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.

快 | kuài

In Mandarin Chinese, 快 (Pinyin: kuài 🔊) is an adjective with many meanings: “fast”, “quick”, “sharp”, “clever”, “frank”, “straightforward”, “pleased”, “happy”. It is also used as an adverb meaning “soon” or “almost”.

According to Wiktionary, 快 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 夬 (guài) and semantic 忄, a radical form of 心, “heart/mind”.

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

As per 夬 (scoop out) + 心 heart/emotions → pleasant; comfortable (← heart with all the unpleasantness scooped out of it) → refreshing; enjoyable.

Compounds of 夬 include

• 快 + 人 = 快人 (kuàirén): a frank and open person
• 快 + 门 = 快门 (kuàimén): shutter (of a camera)
• 手 + 快 = 手快 (shǒukuài): fast; having quick hands
• 飞 + 快 = 飞快 (fēikuài): 1) razor sharp; 2) extremely fast, at lightning speed
• 大 + 快 + 人 + 心 = 大快人心 (dàkuàirénxīn): to everybody’s satisfaction

More photos related to fast stuff, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

手 | shǒu

In Mandarin Chinese, 手 (Pinyin: shǒu 🔊) means “hand”. It also has a number of derived meanings such as “handy”, “portable”, “handwritten”, or used as a suffix to create names of specialists or experts in something.

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

A depiction of a hand showing the five fingers in a curved, gripping position. Extended meanings include arm; paw; foreleg; a handle; helper; a means; technique; (in board games) a move; a type; a direction; and handwriting.

Ponte Ryūrui notes:

Although the modern form of the character 手 may be somewhat misleading (6 fingers), the “hand” radical 扌 still resembles the ancient pictographs. <...> The upper stroke in standard script is the result of aesthetical modification made to the first stroke in the cursive hand which imitates the “middle finger”.

Compounds of 手 include

手 + 工 = 手工 (shǒugōng 🔊): handwork; manually 水 + 手 = 水手 (shuǐshǒu 🔊): saylor 一 + 手 = 一手 (yīshǒu): single-handedly; proficiency, skill 好 + 手 = 好手 (hǎoshǒu): expert, professional 生 + 手 = 生手 (shēngshǒu): novice, new to a job 国 + 手 = 国手 (guóshǒu): national champion, grand master 出 + 手 = 出手 (chūshǒu): to sell (goods); to spend (money) 入 + 手 = 入手 (rùshǒu): to start with, to begin with; to buy, to obtain

In Japanese, 手 can be pronounced as te 🔊, as in 空手 karate 🔊, or shu, as in 選手 senshu 🔊 “player”.

手に戻る 鷹の眼に 入る日哉 大魯 Te ni modoru taka no manako ni irihi kana The sun, In the eye of the falcon That returned to my hand. Tairo

Japanese has different logic (from that of Chinese), and in some compounds of 手 you may hear neither te nor shu. For instance, 上手 “skillful” or “good at” is pronounced jōzu but 下手 “unskilled” or “bad at” is pronounced heta:

世の中は なく虫さへも 上手下手 一茶 Yo no naka wa naku mushi sae mo jōzu heta Even among insects, in this world, Some are good at singing, Some bad. Issa (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to hands, beads, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

我 | wǒ

In Mandarin Chinese, 我 (Pinyin: wǒ 🔊) is a pronoun meaning “I”, “me”, “my”, or “self”, or (in literary or formal use) “we”, “us”, or “our”. You’d think this word, common as it is, should be among the easiest to write. Wrong.

According to Wiktionary, this character is

a pictogram of a rake-like tool or weapon (note the oracle bone script form) <...> It was already borrowed for sound to mean “I” since the oracle bone script. Folk etymology considers it to be an ideograph of a hand (手) holding a weapon (戈) to protect oneself.

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

The relevant oracle bone form of this character is a variant of 戈 spear/halberd, indicating a weapon/knife with a serrated blade (i.e., a blade the teeth of which are in alignment).

The Uncle Hanzi’s page shows the evolution of the pictogram from “rake” to its current form.

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