The Pictographs of Chinese Characters- 见[jiàn], 我[wǒ]
Many Chinese characters are created in the form of pictograms (portraying real objects). The primitive form of these Chinese characters is very similar to real objects. However, some Chinese characters are composed of several simple Chinese characters. Once we know the meaning of the simple Chinese characters, we can infer the meaning of the character, today we will learn 见[jiàn] and 我 [wǒ].
见-jiàn
“见” means see. The upper part of the word is the shape of “目”, the lower part is the shape of “人”, altogether imitating the appearance of people when they look at something.
Words with “见”:
看见 [kàn jiàn]: see/ catch sight of
见面 [jiàn miàn]: meet
我-wǒ
“我” means I/me, but its orginal meaning is a kind of weapon, which is used in the salve society to kill people and dismember animals. Therefore the original shape of “我” is created by imitating the image of the weapon, which looks like a big axe.
Later on, the basic meaning of “我” became the first person pronoun. Using the mighty weapon as the first person pronoun reflects the self-centered consciousness of the ancients.
When “我” developed into the third character, the zigzag on the left side has been deformed and looks like “禾” of the grass. The last one is the final version of the simplified Chinese “我”.
Above are the two Chinese pictographs selected for you. If you have any questions, welcome to “Q&A” forum of Pandarow.com, where you can get help from many native speakers.
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