This character looks like water — but its ancient

Originally a Bronze Age image of a person wading i

A 10-stroke character meaning 'cool' — yet in his

Born from water and 'little', 消 isn’t about dest

Its 'hand' component 又 isn’t a hand at all — it

This 'wave' character hides a paradox: its right s

Originally a bronze-age geyser bursting from a mou

Though it means 'to live,' 活’s water radical and

Its nine strokes hide an ancient river map: 氵 +

Though it means 'ocean,' 洋 is almost never used a

Originally a dot-in-a-cave pictograph of water's b

This 'moreover' character began as a frozen elder

Originally a Han-dynasty symbol for pressed plant

A water radical (氵) guards a character meaning 'd

This 6-stroke character began as ancient script fo

Though it means 'Yangtze River', 江 isn’t just a

This 'sweat' character hides a paradox: its right

This 5-stroke character began as a bronze-age pict

This 5-stroke character began as a flowing river i

This 'mother' character began as an ancient pictog

This 'death' character began as a skull beside a c

Born as a foot stepping onto a marked spot in orac

This 'stop' character began as a carved footprint

This character began as ‘a sigh of insufficiency

Born from ancient bronze inscriptions of kneeling

Though it looks like 'elephant + tree', 橡 has not

Originally a pictograph of wooden beams over water

Though it means 'mark', 标 began as a wooden bound