感 | gǎn

In Mandarin Chinese, 感 (Pinyin: gǎn 🔊) is a word of many meanings. As a verb, it can stand for “to feel”, “to perceive”; “to affect”, “to move”, “to touch”; “be affected by”, “be sensitive to”; “be grateful”, “to thank”; “to long for”, “to miss”, “to be sentimental”, “to sigh with emotion”. As a noun, it can mean “emotion”, “feeling”, “sensation”, “sense” or “thought”.

According to Wiktionary, 感 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 咸 and semantic 心, “heart-mind”. Remembering that 心 includes both heart and mind, it’s not difficult to see why Chinese can use the same word 感 for both “emotion” and “thought”.

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

咸 (shut) + 心 heart/emotions → emotion/feeling that shuts off sensation (= moves/affects one to the point of muteness or immobility).

However, 咸 really means “all”, “completely”, “together” or “united”. Could the whole combination be “to feel with all heart”?

感 is a simplified form of a traditional character 感. There is a subtle difference between these two. In the traditional 感, the “heart” 心 is drawn inside of the 咸 component, directly below the 口. In the simplified 感, the 心 is placed below the whole 咸 bit.

感 are often combined with other hanzi containing 心 (or its radical form, 忄), for example:

• 感 + 想 = 感想 (gǎnxiǎng 🔊): impressions, reflections, thoughts; to miss, to reminisce, to think of, to yearn for
• 感 + 念 = 感念 (gǎnniàn): to recall fondly; to recall sadly
• 快 + 感 = 快感 (kuàigǎn): delight, joy, pleasant feeling, pleasure, thrill

Some more compounds of 感:

• 感 + 激 = 感激 (gǎnjī 🔊): to be grateful
• 感 + 人 = 感人 (gǎnrén): heart-warming, moving, touching
• 白 + 感 = 百感 (bǎigǎn): all kinds of feelings and emotions
• 好 + 感 = 好感 (hǎogǎn): good feeling; goodwill; favour
• 口 + 感 = 口感 (kǒugǎn): mouthfeel, taste
• 手 + 感 = 手感 (shǒugǎn): feel, touch
• 美 + 感 = 美感 (měigǎn): sense of beauty
• 音 + 感 = 音感 (yīngǎn): sense of rhythm, pitch, sound, tone quality, etc.

Now for a bit of poetry. Chunwang (春望) is recognised as one of the “best and best-known works” by the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu (杜甫, 712—770). The poem is notoriously difficult to translate. With 春 (chūn) meaning “spring” and 望 (wàng) “to observe”, “to watch”, “to hope”, the title of the poem has been variously rendered as “Spring View”, “Spring Scene”, “Spring Gaze”, “Spring Outlook”, “Spring Prospect”, “Spring Hope” and so on. I like the translation by Vikram Seth, although the name he gave it, Spring Scene in Time of War, conveys more information than needed.

春望 (simplified) 国破山河在 城春草木深 感时花溅泪 恨别鸟惊心 烽火连三月 家书抵万金 白头搔更短 浑欲不胜簪	春望 (traditional) 國破山河在 城春草木深 感時花濺淚 恨別鳥驚心 烽火連三月 家書抵萬金 白頭搔更短 渾欲不勝簪
杜甫

Spring Scene in Time of War The state lies ruined; hills and streams survive. Spring in the city; grass and leaves now thrive. Moved by the times, the flowers shed their dew. The birds seem startled; they hate parting too. The steady beacon fires are three months old. A word from home is worth a ton of gold. I scratch my white hair which is grown so thin It soon won’t let me stick my hat pin in. Du Fu (Translated by Vikram Seth)

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

乐 | yuè | lè

In Mandarin Chinese, 乐 is a character for two different words:

1. 乐 (Pinyin: yuè 🔊): n. music, tune, melody, song
2. 乐 (Pinyin: lè 🔊): adj. joyful, happy, glad, enjoyable, fun; n. happiness, joy, pleasure; v. to laugh, to smile, to enjoy, to love

乐 is a simplified form of the traditional character 樂. According to Wiktionary, 樂 is an

Ideogrammic compound: 糸 (“string”) + 木 (“wood”) — strings on a piece of wood, i.e. a wooden musical instrument. The oracle bone form shows two strings connected to the wood. In the bronze inscriptions, a 白 component was added in between the two strings, which may either represent the thumb (fiddling) or a phonetic part.

