Amazing Chinese Characters (446) Collect - 罗（羅）

 The shell bone script of character Collect is

The top on both scripts are net, the bottom is a bird. Ancient people used net to catch bird.

The bronze script of character Collect is

The top is net, the bottom is character Maintain (Post 92): a silk (left) rope ties a bird (right). The character means that people use rope and net to catch bird.

The big seal script of the character is

The top is character Net (Post 18), the bottom is character Maintain.

The small seal script of the character is

The top with the two long vertical side stokes is character Net, the rest inside is character Maintain. 

The clerical script of the character is 

The top is like character Four (四), but is a wrongly written of character Net (网), because it is similar to 四, people just tried to write quickly but made mistake.

The song typeface for traditional character is

羅

Almost same as cleric script.

The song typeface for simplified character is

罗

The top is 四，wrongly written for 网（Net) as I mentioned above, the bottom is character 夕 - Evening (Post 52). It may be in the evening to catch the birds by using net, which is reasonable because the birds can see in the evening, so easier to catch them. The simplification is based on a different view of this task, not simply reducing some strokes.

罗 is a popular family name too.

The pinyin of the character is Luo2.

Amazing Chinese Characters (445) Investigate - 究

 The big seal script of character Investigate is

The top 

is character of character Cave (Post 44)

the inside/bottom 

is character Nine (Post 443), means "a person kneeling down, and his head and arms stretching forward, searching something." Here is searching in a cave which is dark and small, people need to search inside carefully, like investigation.

The small seal script of the character is

Similar to big seal script, the cave is deeper. 

The clerical script of the character is

The top Cave is shallow, the bottom Nine is changed but still some similarity to small seal script.

The song typeface of the character is

究

Same as clerical script.

究  means Investigate, Research, Study carefully, which is often used with 研（Grind, Post 444) to form a combination of words - 研究, which means Research, Study, most in academic, and scientific area. 研 means doing some fine work with patience, 究 means exploring new area and to find something new. Our research needs both the patience to keep doing good work and the courage to explore new area.

The Pinyin of the character is Jiu4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (444) Grind - 研

 The big seal script of character Grind is

The left is character Stone, the right 干干 means a mold, here is stone mortar. The character means using stone mortar to grind something. Chinese has used stone mortar to grind Chinese medicine for thousands years. 

This kind

or

This kind

The small seal script of the character is

Similar to big seal script.

The clerical script of the character is

The left  石 is character Stone, the right two 干s become 开, which is character Open. It should be a miswritten because there is no meaning of Open in this character.

The song typeface of the character is

研

Same as clerical script.

The Pinyin of the character is Yan2.

Amazing Chinese Characters (443) Nine - 九

 The shell bone script of character Nine

There are many explanations. 

1, an arm with a hand of person 

2, a brooked cave or hole

3, a kind of snake or dragon.

No matter what, most people agree that it explores an unknown area by reach as far as possible. I  prefer to the arm with open hand, trying to explore an unknown deep cave.  

The bronze script of the character is 

Which may be an arm, a snake or dragon, a hole, same as the shell bone script. 

To me which is like a person kneeling down, and his head and arms stretching forward, searching something.

The big seal script of the character

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

The left fork end is changed open asymmetric.

The clerical script of the character is

Similar to small seal script.

How could this character mean Nine later on?

Famous Chinese I Ching put 9 as the biggest number, reaching 9 is touching the end of something. Chinese believe that 9 is the highest position in nature. The end of a cave or hole is the most an explorer could reach, or the dragon is the powerful creature in the world, so the represent the biggest number 9.

I prefer to "A dragon with a fork alike head" as the original meaning of the character, which may be not right. 

The song typeface of the character is

九

Same as clerical script.

The Pinyin of 九 is Jiu3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (442) Delicious or Fresh - 鲜（鮮）

  The bronze script of character Delicious is

The top is character Sheep or Goat (Post 6), the bottom is character Fish (Post 2). Ancient people didn't have enough food in most of time, when they had chance to cook lamb and fish together, the cooked soup or meat is so delicious that they created the character by putting the two character together to express the unforgettable taste. This is a typical ideogram character: use the two or more pictographic characters which are drawings of the physical objects to express non - physical meaning like adjective term.

There is another bronze script of the character is

The left is the character Fish, the right is character Sheep or Goat. The structure becomes left - right from top - bottom of bronze script.

