明 | míng

In Mandarin Chinese, 明 (Pinyin: míng 🔊) is a word of many meanings. As an adjective, it stands for “bright”, “brilliant”, “light”, “clear”, “transparent”, “apparent”, “open”, “acute”, “sharp”, “keen”, “intelligent”, “perceptive” and, less obviously, “next” or “following”. As a noun, it can mean “vision”, “sight” or “light”, as well as “tomorrow”. As a verb, it can mean “to understand”, “to know”, “to make known” or “to show”. As you can clearly see, these many senses are related and linked to the concept of light. Also, 明 may refer to the Ming dynasty, 明朝 (1368—1644), also referred to as “Great Ming”, 大明 (Dàmíng).

Does the character 明 look familiar to you? Of course it does: it’s a combination of our old friends 日 “sun” and 月 “moon”. According to Wiktionary, 明 could be interpreted as “the sun just rising and the moon not yet set — dawn” or, alternatively, as “two bright celestial bodies — bright”. Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

Originally, 月 moon + 向 (ventilation hole) → bright moonlight streaming through an open window, and manifesting the hidden → brightness; light. Extended meanings from the idea of the light of dawn (signaling the end of one day and the start of the next) include spend/pass (the night); be visible; the next/following (day/week/year); begin; end; and dawn. Disclose and confide are extended senses of “open” (open up to), as are clarity; evident and obvious. Be conversant with is via the idea of illumination, here with respect to a particular subject matter.

Elsewhere, Howell consistently refers to 明 as “manifest the hidden”.

Compounds of 明 include

• 明 + 明 = 明明 (míngmíng 🔊): obviously, plainly, clearly
• 明 + 白 = 明白 (míngbai, míngbái): clear, obvious, evident; open, explicit, frank; sensible, reasonable
• 明 + 人 = 明人 (míngrén): honest and upright person
• 明 + 天 = 明天 (míngtiān 🔊): tomorrow; near future
• 天 + 明 = 天明 (tiānmíng): to break (of dawn)
• 明 + 星 = 明星 (míngxīng 🔊): celebrity, star
• 明 + 日 = 明日 (míngrì): tomorrow; (literary, figurative) future
• 明 + 月 = 明月 (míngyuè): bright moon; next month
• 月 + 明 = 月明 (yuèmíng): moonlight

It’s haiku time!

木をつみて 夜の明やすき 小窓かな 子規 ki o tsumite yo no akeyasuki komado kana the tree cut, dawn breaks early at my little window Shiki (Translated by Janine Beichman)

窓明て 蝶を見送る 野原哉 一茶 mado akete chō wo mi-okuru no hara kana opening the window I see the butterfly off... into the field Issa (Translated by David G. Lanoue)

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新 | xīn

In Mandarin Chinese, 新 (Pinyin: xīn 🔊) is an adjective that means “new”, “fresh”, “recent”, etc., or a corresponding adverb. It was also the name of short-lived Xin dynasty, 新朝 (Xīncháo).

According to Wiktionary, 新 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 亲 “hazelnut tree” and semantic 斤 “axe”:

to cut down a tree with an axe (hence starting something new).

Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters gives a different explanation:

The left-hand element is an abbreviated form of one combining 辛 needle/cutting tool and 木 tree/wood → thornbush (the sharp, needle-like thorns in close proximity). 新 adds 斤 ax → create firewood by chopping a thornbush/tree with a sharp ax. New is an extended meaning (← freshly hewn tree/wood) → recently/lately.

Many compound words of 新 include

• 新 + 月 = 新月 (xīnyuè): new moon
• 新 + 年 = 新年 (xīnnián 🔊): New Year
• 新 + 生 = 新生 (xīnshēng): newborn; recent; to be born again; to be reborn
• 新 + 人 = 新人 (xīnrén): newly married (couple, wife, husband); new lover; new personality; new talent; newcomer; new person; someone who is making a fresh start; Homo sapiens sapiens
• 新 + 娘 = 新娘 (xīnniáng 🔊): bride
• 新 + 郎 = 新郎 (xīnláng 🔊): bridegroom
• 新 + 星 = 新星 (xīnxīng): (astronomy) nova; (figuratively) rising star
• 超 + 新星 = 超新星 (chāoxīnxīng): (astronomy) supernova
• 新 + 戊烷 “pentane” = 新戊烷 (xīnwùwán): (chemistry) neopentane
• 新 + 田 = 新田 (xīntián): new field; new farmland
• 新 + 茶 = 新茶 (xīnchá): new tea of the year

More photos related to new stuff, 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.

