form of the traditional character 烏, which evolved from a pictogram of a bird, just like 马 (remember it?) is a simplified form of 馬. Now to remember the difference between a crow and a horse...

Compounds of 乌 include

• 乌 + 木 = 乌木 (wūmù): ebony
• 乌 + 金 = 乌金 (wūjīn): “black gold”: ink or coal
• 乌 + 龙 + 茶 = 乌龙茶 (wūlóngchá): oolong tea (literally, “black dragon tea”)

Incidentally, the symbols above were created using black leaf tea.

More photos related to crows, tea and colour black @ Shutterstock.

马 | mǎ

In Mandarin Chinese, 马 (Pinyin: mǎ 🔊) means “horse”. The Horse is one of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and is associated with the earthly branch 午. 马 also stands for “knight” (in chess) and “horse” (or “knight”) in xiangqi (Chinese chess). Finally, 马 can be used as an adjective “big”.

马 is a simplified form of the traditional character 馬 which is

derived from the pictogram of a horse with its head turned to look back and showing a flowing mane in the wind. The four short strokes at its base (灬) represent its feet, and the sweeping hook stroke in the lower right represents its tail.

Curiously, or maybe not, 小马 / 小馬 (xiǎomǎ), a compound with our friend 小, “small”, can mean either “pony” or “foal”. My Lovely “you’re a pony no more” Horse springs to mind, as horses do.

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

白 | bái

In Mandarin Chinese, 白 (Pinyin: bái 🔊) means “white”, “clear”, “pure”, “bright” and a number of other meanings which at some point probably were related to colour white: “spoken language”, “free of charge”, “in vain” or “funeral”.

Does it look and sound familiar? This is because we’ve already came across 百 (bǎi), “hundred”. You may also recall that the shape of 百 is a combination of 一 and 白.

While 白 looks like a modification of 日, “sun” or “day”, Uncle Hanzi links 白 with the moon. However, Wiktionary says its original meaning was “acorn”:

The character acquired its current meaning of white from the color of the acorn’s flesh. The original meaning has been lost.

More photos related to acorns, colour white and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

百 | bǎi

In Mandarin Chinese, 百 (Pinyin: bǎi 🔊; not to be confused with bā, 🔊) is a word for “hundred”. It is often used figuratively, in a sense “numerous”, “countless”, “every”, “all”, “entirely”, “at all”, etc. When they actually mean the number 100, “one hundred”, Chinese say exactly that: 一百 (yī bǎi 🔊).

There is a great variety of historical forms of this character. 百 is a phono-semantic compound where pronunciation of seemingly unrelated word 白 (bái) “white” is combined with meaning of 一. (Recall that, apart from “one”, 一 also means “each”, “every”, “whole” and so on). A good trick to remember this character is to write the number 100 with “boxy” zeros, then rotate it 90° clockwise.

Another hanzi with the same meaning, 佰, is mainly used for accounting purposes.

More photos related to numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

一 | yī

In Mandarin Chinese, 一 (Pinyin: yī 🔊) means “one”. Also, a bunch of derived meanings such as “each”, “every”, “single”, “whole” and so on.

This is probably the easiest Chinese character to write (and remember). One theory, mentioned by Eve Kushner in one of her Radical Notes, says that in 一 “the stroke depicts a ‘single extended finger’”. In any case, the Chinese hand sign for “one” is exactly that: a single extended finger. The index finger, to be precise.

Note, however, that there are other hanzi with the same meaning: 壱, more common in Japan, and 壹, more common in China (also pronounced yī). Ponte Ryuurui writes that these complex characters are “used in legal documents, for the purpose of avoiding mistakes with numbers, and also for preventing document falsifications”.

More photos related to numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.