Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (74）Cao Chong Weighs the Elephant - 曹冲称象

During 220-280, it is called Three Kingdoms Era in China. One was Wei, its King was Cao Cao. He had many sons, one was Cao Chong, who was very smart. 

When he was six years old, Sun Quan,  the King of Wu, gave an elephant to Cao Cao as a gift. Cao Cao wanted to know the weight of the elephant, he asked his ministers how to get the weight of then elephant. No on had the answer. Cao Chong, who told his father :"I know how to do it". His father let Chong say it.

Chong said:"We can lead the elephant to the board of a boat in river, and mark the watermark. We replace the elephant with stones until reaching the watermark, and we weigh the stones in batches, and add them up to get the weight of the elephant". 

Chong's amazing idea solved the problem all adults couldn't. The story became one of the most famous stories in Chinese history, now it is in school text book for all primary school students. 

Here is my artwork "Cao Chong Weighs the Elephant".

The characters in the artwork:

1, Elephant

2, Boat

3, Water

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (73) Black fungus - 黑木耳

 Black fungus (Auricularia polytricha) is a popular food in China. Chinese call it as Black Wood Ear, because it looks like ear and growth on wood. 

Let's see the three Chinese characters.

The big seal script of character Black is

The clerical script of Black

The shell bone script of character Black is

The shell bone script of character Ear is

Here is my artwork: Black Fungus - 黑木耳

Three characters have been minor modified. 

 

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (72) Imagine - 想象

Characters in the artwork

Think  - big seal script.

The top is Wood (left) + Eye (right), means "Observe trees", the bottom is Heart. Ancient Chinese believed that people think from heart, at least heart is important same as the brain in thinking.

The character means "Think or Thinking".

Elephant - shell bone script.

Think Elephant = Imagine. Why is not "Think Pig", "Think Dog", "Think Horse", "Think Tiger" ?

There were elephants living in Yellow river area long long time ago. Ancient Chinese saw elephants, so they could draw elephant in shell bone script. However, as the weather changed, the forest in Yellow river area disappeared, many elephants died due to lack of food, some might have moved to south. The elephants gradually disappeared in Yellow river even most of China. Gradually, the younger generation had ever seen elephants, they only heard the older generatuon told them what elephant looks like, they had to imagine the animal in their brain. Therefore, thinking elephant is a process of imagination. 

Because people could easily see all other animals, didn't need imagination, elephant is the only animal in ancient China people needed imagination to get its image. 

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (71) Long Time No See - 好久不见

Character Good - big seal script: the left is character Child, the right is character Woman. It is good for you to have a wife and child, or it is good for a woman to have a child.

Character Long - big seal script.

Character Not - big seal script.

Character Meet - big seal script.

Chinese say "Good" sometimes means Very, here is Very. 

Good Long Not Meet = Long Time No See.

 

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy（70）Evolution of character Tiger - 虎字的演变

 From left to right: Shell bone script, bronze script, big seal script, small seal script, clerical script.

The shell bone script is a vertical standing tiger because it was drawn on bamboo strip, very narrow.

Bronze, big seal scripts are similar to shell bone script, but simplified tiger.

Small seal script is totally different, I can't tell which is which.

Clerical script has a little bit similarity to small script. 

The song typeface (current formal printing script) is 虎 (not on the artwork).

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (69) 2020 - Clouds and mists will finally dissipate

 

The characters in the artwork above

1, 二： Two or 2. It is clerical script alike.

2, 〇：Zero, or 0

3, Cloud (big seal script)

4, Open (big seal script）

5, Mists (big seal script)

6, Dissipate (big seal script)

7, Finally (small seal script)

I modified this one to big seal script alike because big seal script has not been found.

8, Have (big seal script)

9, Time (big seal script)

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There are too many characters involved in the artwork, however, only the top line is important, which has only two characters: Two, and Zero. So if you understand the first line, it is enough. Don't worry the second and third lines right now. The title explains the meaning: Clouds and mists will finally dissipate. 

Pictographic Chinese Calligraphy (68) The water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it up - 水能载舟，亦能覆舟

"The water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it up - 水能载舟，亦能覆舟" is famous Chinese proverb. It means that something or someone may help you to success, but they may destroy you if the condition changes.

The characters in the artwork:

1, Boat - Shell bone script

2, Water - Small seal script