行 | xíng | háng

In Mandarin Chinese, 行 is an interesting word with a number of pronunciations and meanings. As a verb (Pinyin: xíng 🔊), it could mean “to walk”, “to go”, “to move”, “to carry out”, “to execute”, “to perform”, “to be good”, “to work” etc. Some compound words of 行 (xíng) include

• 行 + 云 = 行云 (xíngyún): a drifting cloud
• 行 + 星 = 行星 (xíngxīng): “moving star”, i.e. planet
• 五 + 行 = 五行 (Wǔ Xíng): although widely known as “the Five Elements”, it is better translated as “the Five Movements”; historically, the five planets
• 出 + 行 = 出行 (chūxíng): to set out on a long journey
• 风 + 行 = 风行 (fēngxíng): to spread or proceed quickly; to be in fashion

As a noun (háng), it could mean “profession”, “trade”, “business”, “place”, “line” (of objects) or “row”. Yet as another noun (pronounced either xíng 🔊 or xìng 🔊) it also could mean “behaviour” or “conduct”.

行 is derived from a pictogram of a street intersection. According to Wiktionary,

Originally symmetric, it has been simplified asymmetrically; the left half 彳 is widely used as a radical, while the right half 亍 finds occasional use, and the character can be broken up as 彳 + 亍, though originally it was not a compound.

But how “crossroads” came to represent all those disparate concepts? Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters provides the following connection:

A depiction of straight and crossing roads extending into the distance → go; movement; procession; road → line (of people) → conduct; do; perform (← carry out an action).

tournez à droite, tournez à gauche, tout droit, carrefour, La maison du Matcha, waka waka //
turn right, turn left, straight ahead, crossroads, The House of Matcha, waka waka

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More adventures of sumo wrestler cat @ My leçons de French.

〇 | líng

In Mandarin Chinese, 〇 (Pinyin: líng 🔊) is a word for number zero.

In AD 690, Wu Zetian (624—705), the only Empress Regnant in the history of China, adopted a number of new characters, one of which was 〇. Originally, it was meant to replace the unwieldy character 星 “star”. After the Empress’s death, the new characters fell into disuse. In 1247, Qin Jiushao (ca. 1202—1261) found a new job for 〇. It was introduced as the symbol for zero in his work 數書九章 (Shùshū Jiǔzhāng, “Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections”). Another hanzi with the same meaning, 零, is mainly used for financial purposes.

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星 | xīng

In Mandarin Chinese, 星 (Pinyin: xīng 🔊) means “star”, broadly speaking: it could be any heavenly body, celebrity, or a star shape. “Star” in a purely astronomical sense is 星星 (xīngxing) — not to be confused with 行星 (xíngxīng), “planet”.

You’d think that the Chinese could have chosen something like ★ to represent a star, but no. The original form of 星 was 曐, which is made of 晶 (jīng) “sparkling” on top of now-familiar 生 (shēng) “to give birth”, “to grow”, etc. In its turn, 晶 consists of three radicals 日 (rì), “sun”. In 星, only one sun is left, but you get the picture. Many historical forms of this character look surprisingly similar to the Western astrological or astronomical symbols.

According to Wǔ Xíng, the five elements correspond to the five visible planets (and vice versa) as follows:

• 水 + 星 = 水星 (Shuǐxīng) “water star” = Mercury
• 金 + 星 = 金星 (Jīnxīng) “metal star” = Venus
• 火 + 星 = 火星 (Huǒxīng) “fire star” = Mars
• 木 + 星 = 木星 (Mùxīng) “wood star” = Jupiter
• 土 + 星 = 土星 (Tǔxīng) “earth star” = Saturn

More photos of stars and sea glass @ Shutterstock.