石 | shí

In Mandarin Chinese, 石 (Pinyin: shí 🔊) means “stone” or “rock”.

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

A depiction of a rock or stone beneath a cliff, suggesting a substantial pile of rocks/stones. Sterile/barren is by association (← rocky, barren soil), as is rigid (← rigid objects). Unit of volume is a borrowed meaning.

According to Wiktionary, this hanzi is a pictogram of

a stone beneath a cliff (厂). The cliff was subsequently distorted into 丆. Alternatively, a cave set into the side of a cliff or mountain.

This latter hypothesis can explain why 口 (“mouth” etc.) is a part of 石.

Some compounds of 石 include

• 火 + 石 = 火石 (huǒshí): flint
• 玉 + 石 = 玉石 (yùshí): jade stone; (figuratively) good and bad
• 白 + 云 + 石 = 白云石 (báiyúnshí): dolomite
• 石 + 子 = 石子 (shízǐ): pebble
• 石 + 工 = 石工 (shígōng): stonemason, mason
• 石 + 田 = 石田 (shítián): (literary) uncultivable land; (literary, figuratively) useless thing
• 石 + 油 = 石油 (shíyóu 🔊) ): petroleum

More photos related to rocks and stones @ Shutterstock.

熊 | xióng

In Mandarin Chinese, 熊 (Pinyin: xióng 🔊) means “bear” (a carnivoran mammal). Here is a possible mnemonic for those whose bear experience is limited to teddy bears: the pronunciation is similar to German schön 🔊 “beautiful” or non-standard (but widely understood) Russian щён “puppy”.

According to Wiktionary,

This character originally represented an onomatopoetic word [熊熊 {xióngxióng, “(of flame) raging”}]. Later its phonetic compound 能, the character for the Old Chinese word “bear”, was borrowed for another word. This character thus began to represent the word “bear” instead.

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

As per 能 (bear) + 火 fire → bear (← ancient belief associating bears with the spirit of fire).

(火 has got reduced to the four short strokes 灬 on the bottom of 熊.)

True, the bear is a complex character, maybe because you are not supposed to mention him too often (just as you are not supposed to abuse words like “love”)? At least 熊 does not contain any kind of “dog” in it (but see below).

熊 is a “simplified” form of a traditional character 熊. I put “simplified” in quotes because it does not look like a simplification at all. Both hanzi have 14 strokes and you really need to look hard to spot the difference, which boils down to a couple of strokes going askew.

Now there are bears and there are bears:

• 白 + 熊 = 白熊 (báixióng): polar bear
• 人 + 熊 = 人熊 (rénxióng): brown bear
• 马 + 熊 = 马熊 (mǎxióng): another word for brown bear (literally “horse-bear”)
• 狗 + 熊 = 狗熊 (gǒuxióng): Asian black bear (literally “dog-bear”)
• 浣 + 熊 = 浣熊 (huànxióng 🔊): raccoon (literally “wash-bear”)
• 熊 + 猫 = 熊猫 (xióngmāo 🔊): panda (literally “bear cat”)

Well, phylogenetically, raccoons are not bears (and red pandas are not foxes), but here you are.

More photos related to bears, beads and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

狐 | hú

In Mandarin Chinese, 狐 (Pinyin: hú 🔊) means “fox”. According to Wiktionary, 狐 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 犭, which is a radical form of 犬 (“dog”), and phonetic 瓜 (guā).

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

As per 瓜 (solitary) + 犬 dog/beast → fox (that, atypically for Canidae, goes about in small family units rather than in packs).

However, 瓜 means “melon” or “gourd” rather than “solitary”. I prefer to think of the whole right part of this character as of the fox’s long bushy tail — which is the first thing distinguishing a fox from other Canids that comes to my mind. Well, not just to my mind — cf. Valencian word rabosa or Portuguese raposa, both from rabo “tail”.

Since there are way too many Mandarin homonyms of hú, Chinese use 狐 in combination with other words, for example:

• 狐 + 狸 = 狐狸 (húli 🔊): a fox; (figuratively) sly person
• 赤 + 狐 = 赤狐 (chìhú): red fox (Vulpes vulpes)
• 白 + 狐 = 白狐 (báihú): arctic fox
• 沙 + 狐 = 沙狐 (shāhú): corsac fox (Vulpes corsac)
• 火 + 狐 = 火狐 (huǒhú): red fox; red panda; Mozilla Firefox

狐狸精 (húlijīng), “fox spirit” or 九尾狐 (jiǔwěihú), “nine-tailed fox” refer to mythological creatures “who can be either good or bad spirits”:

Typically fox spirits were seen as dangerous, but some of the stories in the Qing dynasty book Liaozhai Zhiyi by Pu Songling are love stories between a fox appearing as a beautiful girl and a young human male. In the fantasy novel The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt, a huli jing teaches a young girl magic, enabling her to conjure armies with her spells.

