The Chinese characters 戈 meaning is spear or lance.

戈 is a pictographic representation of an weapon of ancient China - a lance equipped with hook and crossbar. Although this and other ancient Chinese weapons are now obsolete, man has not even begun to beat his swords into ploughshares or his spears into pruning hooks.

This is a famous Chinese poetry. The author is poet Du Fu (杜甫) in the Tang Dynasty. Du Fu is a great realism poet. He wrote poetry more than 1,400 in all one’s life. Therefore, he is known as “Poetry Sage”. Du Fu lived in the historical period that Tang Dynasty was from prosperity to declining. His poetries mostly touch upon the society, politics or people.

First two sentences of this poem describe natural beautiful scenery. It seems to be a light-hearted ambience. The third sentence symbolizes pressure through snow. Write out the poet’s heavy heart in the end sentence. The key of this Chinese poetry is that express heavy mood through relaxing scenery.

Please watch the Flash above and appreciate this Chinese poetry. The following is the English translation of this Chinese poetry:

A Heptasyllabic Quatrain
Two orioles sing in the green willows,
A flock of egrets fly to the blue sky.
See the snow-capped peak of Mount West from my window,
Open the door and see Wu warships that are about to an anabasis.

Note:
Wu: Suzhou and surrounding areas in Jiangsu Province, China.

The following is the original Chinese text:

绝句

两个黄鹂鸣翠柳，

一行白鹭上青天。

窗含西岭千秋雪，

门泊东吴万里船。

The Chinese characters 手 meaning is hand.

The earliest pictograph for hand placed undue emphasis on the palm lines as basis. Practical experience, however, put man on the right lines - the fingers. Finally, reinforced with straight lines the character assumed the modem form - with fingers of unequal length. As the proverb goes, “Of the ten fingers, some are long and some are short.” - proved handy as radical for numerous Chinese characters with its variants 扌.

The Chinese characters 友 meaning is friend.

The Chinese character for “friend” originated with two right hands acting co-operatively in the same direction, and later reaching out to clasp each other in friendship. By placing the hands, one upon the other, with a little straightening out, man derived the modern reinforced form: 友.

The Chinese characters 奴 meaning is slave or servant.

A woman (女) under the hand of a master signifies slave (奴). The components 女 and 又 put together literally mean “handmaid” — a female who slaves with her hands. 奴 includes slaves of both sexes who serve their masters hand and foot.

The Chinese characters 中 meaning is center, middle or neutral.

By shooting an arrow into the center of a square target, man scored a bull’s-eye and secured a mark for “center”. He added a decoration of four stripes; rearranged them; stripped them off; and finally hit his mark for simplicity: 中. The symbol also means standing in the middle or neutrality (中立). Unfortunately, in the application of neutrality, man has completely missed his mark.

The Chinese characters 下 meaning is down, below or descend.

The concept of down and below is clarified in relation to a horizontal line. The stroke below the fundamental line was originally a dot, which was extended to a line for ease in writing. The modified forms eventually led to the final ideograph: 下. The Chinese characters below, although literally under water, are figuratively above water.

The Chinese characters 上 meaning is up, above or ascend.

Since up and down, above and below are relative and abstract terms, man conveyed the ideas graphically by relating a simple stroke to a horizontal foundation line. This stroke above the base line was originally a dot, extended to a line, propped upright, embellished and finally stabilized: 上. Pictured above are the abstract ideas of up and above, translated very stiffly into concrete forms.

The following is the flash of Chinese characters 上.

The Chinese characters 西 meaning is west.

As the sun settles in the west birds roost in their nests; so a cross-hatched bird’s nest provided the cradle for “west”, and nest became the original west. Man’s fertile imagination conceived a new ideogram — a nest with a brooding bird. Finally developed into a full-fledged Chinese character for west: 西. As all “things” exist between east (东) and west (西), the combination east-west, meaning “things”, came to be applied to anything from east to west.

The following is the flash of Chinese characters 西.

The Chinese characters 东 meaning is east.

Man turned his head around, looking for a suitable sign for “east” — the direction he faced when he saw the sun rise every day. He succeeded one morning when he observed the sun (日) through the trees (木). So sun behind tree became east (東). Fortunately, success did not turn man’s head, otherwise he would have been left facing the wrong direction.

The following is the flash of Chinese characters 东.