Jun 26, 2021, 18:12
In the last program I had talked too much about the relationship between fire and hotness. Now I would like lead you to the opposite side: Let’s have a close look at the connection of water and coldness in Chinese.
The ancient form of 水（shui, the third tone, water) looks like ‘a big sheet of white cloth’ that symbols the fountain running down from the top of the mountain. Yes, it is waterfall.
Our ancestors believed that the world consisted of five elements which were ‘metal, wood, water，fire and earth’. So They used ‘the three-dot-water’ to create characters that you can see as the left part of 江（jiang, the first tone，river). In fact we should think that each of the three dots represents a long steam since many streams join together forming the river！
But here the ‘three’ is not the exact quantity of the streams. Chinese often use 3 or 9 to show that there are too many of something.
In winter there is less rainfall, some stream may become dry. So the left component of 冰 （bing, the first tone，ice) is called ‘the-two-dot-water’ that indicates ‘freezing’.
Dear reader friends:
How do you think of the two dots of 冬（dong, the first tone. Winter)？
The upper part of 冬 is a special form of 文（wen，the second tone)．In my eyes，文 is an image of a tall scholar who has wide shoulders and thin waist. For this reason 文 has something to do with the phrases 文化（wen-hua, culture）and 文明(wenming, civilization).
But here for the word 冬, 文 should represent ‘a man’. The two dots at the bottom of 冬 seems also like a part of the three-dot-water. So the two-third part of the latter should also indicate 'cold weather'. Some experts believe the bottom dots of 冬 symbols 'two blocks of ice'. But SEARU thinks 冬 is an photo of a man who is skating on the frozen river. Or the man is stepping on the flakes of snow or ice on the ground.
(The same beautiful picture always drive people have a colorful imagination. This the reason why SEARU is interested in analysising the structure of Chinese characters. I wish you do enjoy my programme.）
The two-dot-water comes from the three-dot-water. The middle stream of the latter acts as the main source of the river in Summer which would become dry in Winter. So the shape of 冰 shows that it is water in the freezing condition. Yes, 冰 means 'ice' which is solid instead of in liquid state as before. For more examples:
冷（leng, the third tone）means ‘cold’. Why? In fact it is hard to explain the body language of 令. In my point of view, the top of 令 refers to the roof of the sky while the middle dot represents the Sun. The the arrow-like thing in the middle of 令 shows that the Sun is instantly moving forward while the bottom stroke is some point of the moving route. So here 令 means ‘season’(时令 in Chinese). The word 时（shi,the second tone, time）） is 日（ri, the forth tone， the Sun）plus 寸(cun， the fourth tone, the Chinese inch.) The ancient form of 日 is a round circle with a short horizon line in it which is exactly like the shape of the Star; The 十--like thing of 寸 was the ruler in the old days while its dot should represent the thin scale stroke for length measurement. As you see, both 时 and 令 have something to do with the Sun. Yes，the picture of 冷 can really make you feel that it is quite cold!
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