Learn one Chinese Character a day - 闯 | 闖

Let us continue our journey with characters related to 门 | 門. 闯 is composed of two characters 门 and 马. Same concept for traditional version - 闖, which is composed of 門 and 馬.

What kind of scene you would image with a horse charging through the door or gate? The video of "Lord Of The Ring" shows the scenario.


At 31st second of above video you would see Gandalf break through the gate of the palace riding his white horse.

That is exactly what 闯 | 闖 originally means - "a horse breaks through the door or gate", as screen captured below:

闯 

We can examine its evolution history to confirm our observation: (image taken from http://vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 闯 | 闖

闯 | 闖 was first seen in Seal Script as , which is actually created with the same components - 門 and 馬, as its current forms.

Now it is obvious that 闯 | 闖 means rush, dash or break through.

That is all, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with it inside to end our study today:

闯与创

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 闭 | 閉

Today we move back to series of 门 | 門, and the character is 闭 | 閉. As we have learnt 门 and 才, what is the combined meaning of 闭? The most logical combination should be "what the door is capable of" like 财, or a simpler combination as "useful door" like 材?

Before we confirm the actual meaning of 闭, let us go through its evolution history first (image taken from http://vividict.com/)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 闭 | 閉

From Bronze script - , we can see the difference comparing to that of 关 | 關 - .  As we have pointed out, 关 | 關 emphasises the fact that door is closed (but may not be properly locked). While 闭 | 閉 emphasises "door properly locked".

With the Chinese style wooden gate, people normally use a big stick to ensure a complete closure of the gate during night, as illustrated as below:

闭 | 閉

Looking at its Seal Script , I believe that Chinese ancestors were already doing that during Seal Script period. That is probably the reason  inside  changed to  to emphasise a complete closure of the door with the help of an extra stick as shown above. Now you can see that  is pretty much the same writing as 才. And eventually a drawing of 闩 - was officially replaced with 才.

Getting back to our original guessing: "what the door is capable of", it is surprisingly very correct! Door is used to close an entrance or gate when necessary.

闭 is one of so many Chinese characters that once you know how it is created, you will never see it the same as before. And during this process, we can also tell the subtle but very important differences between 关 | 關 and 闭 | 閉, which might have puzzled us for a long time.

So 闭 | 閉 means to close, to obstruct, to stop, to end or to shut (completely).

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 闭 inside:

闭门无事，开卷有益；
为善至乐，历劫不磨。

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 财 | 財

Similar to 材, our character today 财 is composed of 贝 and 才. Looking at its evolution history below (image taken from http://vividict.com/)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 财 | 財

We can see that 财 started from Seal Script period as . So meaning of  and  here should be its extended meaning instead of their original one.

As we have learnt, 贝 refers to currency or precious items,  while 才 contains the extended meaning of capable of doing something. Combined meaning of 财, with its Traditional version 財, should be assets (including money) that is useful, valuable or capable of generating more wealth. To have a character to mean money only, Chinese ancestors did create another character 钱. 钱 and 财 can be used together as a phrase - 钱财.

财产

That is all for today. Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 财 inside:

招财进宝

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 材

Let us move side way a bit from series of 门 | 門 to something related to 才. Our character today is 材, which is composed of 木 and 才. 

Recall the meaning of 才, the natural combination should be "wood that can be utilised (for furniture, house and etc)". For example 伐木取材. 

木材

It is then extended to mean any "useful materials", for example 药材 - the materials used for preparing a dose of Chinese medicine. Another example is 题材 - the materials used for composing an essay.

药材

For 材 is the calibre of wood, through a way of metaphor, 材 is particularly used to mean calibre, qualification or capability of a person as well. for example 因材施教.

To confirm our reasoning above, let us examine its evolution history (image taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 材

As we can see that from war state period till now, 材 is pretty much the same in writing conceptually.

That is all for today, now it is time for us to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 材 inside:

天生我材必有用