(Let’s not use 狐狸精 in its modern derogatory and misogynist sense, OK?)

狐 (kitsune 🔊) also play a prominent role in Japanese folklore...

Stories depict legendary foxes as intelligent beings and as possessing paranormal abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. According to Yōkai folklore, all foxes have the ability to shapeshift into human form. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others — as foxes in folklore often do — other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.

...as well as in poetry:

水仙に 狐遊ぶや 宵月夜 蕪村 Suisen ni kitsune asobu ya yoizukiyo Foxes playing Among the narcissus flowers In the early evening moonlight. Buson

飯ぬすむ 狐追ひ打つ 麦の秋 蕪村 Meshi nusumu kitsune oi utsu mugi no aki Driving away with blows, A fox stealing the rice; The autumn of barley. Buson (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to foxes, beads and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

黑 | hēi

In Mandarin Chinese, 黑 (Pinyin: hēi 🔊 or hè) means “black”, “dark”, and, by extension, “night”, “secret”, “illegal”, “evil” and so on. It also means “to hack” (in computing), from 黑客 (hēikè), a phonetic rendering of English hacker.

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

The relevant bronzeware inscription form is 火 fire + an element combining a chimney along with specks representing soot → black/dark (soot).

However, Wiktionary calls the above interpretation “erroneous” and says that 黑 is a pictogram of a person (人) with a tattooed face,

depicting penal tattooing (墨), one of the five punishments of ancient China.

No, I don’t like this explanation at all. (Mind you, that was the least harsh punishment!)

More photos related to sesame, tattoos and colour black @ Shutterstock.

秋 | qiū

In Mandarin Chinese, 秋 (Pinyin: qiū 🔊) is a noun that means “autumn”, “harvest time” and, by extension, “year”, “period”, “time”. For example, 千秋 qiānqiū means “a thousand years” (and, figuratively, “a long time”). 秋 is found in many interesting compound words and expressions including

• 春 + 秋 = 春秋 (chūnqiū): literally, “spring and autumn” but figuratively a year, year’s time, person’s age, time in general...
• 中 + 秋 + 节 = 中秋节 (zhōngqiūjié): Mid-Autumn Festival
• 一 + 日 + 三 + 秋 = 一日三秋 (yīrìsānqiū): “a single day apart seems like three years”
• 春 + 花 + 秋 + 月 = 春花秋月 (chūnhuāqiūyuè), from the last poem by Li Yu: “the flowers of spring and the autumn moons”; a metaphor for a wonderful time spent in a beautiful location

秋 is an ideogrammic compound of 禾 “grain” and 火 “fire”. According to engYes,

In autumn, the Ancient Chinese would burn the fields to kill the locust eggs, in order to prevent them from eating the crops the following year.

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

The relevant oracle bone form of this character is 禾 grain/rice + 束 bundle → bundle and compact/shrink harvested crops in autumn/fall. The character was later reinterpreted, as shown by a seal inscription form that is 禾 plus an element combining 火 fire and 龜 turtle → dry and shrink the size of harvested crops (as turtle meat is dried over a fire; compare 焦). The present form repositions 禾 and 火 while eliminating 龜. Note also the variant form 龝, which combines 禾 and 龜.

More photos related to autumn and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

苗 | miáo

In Mandarin Chinese, 苗 (Pinyin: miáo 🔊) is a noun that means “seedling”, “sprout”, “young” (of an animal), “descendant”, “offspring” and so on. Some compound words of 苗 include

• 苗 + 木 = 苗木 (miáomù): young tree, sapling
• 苗 + 子 = 苗子 (miáozi): a talented child, “budding”, “in the making”
• 火 + 苗 = 火苗 (huǒmiáo): tongue of flame

According to Wiktionary, 苗 is an ideogrammic compound of 艹 “grass” and 田 “field”. But what it has to do with 猫, “cat”? The origin of the word 猫 (māo) is purely onomatopoetic: the cat is an animal that meows 🔊. Likewise, the word for this very sound, 喵 (miāo), “meow”, is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 口 “mouth” and phonetic 苗.

More photos related to sprouts, shoots, seedlings and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

巳 | sì

In Mandarin Chinese, 巳 (Pinyin: sì 🔊) is the sixth of twelve earthly branches. It corresponds to the Year of the Snake (蛇) of the Chinese zodiac; the fourth month; the hour of the Snake (9 am to 11 am, “the time when Snakes are leaving their caves”); and the direction 150° (where 0° is north). Its associated “fixed element” is Fire, 火. Note that the character 蛇 refers to any (real or otherwise) snake while 巳 refers only to the zodiac animal.

