What does the Chinese character “water” look like? How did he appear? What meanings, in addition to the literal, are inherent in it? Is the same character used to denote the concept of water in Chinese and Japanese? Trying to answer all these questions briefly.
The origin of the hieroglyph
The origin of the hieroglyph “water” is elevated to the so-called pictograms - symbols depicting the appearance of an object. About three thousand years ago, when writing began in ancient China, he really depicted a boiling water stream. But in the process of the evolution of Chinese writing, symbols were significantly schematized. In order to see the image of water in a modern character, you need to have a rich imagination.
Use in Chinese and Japanese
The hieroglyph "water" is one of 214 keys - the basic elements that make up all the other hieroglyphs. Despite the differences in the modern Chinese and Japanese spelling of some characters, the "water" in both languages looks the same. True, it is read in different ways. In Chinese, the reading is one: "Shui." In Japanese, the hieroglyph "water", depending on the context, can be read in two ways. Sui is a Japanese adaptation of Chinese reading, used only in compound words. Mizu is a purely Japanese word for water. Hence, by the way, the name of the company Mizu, producing thermoses.
"Water" and the Eastern world view
In classical Chinese metaphysics, the sign "water" is one of the symbols of u-syn. U-syn - these are the five primary elements from which all things are formed. The remaining four elements: fire, earth, metal, wood.
In addition, in the well-known Western public, the East Asian version of geomancy is feng shui, the part "shui" means "water" and is written in the same hieroglyph. And "fan" is the wind.
Freeze water with one stroke of the brush
When one character is added to the character “water”, a character with the meaning “ice” is obtained.
The combination of the characters "ice" and "water" in Japanese will simply give water with ice, and in Korean it denotes the name of the popular ice cream dessert in South Korea - bean.
"Water" day of the week
In Japanese and Korean, the character "water" is used in the word "environment." In the ancient Chinese calendar, every day of the week was associated with a particular planet. Wednesday - the day of Mercury, as, incidentally, in the Roman tradition. The name of Mercury with hieroglyphs is written as "water" and "planet". In the names of the days of the week, “planet” is omitted, it turns out just “water day”. Despite the fact that the Chinese came up with the system, in modern Chinese the days of the week are simply called words derived from ordinal numbers.