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.

竹 | zhú

In Mandarin Chinese, 竹 (Pinyin: zhú) means “bamboo”. According to Wiktionary, 竹 shows

two bamboo stalks, with leaves. Earlier forms resembled 个 + 个, current form resembles rather ケ + ケ.

Lawrence J. Howell explains in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that 竹 is

A depiction of a pair of rigid, tubular bamboo stalks rising from the earth.

There are many toponyms that are compounds of 竹, for example

• 大 + 竹 = 大竹 (Dàzhú): Dazhu
• 竹 + 北 = 竹北 (Zhúběi): Zhubei
• 竹 + 南 = 竹南 (Zhúnán): Zhunan (Chunan)
• 竹 + 山 = 竹山 (Zhúshān): Zhushan
• 黄 + 竹山 = 黄竹山 (Huángzhúshān): Huangzhushan

and so on.

More photos related to bamboo @ Shutterstock.

节 | jié

In Mandarin Chinese, 节 (Pinyin: jié 🔊) is a word with a lot of meanings. As a noun, it can mean “joint”, “knot” (also as a unit of speed), “node”, “paragraph”, “segment”, “link”, “moral fibre”, “integrity”, “time period”, “rhythm”, “beat”, “season”, “festival”, “celebration”, “holiday” etc. As a verb, it means “to abridge”, “to limit”, “to control”, “to save” or “to use sparingly”. 节 is also a measure word, used for such assorted objects as batteries, school classes or train carriages. Naturally, there are many compound words using 节, for instance 春节 (chūnjié) “Chinese New Year”, 狂欢节 (kuánghuānjié 🔊) “carnival”, 五月节 (Wǔyuèjié) “Dragon Boat Festival” or 节节 (jiéjié) “step by step”.

节 is a simplified form of the traditional character 節, which is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 竹 (“bamboo”) and phonetic 即 (jí). According to Uncle Hanzi, its original meaning was “a joint of bamboo”. From this, with a bit of imagination, one can surely figure out all the other meanings of this word.

More photos of Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, carnival and sea glass @ Shutterstock.