物
This is a ‘thing.’ Mono in Japanese, wù in Chinese. Out of all the things that could have represented ‘thing,’ the Chinese chose a cow, ox, or bull, because it was the largest ‘thing.’ It is represented by the element on the left.
The original character
showed the animal from the rear, two legs (sticking out to the sides), the tail (pointing down) the horns, and the head. The modern character
牛
has suffered some sort of genetic modification which produced an extra horn on the left. Or it might be just the head of the animal, seen from the left side, with horns and ears.
勿
This element on the right side of our character originally represented three pennants attached to a stick or a flag. By extension, ‘jerky movements.’ Nowadays it means ‘not, must not, never,’ maybe because the waving the pennant stick was a way of transmitting decrees and prohibitions. It’s just there as a sound hint for the reading of the character.
No comments:
Post a Comment