This six-stroke 'sweep' character evolved from a p

Originally a hand sealing something shut — now Ch

Originally a pictograph of a sprout bursting from

This 'trick' character hides a warrior’s halberd

Born as a pictograph of an armed city-state, 或 ev

This character began as 'threading coins' — now i

This 'wish' character hides a moral compass: its h

This 'feeling' character hides a warrior's weapon

Originally a 'ghostly person' beside a heart, 怪 e

This 'urgent' character hides a leaping heart — i

Its 'white' component (白) is a phonetic ghost —

This ‘forget’ character doesn’t show a blank br

Originally an arrow hitting its mark — now the mo

Its ancient pictograph showed a foot stepping *bac

Born from the taut string of an ancient bow, 张 ev

Its top half 冒 means 'to emerge' — so 帽 literal

Born as a knotted silk sash in ancient rituals, 带

Originally a bronze-age diagram of a walled market

This 3-stroke character began as a coiled serpent

This 'difference' character began as a picture of

This 3-stroke character is a near-perfect 3,000-ye

Though it looks like 'corpse' (尸) resting on 'onc

This 'dwelling' character morphed into a linguisti

Originally a roof sheltering a person, 容 evolved

Ancient Chinese saw harm as a snake slithering und

Originally a woman resting safely under a roof —

Born as 'youngest son' in oracle bone script, it m

This character literally means 'marriage at dusk'

This 'aunt' character hides ancient diplomacy in i

Its 8 strokes hide a Bronze Age pose of astonishme

This 'first dynasty' character began as a dancing

Though it means 'bad', 坏 originally pictured crum

Looks like 'earth' + 'completion' — and it is: th

This character began as a pictograph of a walled e

Originally a tiger-in-a-box symbolizing territoria

This ‘garden’ character began as a pictograph of

Born 2,300 years ago as a ‘mouth that is’ (口+是

This 'beer' character was invented in the 1870s —

This 10-stroke 'mouth + sound' character carries z

This character started as two mouths wailing over