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

A depiction of an oak tree with acorns (ground into powder via a lengthy grinding process). Music and enjoyment are onomatopoeic, borrowed meanings, the pronunciation of the character simulating the din of a crowd → play (an instrument); amuse oneself; pleasant; fun; happy; delightful; comfort; easy.

Compounds of 乐 (1) include

• 乐 + 队 “team” = 乐队 (yuèduì): music band
• 国 + 乐 = 国乐 (guóyuè): national music
• 俗 “common” + 乐 = 俗乐 (súyuè): folk music
• 西 + 乐 = 西乐 (xīyuè): Western music

And those of 乐 (2):

• 乐 + 土 = 乐土 (lètǔ): land of happiness; paradise
• 乐 + 子 = 乐子 (lèzi): a little fun; a good time
• 快 + 乐 = 快乐 (kuàilè 🔊): happy; joyful; cheerful

One of the meaning of 快 is “happy”, so 快乐 is like “happy happy”. In its turn, 快乐 is a part of many “happy” wishes such as

• 生 + 日 + 快乐 = 生日快乐 (shēngrì kuàilè 🔊): Happy Birthday!
• 新 + 年 + 快乐 = 新年快乐 (xīnnián kuàilè): Happy New Year!
• 春 + 节 + 快乐 = 春节快乐 (chūnjié kuàilè): Happy Spring Festival, Happy Chinese New Year

In Japanese, a simplified (shinjitai) form of 樂 is used, viz. 楽. Similar to Chinese, 楽 corresponds to two different words:

1. がく (gaku): n. music
2. らく (raku): adj. comfortable, easy, simple; n. comfort, ease, enjoyment, simplicity

楽書の 壁をあはれむ 今朝の雪 蕪村 Rakugaki no kabe wo awaremu kesa no yuki The scribbling on the wall, — It looks pitiful, This morn of snow. Buson (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

Here, 楽書, literally “writing for fun”, is an alternative way to spell 落書き / らくがき (rakugaki 🔊), “doodle”, “graffiti”, “scrawl”, “scribble”, etc.

More photos related to music, happiness, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

季 | jì

In Mandarin Chinese, 季 (Pinyin: jì 🔊) is a noun that means “quarter of a year” or “season”. 四季 (sìjì), naturally, refers to four seasons, i.e. 春 (spring), 夏 (summer), 秋 (autumn) and 冬 (winter). Some other compound words of 季 include

• 季 + 风 = 季风 (jìfēng 🔊): monsoon
• 雨 + 季 = 雨季 (yǔjì): rainy season
• 花 + 季 = 花季 (huājì): the flower of one’s youth
• 月 + 季 = 月季 (yuèjì): China rose (Rosa chinensis)

According to Wiktionary, 季 is an ideogrammic compound of 禾 “grain” and 子 “a child”, “a seed” etc.

More photos related to rice, cereals, grains and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

春 | chūn

In Mandarin Chinese, 春 (Pinyin: chūn 🔊) is a noun that means “spring season” as well as “vitality”, “energy”, “life”, “lust”, “passion”, “sexual desire” — many things that are associated with springtime. Some interesting compound words of 春 include

• 春 + 节 = 春节 (chūnjié): “Spring Festival” (Chinese New Year)
• 小 + 春 = 小春 (xiǎochūn): literally, “little spring” but in fact early autumn, Indian summer
• 春 + 风 = 春风 (chūnfēng): literally, “spring breeze” but also figuratively “favour”, “grace”, “education”, “teaching”, “guidance” and, you may have guessed, “lovemaking”

春 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 日 “sun”, semantic 艸 “grass” and phonetic 屯 (tún). In some historical forms of this character one can clearly see all three components. According to Wiktionary,

The character 春 itself is probably a variant of 屯 as they are equivalent for the meaning “spring” in Old Chinese literature.

More photos related to spring and sea glass @ Shutterstock.