Sept 14, 2021, 21:07
Does 湿 look like a landscape?
In Chinese 湿 （shi, the first tone) means ‘wet’. Why？The three-drop-water on the your left of 湿 refers to ’streams‘；The top part on the right side is 日 that shapes like the Sun since its ancient form was a round circle with a short horizon line inside; Then how do you think of 业？ Does it symbol wild plants growing on the ground?
In general，I think 湿 is a nice drawing where there is plenty of water with the Sun shining overhead, that environment is good for wild plants to grow. This reminds me what I saw in the suburb of the Dongying city where you can enjoy beautiful scenery including kinds of trees and many sorts of rare wild birds.
We have 湿地 for ’wetland'. 地 （di, the forth tone) is 土(tu, the first tone，earth) plus 也(ye, the third tone，is). So 地 means ‘ground' or ’land'. In fact one single word 湿 is enough for the meaning of 湿地!
Now let me introduce the twin sister of 湿. She is 温（wen，the first tone）. They look so similar in appearance! The 皿 of 温 is pronounced as (min, the third tone）that shapes as a bowl-like thing. Yes，皿 represents ‘container’. In the yard, there is a jar in front of the house that has collected full of rainwater falling down from the roof in the rainy days. Now, the water in the jar is hot enough for me to have a comfortable bath thanks to the shining Sun in the sky. It is just the body language of 温 that means ‘warm’ or ‘warmth’.
In the town I live in the flat of the tall building with the advanced solar energy water hearing system. As you can imagine the 皿 has become a big TV-screen-like panel being hanged out of the window that turns the sunlight into hotness to warm up the running water for bath and washing. I do enjoy the convenience benefit from the modern technology in daily life specially in Winter!
I wish foreign reader friends can sense the warmth of 温 although that is so simple! （Searu can not help laughing.)
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