PEOPLE

1 | THE UPRIGHT MAN

The most basic representation of man is a depiction of a

person in a standing position, a stance that diers clearly
from the standard four-legged postures of animals. A man
standing upright, seen from the side, drawn with two
schematic strokes, 1 symbolizes the meaning of person.
By changing the orientation of this simple iconographic
image, several other primordial graphemes were created.
Some of those characters are 2 , which represents a
person turned to the opposite side; 3 , which represents a
person next to another; or 5 , which represents two
people back to back.

1


person

The person, the human being. It is the most basic character

and component because it represents humanity and the
activities we do as people. The current character is the
outlining of a pictograph showing a standing person, seen
from the side, slightly curved to the left.

The left part () depicts the arms and head, and the right
part (), the trunk and the legs.

As a radical, this glyph usually appears in the simplified form

, placed on the left of the compounds.

The corrupted form also occasionally appears as a

representation of the concept man in characters that have
undergone a deeper graphic transformation.

2

Person from behind

Mirror form of the character (person). A person seen from
the side, looking to the right.

In the modern outlining, the stroke stands for the head,

trunk, and legs, while represents the arms.

3
One person next to the

. other
to compare
One person () placed next to the other (), giving way
to comparison between them.

4
Person from the front and

person from the back
.
to be transformed
A standing person () who has turned upside down (), a
person that has been transformed.

5
Two people with their

backs turned away

north

Two people back to back (), to turn's one back. To go into

the opposite direction. In relation to the sun, as it heads
south at noon (in the north hemisphere): to go northwards,
giving the back to the sun.

6
Person between two flanks

jam

A person () jammed into two flanks ( ).

7
Buried person
.
to perish

Originally , a person ( ) buried in a hole

underground ( ).
2 | THE DIFFERENT POSTURES

The next logical step in human representation, beyond the

depiction of a mere standing man, is that very man in other
postures that are better suited for suggesting specific
situations, activities or states of mind. Among the dierent
postures there is a sitting man 8 , that further develops
into a person working with his hands 10. We also have a
man bending down 11, or a man on his knees 17.

8

Sitting person

A sitting person.

This glyph originally was , where indicated the arms

and trunk, and the legs resting on an implicit stool. Over
time, the graph evolved from to , for the sake of the
ease of writing.

Person carrying another

person on her back
nun

A person () who is carrying another person () on her

back as a burden, a person who takes care of others.
 10

Person working with his hands

A sitting person ( ) using his two big hands ()
while crafting something.

This component, most commonly appears with the

simplified form , whose left part has been reduced to one
stroke that now pierces the upper horizontal line.

11

Leaning person

A bending or leaning person, looking to the left, seen from
the side.

The stroke acts as the head and arms, and the stroke
depicts the trunk and legs.

12
Person leaning towards another

person
fragrant

13
Bowing person
surname
Person crouching or bowing.

The hook of the left originally stands for the bent knees, the
hook pointing upwards of the right represented the head,
and the crossing line, which originally was a dot, comes out
as the elbow resting on the ground.

As a standalone this character means 'surname' or clan, a

group of people that stick to certain traditions in which you
can see people bowing to each other.

14
Bowing person leaning into

the ground

The ground beneath, indicated by a straight line (), where

the arms of a crouching person () lean.

15
Person next to a bowing person
. low

16

Person holding a tool

Man holding an agrarian tool with which he works the land.
It may designate both the action of working as well as that of
holding something.

This component originally had the form , in which to its

right you can perceive a structure similar to that of the
component (person working with his hands), where the
person is depicted by the stroke .

The strokes of the agricultural tool were eventually merged

with the strokes representing the person, thus making the
form of the current character.

17

Kneeling person

A person sitting on his knees, looking to the left.

stands for the back and the head, and the vertical line
depicts the union of the bent legs with the arms resting on
them.

18

Person kneeling before another person

A kneeling person () behind another person on his back
( ).

19
Person in front of a person kneeling

before another
.
to look up (at)

20
Exhaling person
. to lack
A kneeling person with his mouth open, supposedly
exhaling air.

The character has been quite simplified over time. The part
that suggests the body and the folded legs has been evolved
from the glyph to the form perhaps by analogy to the
character of 'person' (). The head and the open mouth have
been outlined in the following strokes: .

As a standalone character it takes the meaning of 'to lack', in

reference to the lack of air when one has just breathed it out.

21

Breathing person

sequence

A person with an open mouth () who takes again the air

that he had previously exhaled (), a person who is
breathing.

The action of inhaling air after having exhaled suggests the

sequence' from which this character takes its meaning when
it acts as a standalone.

