Friday, March 3, 2017

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (25) Love in Love - 愛 in Love

Love is the most important word in the world. What ancient Chinese did think about Love? How did they show their thinking in character Love?

The earliest character for Love is big seal script


in the middle of lower part,

is Heart 
Something is around the Heart, what is it?

The 《象形字典》(Pictography Dictionary) explains the character: the surrounding heart is  character 欠,which original means that open mouth, breath out, or speak softly. So the meaning of the character is "To care from one's heart, to show love with a soft voice", which is Love.

Let's see its small seal script


Then we see the small seal script for Love


It is all similar to big seal script except there is an extra 夕 alike part on the bottom, which is an up-down 止 (foot). So the small seal script has all the meaning of big seal script, plus "To follow the heart anywhere with ones foot".

The song typeface of the character of Love is

Traditional song typeface

Simplified song typeface (the heart is missing)
Now, you understand what Chinese character Love means.

Here is my work" Love in Love" (愛 in Love).


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