To me, the character 巳 looks more like a snake (cobra?) than 蛇, the actual character for “snake”. However, according to Uncle Hanzi, it is a “pictograph of a swaddled baby”.

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

蛇 | shé

In Mandarin Chinese, 蛇 (Pinyin: shé 🔊) means “snake”. The Snake is one of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and is associated with the earthly branch 巳.

According to Wiktionary, 蛇 is a phono-semantic compound of “semantic” 虫 (“the character originally represented a type of venomous snake ... 虫 eventually came to represent worms and insects as well”) and “phonetic” 它 (now pronounced tā, so you’d never guess). 它 also originally meant “snake”, so 蛇 is like “snake snake”.

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

午 | wǔ

In Mandarin Chinese, 午 (Pinyin: wǔ 🔊) is the seventh of twelve earthly branches. It corresponds to the Year of the Horse (马) of the Chinese zodiac; the fifth month; the hour of the Horse (11 am to 1 pm, “the time when the sun is high overhead and while other animals are lying down for a rest, Horses are still standing”, or, sometimes, precisely noon); and the direction 180° (i.e. south). Its associated “fixed element” is Fire, 火. Note that the character 马 refers to any horse while 午 refers to the “zodiac horse”.

The shape of 午 is almost exactly the same as 牛 but these two characters are unrelated. According to Uncle Hanzi, 午 is a “pictograph of a large double ended pestle for dehusking rice”.

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

花 | huā

In Mandarin Chinese, the literal meaning of 花 (Pinyin: huā 🔊) is “flower”. This word has many figurative meanings, such as “pattern” (floral or otherwise), “pinnacle”, “fireworks”, “a beauty” or “a lady of the night”. 花 forms many compounds, such as 茶花 (cháhuā) “camellia”, 火花 (huǒhuā) “spark” and 水花 (shuǐhuā) “spray”.

The top part of this character, 艹, means “grass”. We’ve seen this radical before as a part of 茶 (chá), “tea”. The bottom part, 化 (huà), in its turn, consists of two 人, i.e. “people”: one upright (亻) and another upside down, together symbolising “change” or “reversal”. According to Ponte Ryūrui,

The bottom part of 花 (化, か, i.e. “action of making something”, “change”) acts purely phonetically, although certain etymology theories suggest to take 化 as “a change” of the state of a plant (blossoming).

More photos related to flowers, fireworks, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

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.

生 | shēng

In Mandarin Chinese, 生 (Pinyin: shēng 🔊) is a word with many meanings. It could be a verb meaning “to live”, “to grow”, “to give birth” or “to light”, as in 生火 (shēnghuǒ, “to light a fire”); a noun meaning “life”, “living thing” or “student”; an adjective “fresh”, “innate”, “live”, “natural”, “raw”, “unfamiliar”, “uncultivated”, “unripe”; or an adverb “very”. Combining 出 “to go out” with 生, we get 出生 (chūshēng 🔊), “to be born” or “birth”. A combination of 生 and 日 “day” is a word for birthday: 生日 (shēngrì 🔊).

生 may look like 王 (wáng) with an extra stroke, but the origin of this character is very different: 屮 (“bud”) + 土 “earth” = “a sprout coming out of the ground”, i.e. birth, growth etc.

More photos related to buds, shoots, sprouts and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

口 | kǒu

In Mandarin Chinese, 口 (Pinyin: kǒu 🔊) means “mouth”, “entrance”, “opening”, “hole” and so forth. This word is often used in combinations, for example: 火山 (huǒshān) “volcano” + 口 = 火山口 (huǒshānkǒu) “crater”.

Historical forms of this character look more like drawings of mouth with a tongue sticking out, or a big smile, while Ponte Ryūrui points out that the original meaning of 口 could have been “a ritual vessel or container and not a mouth”.

More photos related to smile and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

山 | shān

In Mandarin Chinese, 山 (Pinyin: shān 🔊) means “mountain”.

Why 山? Easy: think of three mountain peaks. Historical forms of this character look even more like children’s drawings of mountains.

Combining 火 (fire) with 山, we get a word for volcano: 火山 (huǒshān). Now recall the word for sky, 天 (tiān). If we stick it in front of 山, we get 天山 (Tiānshān), “Mountain of Heaven”, the name of a great mountain range in Central Asia. That’s how I remember the pronunciation of 山. For Russian speakers, or indeed anybody who is familiar with Cyrillic alphabet, there is an additional mnemonic: 山 looks very much like Ш, the first letter in the Шань.

More photos of mountains and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

火 | huǒ

In Mandarin Chinese, 火 (Pinyin: huǒ 🔊) means “fire”.

Fire is one of the five elements of Wǔ Xíng. You can think of 火 as a representation of wood and flame in a hearth or a bonfire. Some historical forms of this character look even more like children’s drawings of fire.

More photos of fire and sea glass @ Shutterstock.