22
Hidden person

to avoid
A kneeling person () covering herself with a big hat or cap
( + ) in order to avoid being spotted.

23

Person with big hands

A kneeling person looking to the right () with big hands
(), suggesting a great endowment of skill in them.
 24

Huddled person

Person kneeling and leaning to the right (), with his ands
on his thighs (), suggesting a distressing situation or
feeling.

Person on top of another person 25

Fornication
color

A person (1 ) on top of another ( ), suggesting

the act of copulation and the glowing color of the skin
derived from such an act.
3 | WOMEN AND GESTATION

From the position of a kneeling person seen in the previous

section a new pictogram is developed: the figure of a woman
clasping her hands to the front, perhaps suggesting

submission or pleading: 26. Women evidently play a key

role in the sinitic logical graphical representations, and its
icon diverts to a large number of secondary components and
compound characters.
The concept of woman also derives into the concept of
mother and other ideas related to gestation, such as
childbirth or parenting. We can see how representing the
aforementioned concept of motherhood is done by enhancing
the nipples of the icon of woman: 30, or how the
concept of body is suggested by the depiction of a pregnant
woman about to give birth, with the body of a baby visibly
inside the belly: 34.

26

woman


A woman sitting on her knees, with her hands clasped,
possibly suggesting an attitude of submission.

In the modern form, a visibly schematized glyph, the stroke

, points out the arms, the clasped hands, and the head,
where the strokes + () stand for the legs, trunk, and
shoulders.
 27

Perished woman

delusion

29

Woman holding something inside

pregnancy

28

Breathing woman

figure

30
Woman with nipples

exposed

mother

A kneeling woman with her breasts and nipples exposed,

evoking the maternal action of breastfeeding the ospring.

The modern form of the character can be easily traced from

the original character form of woman , whose strokes
have been elongated in order to make space for the two dots
() depicting the nipples.

When acting as a component, this characters adopts a

simplified form: , in which the two dots have been united
in a vertical line.
 31
Scruffy woman

each

Originally , a mother ( ) with her hair disheveled

( ), a mother with her external appearance unkempt,
thought to be the common looks of each and every mother
who feels distressed in his new busy lifestyle.

The traditional form of this character has been , where the

component (mother) is kept untouched. Interestingly, this
character was simplified in Japanese to the current form
whenever it works as a standalone, but keeps the traditional
form when working as a component. This phenomenon
occurs in several other simplified characters.

32

Person next to a scruffy woman

. to disdain

33

Newly pregnant woman

A body seen from the side in which the belly looks slightly
bulky, the body of a newly pregnant woman.

The stroke to the left reflects the arms, while the sinuous
stroke to the right indicates the curved trunk and the
legs.
 34
Woman in full gestation
body

The body of a pregnant woman touching her belly, seen from

the side. The meaning of body is thus doubly reinforced
with the figure of both the pregnant woman and that of the
baby (a new body) within her.

It can be seen that the strokes of this character are quite

evolved: the stroke on top shows the head, the oblique
line in the middle points out the arms, the form on top
of the latter suggests the pregnant belly with the baby inside
and the vertical line that arises from these last strokes, ,
indicates, finally, the legs.

35
Woman about to give birth
. to wrap

A person leaning () due to the weight of her swollen

abdomen containing a baby about to be born (), that is,
the body of a person wrapping another body.

36
Baby about to be born

completion
A baby who is fully formed but can not yet outstretch his
arms out, a baby that is about to be born.

The stroke represents the child's head and the body.

 37

newborn baby

A baby coming out headlong from the mothers belly, finally

able to outstretch his arms, a baby that has just been born.

The stroke on top depicts here the baby's legs, evokes

the trunk and the head, and the horizontal line indicates
the outstretched arms.

38
Baby becoming a grown

child
.
to fulfill
A newborn baby that progressively becomes a person able
to walk with his legs , a full grown child which has seen
his growth process fulfilled.

39


child

A child with a characteristic large head (), the body ()
and outstretched arms ().

It is worth to notice that this character is the reversed form

of (newborn baby). While that component evokes the
image of a child upside down coming out from the mother's
womb, this character shows us the image of that same child
in an upright position, already active and aware of his
surroundings.
 40

Woman and child
.
. to like

41
Person carrying a child
. to guard

A person holding a child with two arms , guarding and

protecting him.