The big seal script of the character is

The top is character Sheep or Goat, and bottom is character Fish. I cut off the bottom, and enlarge it below.

which is one of character Fish because there are many different forms of each character before small seal script which unified Chinese: one character is only one form.

The small seal script of the character is

which is similar to the second bronze script.

The clerical script of the character is

Similar to small seal script.

The song typeface of traditional character is

鮮

Same as the clerical script. The left is traditional character 魚, the right one is same (羊 has only one form shared by both simplified and traditional characters, most of characters are in this situation)

The song typeface of simplified script is

鲜

The left character Fish 鱼, the right 羊 is same. This is a type of simplified characters: one part is simplified but another or other part(s) is a form(s) shared by both simplified or traditional characters.

The pinyin of the character is Xian1.

鲜 means Fresh too. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (441) Orifice - 孔

 The bronze script of character Orifice is

A hair on the top head of a Child (Post 21).

or

The hair is on upper right.

Dictionary of Pictography explains that there is a bunch of hair as a sign of adulthood. But there are other explanations, the one agreed by many people is that the baby's fontanelle which is like a small hole, which makes sense to me. The upper right curve is an indicator for the fontanelle.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to the second bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

The left is character Child, the right one is the curve separated from the head of child right now.

The clerical script of the character is

The left is character Child, the right one is the curve.

The song typeface of the character is

孔

Same as clerical script.

The pinyin of the character is Kong3.

Some points I want to emphasize for character 孔

1, 孔 is small, and opening ends hole, which could be in/on every where.

2, 孔 is a popular surname. Confucius - 孔子，his family name is 孔.

Amazing Chinese Characters (440) Abandon - 弃 (棄）

 The shell bone script of character Abandon is

The top is upside down character Child, the bottom are two hands. In ancient time, because there were not enough foods, sometimes, people just abandoned the new born babies. 

Another shell bone script 

The top is a baby, the middle is a bamboo basket, the bottom are two hands. People put the baby in the basket to abandon.

The bronze script of the character is

The top middle is a upside down baby two hands on bottom sides, the rest is the bamboo basket.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

Still some similarity to old scripts.

The clerical script of the character is

The top baby is not like baby anymore. the bottom two hands become two dots.

The song typeface of traditional character is

棄

Similar to clerical script.

The song typeface of simplified character is

弃

The top is same as that in traditional character, but the bottom is totally changed.

You may see often the clerical script like the one below

which is the simplified character.

The pinyin of the character is Qi4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (439) Take - 取

 The shell bone script of character Take is

The left 

is character Ear (Post 42).

The right is a hand.

There are many explanations for the script, the major three are

1, Cut enemy's ears to show how many one killed.

2, Cut wild animal's ears to show many one killed

3, Cut wild animal's ear to reward the hunter (the rest is shared with whole tribe)

I prefer to number 3, which has the meaning of "Take".

The bronze script of the character is

The ear on the left, and hand on the right, even though they are not like the ear or the hand as much as the shell bone script. 

The big seal script of the character is

The left is ear, the right is hand.

The small seal script of the character is

The left is ear, and the right is hand.

The clerical script is 

The left is character 耳 - ear, the right is character 又 -  Again (Post 102), which means Hand originally and here.

The song typeface of the character is

取

Same as the clerical script.

The Pinyin of 取 is Qu3.

Amazing Chinese Characters (438) Thousand - 千

 The shell bone script of character Thousand is

which is a person

and one horizontal line on the leg.

What does it mean? There are many explanations. Dictionary of Pictography gives its explanation: "(The person) is keeping moving". There is another explanation:"Many many people (slaves) are tied each other".

Let's look the shell bone script of character Abreast - 并 (Post 115)

Two person walk together and keep the step withe each other. So the horizontal line means Walking.

In ancient China, people measure the land by steps because there was no measure instrument, no long ruler to measure big land. They estimate the land by how many steps in length and width. Thousand-step might be a number most used in measuring land, so it is reasonable for them to use the drawing of a person with a horizontal line, an indicative stroke, to represent Thousand steps. This is my explanation, the best one I feel. 

The bronze script of the character is

Which is similar to the shell bone script.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to the older scripts.

The small seal script of the character is

Which is a little bit strange, but actually is a small seal of character Person 

just turns a little bit to let the person straight up, plus a horizontal line. 

The clerical script of the character is

Which is super simplified of small script of the character: the top left falling stroke is the arm of the person, the person body except the arm is now a vertical line, the indicative horizontal line is unchanged.

The song typeface of the character is

千

Same as the clerical script.

The Pinyin of the character is Qian1.