下 | xià

In Mandarin Chinese, 下 (Pinyin: xià 🔊) has many meanings but all of them have something to do with direction “down”. Predictably enough, it looks very much like the character 上 flipped upside down.

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

The relevant oracle bone form of this character is a depiction of one line below another, suggesting the idea of under (contrast 上) → low; lower; below; down; subordinate; descend. Extended meanings from “down” or “below” include come/go down; fall; drop; hang (down/from); hand down; younger; have diarrhea; abort (a fetus); step/move back; withdraw; leave the capital; retire and surrender. By further extension are carry, remove and clear a table (← take down from a table); grate (← grated shavings that fall below); give and do someone the favor of (← hand ← hand down); obtain (← be handed/given); and latter half (← bottom/lower of two halves).

There are a great number of compounds of 下, for instance

• 下 + 午 = 下午 (xiàwǔ 🔊): afternoon
• 上 + 下 = 上下 (shàngxià): up and down, high and low, etc. but also in a sense “about” or “more or less”
• 上 + 上 + 下 + 下 = 上上下下 (shàngshàngxiàxià): everybody; all; the whole
• 天 + 下 = 天下 (tiānxià): everything under the sky; a lofty name of China (but of course!); an ancient Chinese concept of tianxia

I think the physics community should adopt the symbols 上 and 下 for up and down quarks instead of rather boring “u” and “d”.

More photos related to down, downward and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

上 | shàng

In Mandarin Chinese, 上 (Pinyin: shàng 🔊) has many meanings but all of them are ultimately connected with direction “up”.

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

A depiction of one line above another, suggesting the idea of rising above (contrast 下) → up; upper; top → rise; raise; offer. Other extended meanings include ascent; readiness; completion; just after; go up; climb; enter; end; increase; improve; on; beyond; first (half); emperor; raise/bring up (a matter); record; upward (bound); go to the capital; and reach.

There are a great number of compounds of 上, for example

• 上 + 上 = 上上 (shàngshàng): the best, great, superb
• 上 + 午 = 上午 (shàngwǔ 🔊): morning
• 上 + 海 = 上海 (Shànghǎi 🔊): Shanghai (literally, “Upon-the-Sea”)

More photos related to ascent, upward, raising, rising and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

西 | xī

In Mandarin Chinese, 西 (Pinyin: xī 🔊) means “west” or “western”. Attention Russian speakers: xī sounds very much like щи (Russian-style cabbage soup).

Now that we know the words for all cardinal directions, it’s not difficult to guess the meaning of 东西南北 (dōngxīnánběi): east, west, south and north — in other words, everywhere. The shorter compound 东西 is a trickier one. One set of meanings (when pronounced dōngxī) is “east and west”, “nearby” or “everywhere”. When pronounced slightly differently (dōngxi 🔊), it means “thing”, “something”, “stuff”. Applied to a human, dōngxi becomes an insult: it is implied that the object of one’s rage is less than human, as in 不是东西 (bùshì dōngxi), “a contemptible person” or “good for nothing”.

The shape of 西 looks familiar, isn’t it? In my classification of Chinese characters, 西 (which looks like the Greek letter π poking out of the box) sits somewhere between 四 (π hiding in the box) and 酉 (π poking out of the box while standing on a bench). From the etymological point of view, however, these characters have nothing in common. 四 has evolved from repositioning of four strokes 亖 inside the square 口 while 酉 originally was depicting a wine jug. According to Wiktionary, 西 is a pictogram of

a bag or basket, borrowed for phonetic value. Compare 東 (“bundle > east”). Traditionally explained as a pictogram of a bird settling into its nest, which by analogy with the setting of the sun means “west”.

More photos related to west and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

东 | dōng

In Mandarin Chinese, 东 (Pinyin: dōng 🔊) means “east”; also, “landlord”, “owner” or “host”.

Interesting expressions containing 东 include

• 东 + 风 = 东风 (dōngfēng): east winds (that blow in spring); figuratively, favourable situation, momentum or driving force
• 马 + 耳 + 东风 = 马耳东风 (mǎ ěr dōngfēng): not the least bit concerned. It comes from a poem by Li Bai:

  世人闻此皆掉头，
  有如东风射马耳。
  (Shìrén wén cǐ jiē diàotóu,
  yǒu rú dōngfēng shè mǎ ěr)
  “When the people of this world hear this, all shake their heads,
  As if the east wind shot through the horse’s ear.”

