Happiness In A Chinese Character

“Fu”

The Chinese character of “fu”. Image courtesy to the author.

If you have visited any Chinese family, you might find this word pasted on their wall or door, or you might find the words engraved on their plates.

The Chinese word, 福, is pronounced as “fú”, and it was initially meant “blessing by the ancestors” and later generally referred to “blessing and fortune”.

I like how this word is explained as “happiness is having enough clothing and enough food” by separating the part of this word.

Index of Chinese character,“ 福”. Image courtesy to the author.

“礻” is the index of 福, which expressed the meaning of sacrifice and worship. This radical’s look is similar to “衤”, which generally means garment.

This similarity might cause people to translate “having enough clothing” from the index of 福.

Having enough clothing means one is warm and covered from being nude.

The other part of 福, when separated into smaller pieces, literally mean “one bite and paddy filed”, or translated into “having enough food”.

一口 means one bite, 田 means paddy field. Rice is the main food found on many Chinese tables, so 田 means food in general.

Thus, this explanation translated “福” into a spirit of contentment. Happiness is not having a lot, but just enough clothing to cover your body and enough food to fill your stomach.

I wish you the “福气满满” (full of blessing), and feels the contentment from this Chinese character.