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Uncle Hanzi (汉字叔叔） |
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(Thank you) I give talks online and in person on the history of Chinese characters, in English and in Chinese. I teach ESL online and edit technical and scientific papers in English. |
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Character: 东 English Senses For (英文): dong1the east / eastern / to travel eastward / the host / the master / the owner / a Chinese family name Simplified (簡體字): Simplification (簡化方法): Traditional (繁體字): 東 dong1 (productive phonetic) 東 remnant Etymology (文字來源): Mandarin (普通話):
Chinese Cantonese (廣東話):
Analyze Taiwanese (臺灣話):
Analyze Shanghaiese (上海話):
Analyze Japanese (日本話):
Analyze 中國文字的歷史 Spoken Chinese and Other Languages Unicode Tests Chinese Equivalent Websites Chinese Encoding and Conversion Enable XP for maximum Chinese ShuoWen: (說文解字): |
    In the old days, "things" were wrapped up. "heavy" things were wrapped in blankets, or put in "baskets". Heavy things were wrapped in blankets that served as bags which could be carried on the back, and little things were wrapped in smaller bags or kept in baskets. 东 is a bag or wrap full of something heavy, and 重is a man carrying one of those heavy bags. 东 is borrowed for its pronunciation like 重 and is used for the direction "east". 西is a small wrapped package or basket. It is also used for the word for "west". Together they make the character combination for the "things" 东西 which are in those bags and the things that are all over the place from east and west. The fact that the modern character东 resembles the sun 日 rising over a tree 木 is only an accident. 西 is not a birds nest as the Shuowen sais, but a basket.
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Copyright (c) 2003, 2008, 2011 Richard Sears
