Was It Worth The Price?

“He is my son, my first son!”

The vast majority (around 80%) of Chinese characters are made up of a radical (the general meaning) and a phonetic.

Radical 女 nǚ (woman) and phonetic 馬 mǎ (horse) = 媽 mā, mother (your mum sounds like a horse).

But a small minority are pictograms, that is to say a picture of the thing they represent.

Pictograms are the earliest characters, thousands of years old, but many are still used every day.

If you look at the oracle bone script for rat, tiger and elephant you’ll see they are clearly pictures of the animal they signify.

But if you look at the modern versions, you’ll notice something odd, they’re all rotated 90 degrees onto their sides.

Why? Why are all these characters written with the animals balancing on their tails?

Well, it’s for a straight-forward, practical reason.

For a couple thousand years before paper was invented writing materials were limited. We had silk (expensive), bronze (expensive and impractical), and oracle bones (religious use only).

And one more…

That was cheap, plentiful, durable, and easy to erase and rewrite characters. The wonder that is…

Bamboo!

It was cut into strips, and tied into books. Long thin strips of bamboo contributed to the Chinese custom of writing vertically, from top to bottom (and right to left).

But it also meant that it’s much easier to write some characters length-ways so that they easily fit onto the strip.

So that’s it, mystery solved. That’s why a lot of Chinese picture characters are written at a right angle.

Dudes being pals. Birthday gift, fineliners and markers on cotton paper.

stuck in my head for a while lol

Tomes & Tea | 22-05-2022

Cast out from home, sixteen and pregnant, Catherine Goggin boards the bus to Dublin to start afresh. Once there, she has no choice but to believe that the nun to whom she entrusts her child will find him a better life.

250105 WONWOO Weverse Post

🐈‍⬛️: Carats happy new year*/happy 2025. I hope that this year will be the year that all your goals and dreams will be achieved.

*: In Korean it literally means to received a lot of luck in the new year.

(replies from bottom to top)

⤷🐈‍⬛️: Carats, do each of you all have a goal that you want to achieve this year? I am curious about carats goals. Let's hope that as you write it here, it will desperately come true.

⤷🐈‍⬛️: Also, come back and check it when the year comes to an end.

⤷🐈‍⬛️: ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ is it too much like a teacher..

🔗: https://weverse.io/seventeen/artist/3-189121283

LALALI

HHU LOOKS SO FINE IN THE MV OMG