Lesson 11 Symmetric and upright symbols 日目

Lesson 11 Symmetric and upright symbols 日目

Speaking of symmetric and upright symbols, let’s start with the sun symbol 日, it’s a square 口 divided by a horizontal bar. The hieroglyph is a circle ○ with a dot at the center, yet it turned to 日, a square with a bar within the middle.

The order of strokes are shown in the animation, draw the ㄇ (red) strokes first, then finish the 日 symbol with two horizontal bars (blue strokes).

日

sun, day

pronunciation: Rì

This symbol 日 is symmetric and upright. In this lesson and next lesson we will learn some symbols which look symmetric, upright, also with a rectangle part, like those we have learned such as 口 (mouth), 回 (return) in Lesson 03, 中 (center), 古 (ancient), 吉 (lucky) in Lesson 05, and 田 (farmland) in Lesson 09.

So far we have also learned some symmetric characters like: ㄧ (one), 二 (two), 三 (three) in Lesson 01, 十 (ten) in Lesson 02, 土 (earth), 士 (learned person), 工 (work), 王 (king) in Lesson 03. 

Strictly speaking, the human symbol 人 could be “quasi-symmetric” since its head is facing the right-hand side in calligraphy. Thus the symbols 大 (big), 天 (sky), 夫 (husband) in Lesson 06 could be considered as “quasi-symmetric” with the same reason as the human symbol 人.

Let’s go back to the sun symbol 日, it could be day, the day unit also, like 三日, it means 三 (three) plus 日 (day) as 三日 (three days).

Another 2-character word is 日光, the sunlight, it’s the combination of 日 (sun) plus 光 (light, Lesson 07).

This 日 symbol is also the abbreviation of Japan 日本, like 日文, the Japanese, Japanese language, 日文 is the combination of 日 (Japanese) + 文 (language, Lesson 10). 

It’s just like 中文, Chinese language, which is 中 (China) + 文 (language).

目

eye, item

pronunciation: Mù

The next symmetric and upright symbol is 目, a classic word for eye (noun), see (verb). The writing strokes are similar to 日 (sun). There are three horizontal bars to add within the ㄇ shape.

Here is a 2-character word: 目光, vision, sight, a look, gaze. It’s the combination of 目 (eye) with 光 (light, Lesson 07).

By the way, this 目 symbol is the elementary part of some words related with eye, sight, view, etc., and we will see it again later.

Thanks for your reading and practicing, any positive feedback is welcome.

Review and further study

日

sun, day

pronunciation: Rì

click to view more details about this symbol:

with pronunciation play button, calligraphic strokes animation, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…

三日

three days

pronunciation: sān rì

日光

sunlight

pronunciation: rì guāng

日本

Japan

pronunciation: rì běn

日文

Japanese language

pronunciation: rì wén

中文

Chinese language

pronunciation: zhōng wén

目

eye, item

pronunciation: Mù

click to view more details about this symbol:

with pronunciation play button, calligraphic strokes animation, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…

目光

vision, sight

pronunciation: mù guāng