公 | gōng

In Mandarin Chinese, 公 (Pinyin: gōng 🔊) is an extremely common word with many meanings. As an adjective, it can mean “public”, “communal”, “general”, “international”, “fair” and, when applied to animals, “male”:

• 公 + 牛 = 公牛 (gōngniú 🔊): bull
• 公 + 羊 = 公羊 (gōngyáng 🔊): ram
• 公 + 鸡 = 公鸡 (gōngjī): cockerel, rooster

Could it be that “male” is a “general” kind of animal, as opposed to a female animal which is special?

As a noun, 公 can mean “official business”, “authorities” or “duke”. It is also used as a SI prefix kilo- as in 公斤 (gōngjīn) “kilogram” and 公里 (gōnglǐ) “kilometre”. 公公 (gōnggong) means “father-in-law” (more precisely, husband’s father).

There are several theories of this character’s origin. According to Wiktionary,

The traditional interpretation as given by Han Feizi is that 公 is a compound of 八 [= 背 (“to deviate; opposite”)] and 厶 [original form of 私 (“individual; private”)], i.e. the opposite of “individual”; public. This theory is supported by Sun Yirang and Qiang Kaiyun, despite the somewhat different shape of the top component from 厶.

This is disputed in modern times by Gao Hongjin, who thinks that the 八 on top stands for 分 (“to divide; to distribute”) and the bottom round component of 口 symbolises the general object. 公 thus represents “equally dividing resources so that they are communal”.

Another theory put forth by Zhu Fangpu is that 公 is a pictogram, being the original form of 瓮 (“a wide-mouthed round-bottomed jar”), and later borrowed for the meaning of “public”.

More photos of sea glass @ Shutterstock.

小 | xiǎo

In Mandarin Chinese, 小 (Pinyin: xiǎo 🔊) means “small”, “short”, “little”, “minor”, “young” and such like. We’ve already seen 小 as a part of another character, 少 .

Wiktionary provides two interpretations of 小:

1. It shows a person (人) with lowered arms, implying the meaning of small. In contrast, 大 (the character for large), symbolizes a person (人) with arms outstretched.
2. It shows an item divided into smaller parts 八 by a knife 亅.

Ponte Ryūrui, quoting Xǔ Shèn, writes that

小 represents small objects (such as shells or precious stones), or, more precisely, one object that was divided (the division is symbolised by “｜”) into eight parts (hence the shape of 八...)

Uncle Hanzi is more laconic:

Pictograph of three dots. Meaning small pieces.

More photos of sea glass @ Shutterstock.

八 | bā

In Mandarin Chinese, 八 (Pinyin: bā 🔊) is a word for “eight”. It is considered a lucky number, because its pronunciation is similar to that of 發 / 发 (fā), which means “to make a fortune”. You may have heard or seen this latter word in the traditional New Year greeting, 恭喜發財 / 恭喜发财 (gōngxǐ fācái), literally “Congratulations, (may you) become wealthy”.

The original meaning of 八 was “to divide”. I don’t think the ancient Chinese knew much about cell division but somehow most historical forms of this character remind me of a pair of chromosomes.

The Chinese hand sign for “eight” is a hand with the thumb and index finger at a right angle and the other fingers closed:

There is another hanzi with the same meaning, 捌, which is mainly used for financial purposes.

More photos related to numbers and sea glass @ Shutterstock.