This 'sort' character began as a prince's name and

Looks like ‘wood + reverse’, but 反 here is just

Born from a boat hauling cargo, 搬 still demands y

Originally an arrow hitting its mark — now the mo

This 'half' character began as a carved line split

Born as a pictograph of a fetus in the womb, this

This 6-stroke character began as wavy oracle bone

This 7-stroke character started as a hand gripping

This ‘side’ character contains a walking radical

This 'visitor' character began as a kneeling ritua

This 'brush' character began as a bamboo stalk cro

This 'hundred' doesn't mean 100 — it started as '

Originally a glowing rice sprout in oracle bone sc

This character began as a pictograph of a person l

This ‘class’ character began as a ritual image o

Originally two people standing side-by-side to mea

Originally two facing feet in oracle bone script,

This 'help' character hides a cloth radical — bec

Originally a bronze-age image of a hand delivering

Born from a coiling snake glyph, this 7-stroke mou

Originally a ritual knife marking something 'set a

This 8-stroke character hides a Bronze Age bluepri

Though it means ‘convenient’ or ‘cheap’, 便 or

Originally a ritual robe worn to declare rank — n

This 'dad' character wasn’t ancient — it was inv

This 'cup' began as a carved wooden vessel 3,000 y

Originally a pictograph of two people back-to-back

This 'eight' began as a pictograph of parting hand

This 'root' character began as a tree with a line

Originally a pictograph of a pheasant — now the w