The form here is the resulting strokes from the

component (child) where the head has preserved its
original appearance () plus , which is the image of two
arms holding that child.
4 | THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

By changing the point of view of the man from the side to the
front, and by stretching his arms to the sides 42, the
creators of the Chinese characters saw fit to give that
depiction of a man a more contextual relevance in society,
turning the meaning of person into that of big. But even
greater than the physical dimensions of man is the
transcendence obtained by the spiritual endeavours. That is
why an already big man who has seen his head enlarged
through mystical gnosis or heavenly connection, 44,
receives the meaning of heaven.
The big man who in old Chinese society arrived to the
time to be considered adult, he began to wear a distinctive
capillary attire made of a bun tied together with a hair-stick
58.On the other hand, the person who reached an old
age used to let his hair particularly long, graphically
emphasizing the passage of time and experience, and it was
not uncommon for him if, as it is done today, he helped
himself with a walking stick 60.

42


Person from the front
.

big
[adult]

A person seen from the front, with his arms and legs
extended to the sides, suggesting amplitude.
The central part stands here for the full body and two legs
and the crossing line represents the outstretched arms, as
in the character for child ().

When acting as a radical, the form may sometimes be

contracted to .

43
Person in the middle of two

other people

A person trapped or encased between two other people.

The current form is a simplification of , where the person

seen from the front () is clearly in between two other
components indicating person (). The current
simplified form has seen these components transformed into
two dots () and a straight line (), strokes that at the end
of the day are faster to write.

44
Enlightened person
heaven
A person seen from the front with his head enlarged,
indicating that he has attained cognition or gnosis towards
the divine. A man who is aware of the heavens.

In many of the characters in which there was originally a

thick line or a stain, there is now a thin horizontal line, due
to simplification attained while using brushes as a means of
writing. From such process it turns out that the original
character , where depicts an oversized head, has
evolved into its current form: .
 45
Standing person

. to stand (up)

Alteration of the character (person from the front), to which

a line underneath () has been added to indicate the
situation of being standing on the ground.

The original form of this glyph was , but over time the
strokes have been transformed into the current character: ,
where the legs have changed their orientation from outwards
( ) to inwards ().

As a component, this character may sometimes appear with

the form , a further evolution of the graph .

46

Person standing
position

47
Two standing people one

next to the other
.
. line
to line up
Originally , two people standing on the ground ( + )
one next to the other.

Over time the strokes of both characters have been

combined together forming the current character , where
the interior oblique strokes representing the legs of the
original components have become vertical, and the
outstretched arms and the ground have been united into
single lines.

As a component, this character usually takes its further

simplified form , in which the exterior oblique strokes
have transformed into a single straight line and the other
line depicting the ground has disappeared.

48

Person along a line of people

to get together

49
Person at the top

great
. thick

A person () on top of the ground (), as if he was

hovering over it.

This character contrasts with the character (), in which

the person directly touches the ground.

The composition of the glyph suggest, therefore, highness or

superiority. Eventually the character adopted the broad
meaning of great, bigger than big, and, in a more
mundane approach, also that of thick.
 50

Person with shackles

A person seen from front with his legs restrained by
shackles tied together through a chain.

The character has evolved over time. In the current form

stands for the head and arms and represent the two
restrained legs.

51

Person with crossed legs
.
.
to mingle

A person seen from the front ( ) with his legs crossed

().

The notion of crossing one leg to the other has resulted in

a semantic association to the broader meaning of mingling
or exchanging.

52

Wiggling person

A person wiggling or swaggering while moving his hands and
head.

Originally , the leaning stroke ( ) on top of the person

seen from the front () suggest the movement of that
person.
 53

A woman who is wiggling

bewitching

EXTRA INFO It is likely that the image evoked by this

character refers to the shamanistic role that women took in
the ancient Chinese folk tradition (the role is still
maintained to some degree in Korea and Japan), in which
they acted as spiritual guides while moving sinuously and
mysteriously, presumably possessed by the spirits. From
such a scene most probably the meaning of bewitching is
derived.

54

Person turned upside down

A person turned upside down.

It is simply the character (person seen from the front)

reversed, where the the strokes stand for the procumbent
legs, and the two crossing strokes depict the trunk and
the outstretched arms.

55
Person standing upright and

. person turned upside down
. fortune

This character, originally appearing as , is formed by the

components (person seen from the front), simplified to ,
and (person turned upside down). The character suggests,
therefore, the unpredictability of the fate, sometimes you
can turn to be face-up, and other times face-down.

56
Person working out the
fortune
. to take command

Originally , person working ( ) with a figurative

version of fortune ( ), a person who decides his own
destiny or that of the others, someone who becomes aware
of his actions and takes command upon them.

57
Person holding two heavy

objets
invigorating

Person () lifting two heavy objects () which

probably are some kind of full vessels, boasting his
strength and vigor.

