红 | hóng

In Mandarin Chinese, 红 (Pinyin: hóng 🔊) is an adjective for (colour) “red”. Another meaning is “popular” or “in vogue”.

红 is a simplified form of the traditional character 紅, which is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 糸 “silk” and phonetic 工 (gōng 🔊), “labour”, “work”. Something to do with (textile) workers’ movement and, by extension, revolution, communism? Not exactly (although 红 grew to represent all that too). Lawrence J. Howell explains in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

彔 thread + 工 here an abbreviated form of 汞 (gǒng) mercury → fabric/textiles dyed a deep red (compare 絳) → crimson; rouge → lipstick.

I presume that “mercury” here refers to cinnabar (mercury sulphide), a historic source for the red pigment vermilion. According to Wikipedia, in China cinnabar has been used for its colour since as early as the Yangshao culture (around 5000 BC to 3000 BC).

Interesting compounds of 红 include

• 口 + 红 = 口红 (kǒuhóng): lipstick
• 月 + 月 + 红 = 月月红 (yuèyuèhóng): China rose (Rosa chinensis)
• 红 + 人 = 红人 (hóngrén): favourite; pet; rising star; celebrity
• 红 + 花 = 红花 (hónghuā): safflower (Carthamus tinctorius)
• 红 + 茶 = 红茶 (hóngchá): black tea

Wait a minute, I hear you saying, didn’t you just tell us that “black” is 黑? Yes, I did, and yes, you read that right: what in Europe we call “black tea” (because of the colour of the tea leaves), Chinese call 红茶, i.e. “red tea” (referring to the colour of the liquid). Conversely, what Chinese call 黑茶 (hēichá), literally “black tea”, means fermented tea such as Pu-erh, which in Europe is known as “red tea”, té rojo etc. I hope everything is red black clear now.

Incidentally, the symbols above were created using Pu-erh tea because I’ve already used the leaves of 红茶 to create the hanzi 乌 and 烏. So there.

More photos related to safflower, tea and colour red @ Shutterstock.

兔 | tù

In Mandarin Chinese, 兔 (Pinyin: tù 🔊) is a word for “rabbit” or “hare”. The Rabbit is one of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and is associated with the earthly branch 卯.

In Chinese folklore, 月兔 (yuètù), “moon rabbit”, is a creature that lives on the Moon, 月 (yuè). According to Wikipedia,

it is often portrayed as a companion of the Moon goddess Chang’e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her.

So it should come as no surprise that another, now obsolete, meaning of 兔 is “moon”. 兔 also has a different pronunciation (chān), corresponding to a different (also obsolete) meaning, “planet Mercury”.

兔 evolved from a pictogram of a rabbit-like animal.

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

♍ | Virgo

♍ (Virgo) is the sixth astrological sign in the Western zodiac. The Sun is in this sign between 22 August and 22 September.

According to Wikipedia, the symbol ♍ is derived

from the Greek letters ΠΑΡ, which are the first three letters of the Greek word parthenos, which means “virgin”.

Juan Eduardo Cirlot wrote in his Dictionary of Symbols:

For the Egyptians it was identical with Isis. Since it is governed by Mercury and corresponds to the number six, it is symbolic of hermaphroditism, or that state which is characterized by dual — positive and negative — forces. Hence Virgo is sometimes depicted with the symbol of the soul or the Seal of Solomon (two triangles, representing fire and water, superimposed and intersecting to form a six-pointed star). In mythology and in religions generally, this symbol is always associated with the birth of a god or a demigod, as the supreme expression of the dynamic consciousness.

More photos related to zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

♊ | Gemini

♊ (Gemini) is the third astrological sign in the Western zodiac, ruled by the planet Mercury. The sun is in this sign between 21 May and 20 June. Some of the coolest people out there were born under this sign. They are often referred to as “Geminis”, for no good reason. As the word “Gemini” is derived from Latin geminī, which is already plural of geminus (“twin”), there no need in further pluralisation.

The glyph ♊ looks like a variant of the Roman numeral Ⅱ, which it most probably is.

More photos related to zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

☿ | Mercury

☿ is an astrological and astronomical symbol representing the planet Mercury.

The planet was named after the Roman messenger god, Mercury, whom the Romans identified with the Greek god Hermes. The symbol ☿ is a simplified version of caduceus (a staff entwined by two serpents) carried by Mercury/Hermes. In alchemical tradition, Mercury was associated with quicksilver (mercury).

In Romance languages, the word for Wednesday originates from Latin dies Mercurii, i.e. “day of Mercury” (mercredi, mercoledì, miércoles, miercuri). In Germanic laguages, this day became connected with god Odin or Wōden (onsdag, Wednesday, woensdag).

More photos of sea glass @ Shutterstock.