手 | shǒu

In Mandarin Chinese, 手 (Pinyin: shǒu 🔊) means “hand”. It also has a number of derived meanings such as “handy”, “portable”, “handwritten”, or used as a suffix to create names of specialists or experts in something.

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

A depiction of a hand showing the five fingers in a curved, gripping position. Extended meanings include arm; paw; foreleg; a handle; helper; a means; technique; (in board games) a move; a type; a direction; and handwriting.

Ponte Ryūrui notes:

Although the modern form of the character 手 may be somewhat misleading (6 fingers), the “hand” radical 扌 still resembles the ancient pictographs. <...> The upper stroke in standard script is the result of aesthetical modification made to the first stroke in the cursive hand which imitates the “middle finger”.

Compounds of 手 include

手 + 工 = 手工 (shǒugōng 🔊): handwork; manually 水 + 手 = 水手 (shuǐshǒu 🔊): saylor 一 + 手 = 一手 (yīshǒu): single-handedly; proficiency, skill 好 + 手 = 好手 (hǎoshǒu): expert, professional 生 + 手 = 生手 (shēngshǒu): novice, new to a job 国 + 手 = 国手 (guóshǒu): national champion, grand master 出 + 手 = 出手 (chūshǒu): to sell (goods); to spend (money) 入 + 手 = 入手 (rùshǒu): to start with, to begin with; to buy, to obtain

In Japanese, 手 can be pronounced as te 🔊, as in 空手 karate 🔊, or shu, as in 選手 senshu 🔊 “player”.

手に戻る 鷹の眼に 入る日哉 大魯 Te ni modoru taka no manako ni irihi kana The sun, In the eye of the falcon That returned to my hand. Tairo

Japanese has different logic (from that of Chinese), and in some compounds of 手 you may hear neither te nor shu. For instance, 上手 “skillful” or “good at” is pronounced jōzu but 下手 “unskilled” or “bad at” is pronounced heta:

世の中は なく虫さへも 上手下手 一茶 Yo no naka wa naku mushi sae mo jōzu heta Even among insects, in this world, Some are good at singing, Some bad. Issa (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to hands, beads, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

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.

南 | nán

In Mandarin Chinese, 南 (Pinyin: nán 🔊) means “south” or “southern”. The compound words containing 南 include

• 南 + 北 = 南北 (nánběi): distance from north to south; latitude span
• 南 + 山 = 南山 (Nánshān): Nanshan, a common placename
• 江 + 南 = 江南 (Jiāngnán): literally, “south of the river”; in particular,
  1. Jiangnan (Keang-nan), a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River
  2. Gangnam, a district of Seoul, immortalised in the hit single Gangnam Style
• 天 + 南 + 星 = 天南星 (tiānnánxīng): rhizome of the Arisaema (an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine.)

According to Wiktionary,

This character has been explained as a pictogram of a hanging percussion instrument, originally identical to the left side of 殼. Under this hypothesis its borrowing for the word “south” is difficult to explain.

Sagart (1988) instead proposes that it is a pictogram of the front of a house. Archaeological evidence confirms that in antiquity, at least in some regions, houses were built to face south.

And we’ve also seen that “north” referred to the back (of the house or otherwise). Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

The relevant oracle bone form of this character is a depiction of a hut or small storehouse. However, a seal inscription form is 屮 grass shoot + an element combining 冂 boundary/enclosure and an inverted 入 pierced by two horizontal lines, suggesting sprouts placed inside a hothouse for cultivation → south (← direction associated with warmth, which hothouses were positioned to face).

More photos related to south and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

入 | rù

In Mandarin Chinese, 入 (Pinyin: rù 🔊) is a verb meaning “to enter”, “to go into”, “to arrive” and so on. Careful: in some dialects, it also means “to have sexual intercourse”.

According to Wiktionary, this hanzi represents “an arrowhead indicating ‘to enter’”, while Uncle Hanzi explains it as “an open tent door”. The latter explanation is easier to remember and clearly more inviting.

Combining 入 with 口, we get 入口 (rùkǒu 🔊), a useful word that means “entrance”, “way in”. I find both characters quite erotic.

More photos of entrance and sea glass @ Shutterstock.