58
Person with his hair tied in
a topknot

Adult person
husband

A standing man with a hair attire (), most probably a hair-

stick tying together a bun, that were used by grown up
married men.
The topknot worn by men is indeed extensively documented
as a common and outspread hairstyle in ancient China, were
it was known as ji ().

This character, as a component, takes the former meaning of

grown up man or adult person, while when working as a
standalone adopts the meaning of married person or
husband.

59
Person with long hair
. long

Originally , a person ( ) with loose, long hair ( ).

60
Person with long hair
leaning on a walking stick

. Old man
. old age
to grow old
A man with long hair leaning on a cane, suggesting the
meaning of old age.

This character has suered a steep transformation process.

The upper part represents a man's head with a long loose hair
( ), style typically worn by old sages of ancient China
that didnt feel necessary anymore to tie their hair in a bun.
The central stroke depicts an arm holding a cane, and the
component stands for the can itself () and a very
simplified version of the mans body ().
This glyph, when used as a component, omits the lower part
, appearing just as , and it is placed in the upper part of
the compounds.

61

An old man over a child

filial piety

An old man ( ) above a child (), or the later below

the former, a graphical representation of one of the key
concepts of the Ancient China's Confucian morals, termed
as filial piety, which refers to the subordination that in the
nuclear family the children owe to their parents and,
extrapolated to society in general, the subordination that
young people owe to those above their age.

62

Person wearing a raincoat

A person wearing a kind of hat () and a cloak or raincoat
() to protect himself from the rain.

63

Tattooed person


writing

A person seen from the front with a kind of design on his

chest, probably a person with some sort of symbolic tattoo.
Over time, this glyph's meaning came to be 'message',
'letters' or anything related to writing.

In the modern form of the character, only the outline

remains, and the design of the tattoo itself has disappeared
from the graph.
5 | THE MASKED MAN

As we have seen in the previous sections, peoples social

roles are of great importance within the world of Chinese
characters. In addition, according to the main traditional East
Asian normative doctrines (i.e. Confucianism), those social
roles were fixed and quasi-immovable. Nevertheless, there
was always the possibility, albeit limited, of supplanting or
suppressing one's ego to transcend, even momentarily, the
ferrous social restrictions. One of the most accessible ways to
break with personal identification starts by wearing a mask.
The use of masks with the aim of breaking with the norm
and adopting or playing a new personality is attested within
the Chinese characters through the icon which, while
depicting a person wearing a mask 64, acquires the
meaning of dierent.
On the other side, it is understandable that the figure
of someone hiding his identity can also arouse fear due to
its strangeness and mystery, even more if the person hidden

behind the mask is holding a threatening stick 67.

64
A person putting on a mask
. different

A person seen from the front putting on a mask with both

hands in order to adopt a dierent appearance.

In the original character , the body and legs () are visible

below the two raised hands () that are holding the mask
(). However, over time, the bottom part of the graph ( +
) eventually became the compound , where both hands
and arms have been contracted to , and the legs to .

65

Person dancing with a mask on

A person who wears a mask and wiggles his trunk and arms,
a person of a strange and peculiar appearance.

The upper part of the component, , shows the face with a

mask, while the lower part shows the open arms and the
body making a serpentine movement.

66

Person stumbling upon another person

who is dancing with a mask on .
unexpectedly

67
Person wearing a mask and

holding a stick
fear
A person wearing a mask () and holding up a club while
making threatening gestures.

In a similar fashion to the character (person holding a tool),

the strokes standing for the stick and the strokes
representing the arms and legs of the person have merged
into the form .
6 | HUMAN MEASURES

One of the last conceptual derivations that we can draw from

the human figure is the proportion and measures obtained
from it. It is notorious that prior to the international
standardization of measures of length, most human groups
used the human body as a reference. The Chinese characters
reflect this fact in two primitive characters. One reflects the

measurement of the calf of a sitting person 68, and the

other the length from head to the feet of a person in a
straight position 69. In the beginning both characters
were purely pictographic and alluded directly to these
measures, however, over time, the second character came to
designate the inmaterial measure of a long period of time.

68
The calf of a person being
measured

unit of length (approx.
30cm)

The span () of the lower part of the bent leg of a sitting

person (): the length of a calf.

69
A stretched person being

measured
.
long time
Originally , the span () covering the distance that goes
from the head to the feet of an upright person ( ), the
longest distance within the human scale.

Over time this character expanded the meaning related to

the spatial length to indicate also the long temporal
distances, being this meaning of 'long time' the only one that
this character preserves today.
REVIEW ON PEOPLE

1


2