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.

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.

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.