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Introduction
The resemblance between a pictographic character and its object helps learners remember the Chinese characters. Each pictographic character in this column is presented with pictures and detailed explanations. For instance, in 休 xiū to rest, the radical on the left, 亻means "a person", and the part on the right, 木, means wood or tree, so the meaning comes from the idea "a person is leaning against a tree to have a rest."
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火 huŏ
吉 jí
安 ān
包 bāo
本 bĕn
比 bĭ
笔 bĭ
冰 bīng
城 chéng
出 chū
从 cóng
东 dōng
交 jiāo       
Explanation:cross; associate with; hand over
       This pictograph shows a man standing with ...
家 jiā       
Explanation:family; home
 This is an associative character comprised of two parts: the upper portion relates to the meaning of “house” （ ） , while below the roof there is a pig （
吉 jí       
Explanation:lucky; auspicious; propitious
    In the oracle bones, the upper part of this character is like a weapon  and the lower part is like a utensil  used to store weapons. The combination of these two implies that when weapons are stored away, they are not being used, so there are fewer wars and less danger.
火 huŏ       
Explanation:flame; fire
       火is a pictographic character. As the oracle bones show, it pictures the shape of a flame rising into the air. 火is a...
好 hăo       
Explanation:
In the oracle bones, the left side of this character shows a kneeling woman holding a baby to her breasts （ ）. This form of the character thus demonstrates that people in ancient times con...
高 gāo       
Explanation:high
高is an adjective, which makes it very difficult to depict. Therefore ancient Chinese used “high fixtures” to represent the idea. In the oracle bones,  （ ）depicted a multi-story bu...
妇 fù       
Explanation:married woman
From early inscriptions of this character found on oracle bones, we can see that on the left halt of the pictograph there is something like a broom or duster（ ）, while the right half derives from...
夫 fū       
Explanation:man; husband
夫 is formed by adding a horizontal stroke above “person”（ ）, yet this horizontal stroke does not mean “head of the person”. Rather, it means the hairpin in a man’s hair. In ancient times, when a boy reached the age of 20, he had to bind his hair with a hairpin in a ritua...
耳 ĕr       
Explanation:ear
The original character of 耳 “ear” just took the form of a person’s ear , placing particular emphasis on the outer ear.
东 dōng       
Explanation:east
The character 东in the oracle bones looks like a big bag with its both ends tied （ ）, so the original meaning should be东西 (东西dōng xi : thing) .As the character developed and people could no longer discern the original form of “bag”, the character also came to mean “the east”.