• 东 ... 西 ... : “east ... west ...” a common construction implying some sort of movement from side to side, for example:
  • 东一句西一句 (dōng yījù xī yījù): speak without any sense of coherence
  • 东倒西歪 (dōng dǎo xī wāi): walk unsteadily
  • 东逃西窜: (dōng táo xī cuàn): to scurry from place to place, especially when being chased
  • 东观西望: (dōng guān xī wàng): to look around in observation

东 is a simplified form of the traditional character 東. According to Wiktionary, 東

originally represented a bag tied at both ends (like a cellophane-wrapped candy with the ends twisted), and was later borrowed phonetically to mean “east”. This borrowing may have been influenced by reinterpreting the character as the sun (日) rising behind a tree (木), which is the traditional (though incorrect) etymology, as given in Shuowen.

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

A depiction of a sack bound on two ends, with a stick run through it. East is either a borrowed meaning or an extended one, in the sense of the direction of the rising sun (the rays of which figuratively pierce the earth) → (in historical usage) eastern Japan.

More photos related to east and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

南 | nán

In Mandarin Chinese, 南 (Pinyin: nán 🔊) means “south” or “southern”. The compound words containing 南 include

• 南 + 北 = 南北 (nánběi): distance from north to south; latitude span
• 南 + 山 = 南山 (Nánshān): Nanshan, a common placename
• 江 + 南 = 江南 (Jiāngnán): literally, “south of the river”; in particular,
  1. Jiangnan (Keang-nan), a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River
  2. Gangnam, a district of Seoul, immortalised in the hit single Gangnam Style
• 天 + 南 + 星 = 天南星 (tiānnánxīng): rhizome of the Arisaema (an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine.)

According to Wiktionary,

This character has been explained as a pictogram of a hanging percussion instrument, originally identical to the left side of 殼. Under this hypothesis its borrowing for the word “south” is difficult to explain.

Sagart (1988) instead proposes that it is a pictogram of the front of a house. Archaeological evidence confirms that in antiquity, at least in some regions, houses were built to face south.

And we’ve also seen that “north” referred to the back (of the house or otherwise). Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

The relevant oracle bone form of this character is a depiction of a hut or small storehouse. However, a seal inscription form is 屮 grass shoot + an element combining 冂 boundary/enclosure and an inverted 入 pierced by two horizontal lines, suggesting sprouts placed inside a hothouse for cultivation → south (← direction associated with warmth, which hothouses were positioned to face).

More photos related to south and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

北 | běi

In Mandarin Chinese, 北 (Pinyin: běi 🔊) means “north” or “northern”. It also could be a verb meaning “to be defeated” or “to fail”. Not surprisingly, there are many placenames containing 北, such as

• 北 + 京 = 北京 (Běijīng): “northern capital”; Beijing
• 台 / 臺 + 北 = 台北 / 臺北 (Táiběi): Taipei
• 口 + 北 = 口北 (kǒuběi): area beyond the Great Wall

According to Wiktionary, 北 is an ideogrammic compound depicting two men back to back:

Originally meaning “back”; the character 背 refers to the original word.

The sense of “north” is derived from “back (of body)”: “back” → “to turn the back to; to retreat” → “north”.

The ancient Chinese value the southern direction and houses are traditionally oriented along a north-south axis, as evident in the fengshui theory and orientation of buildings in Chinese Neolithic sites. North is the direction the back is oriented to when the person is facing south.

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

The relevant oracle bone form of this character shows two figures, one with his back turned → turn one’s back to the enemy and flee (along a winding course) → flee → north (← flee to the north; or, turn one’s back to the cold north wind) → go northward.

Well if you turn your back “to the cold north wind” and walk, I guess you rather will be travelling south — unless you are an enemy from the North, one of the 北狄 (Běidí), i.e. “Northern Barbarians”; then you’d retreat northward still facing your victorious adversary. (That would be ancient Chinese who, naturally, lived in the centre of their Sinocentric universe.) I presume this links the symbol for the north with “to be defeated” or “to fail”.

More photos related to north and sea glass @ Shutterstock.