The character 人 is a pictograph. In the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty this character appears like the image of a person edge-on. Later inscriptions on ancient bronze objects show it is essentially the same, and in seal characters it begins to take the form of text. The form and meaning throughout history have remained unchanged. MagiChinese interprets “人” as “a person standing with both legs spread apart and face to the left”. This strictly adheres to the ancient form and meaning of the Chinese character, enabling users to truly achieve scientific and effective recognition of Chinese characters!

The character 火 is a pictograph. In the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty this character appears like a burning flame. Later inscriptions on ancient bronze objects and in seal characters, the character becomes more orderly, and the form has essentially not changed, with its meaning throughout history consistently being “flame”. MagiChinese interprets “火” as “A fire”. This strictly adheres to the ancient form and meaning of the Chinese character, enabling users to truly achieve scientific and effective recognition of Chinese characters!

The character 鼠 is a pictograph. Throughout history its meaning has not changed. In the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty this character appears like a mouse with a pointed mouth, big ears, and a long tail chewing on something. Later inscriptions on ancient bronze objects show it takes the shape of a crouching mouse, with the top like a head and teeth, and the bottom like feet and tail. MagiChinese interprets “鼠” as “a mouse crouching on the ground”. This fully respects the origins of Chinese characters, giving users more scientific and effective contents for learning Chinese characters.

The character 明 is an ideograph. It means the bright sun and moon. Its components of 日 and 月 are both pictographs, whose ancient form and meaning have not changed. MagiChinese interprets “明” as “a sun and a moon”. This strictly adheres to the ancient form and meaning of the Chinese character, enabling users to truly achieve scientific and effective recognition of Chinese characters!

The character 西 is a pictograph. Throughout history there have been changes to the meaning and form of this character. In the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty this character appears like a round bamboo tool. Later inscriptions on ancient bronze show the character appearing like a bird in a nest, with the sun in the west and the bird resting. Today in standard script the character has changed its form again. MagiChinese interprets “西” as “two birds resting in a nest as the sun sets”. This gives overall consideration to common meanings of the Chinese character, changes to the form of the character, as well as the characteristics of learners when recognizing characters, enabling users to learn easily and with interest.

The character 黑 is a pictograph. Throughout history its meaning has not changed, while the form of the text has developed and changed over time. In the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty this character appears like an adorned human head. In later inscriptions on ancient bronze objects, it appears like black dots on a head, with an adorned body. In seal characters, the character exhibits a change, and takes on the appearance of “炎火” in the bottom portion. In today’s standard script, the “炎火” has been changed to 灬. MagiChinese interprets “黑” as “someone turned soot-black from a fire”. This adheres to the ancient meaning, respecting the evolution of the form of Chinese characters, which allows users to comprehend the beauty in the evolution of Chinese characters, and to better grasp the meaning and form of Chinese characters.

The character 龟 is a pictograph. Throughout history its meaning has not changed, while the form of the text has developed and changed over time, becoming more simplified. However, this character always appears like a turtle. MagiChinese interprets “龟” as “a turtle”. This adheres to the ancient meaning, respecting the evolution of the form of Chinese characters, which allows users to comprehend the beauty in the evolution of Chinese characters, and to better grasp the meaning and form of Chinese characters.

The character 虎 is a pictograph. Throughout history its meaning has not changed, while the form of the text has developed and changed over time, becoming more simplified. However, this character always appears like a tiger. MagiChinese interprets “虎” as “a tiger”. This adheres to the ancient meaning, respecting the evolution of the form of Chinese characters, which allows users to comprehend the beauty in the evolution of Chinese characters, and to better grasp the meaning and form of Chinese characters.

The character 龙 is a pictograph. Throughout history its meaning has not changed. In the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty this character appears like the legendary form of a dragon. Later inscriptions on ancient bronze objects see the character become more akin to text. With the evolution into standard text, the character was written as 龍, and has now been simplified to 龙. MagiChinese interprets “龙” as “a dragon with claws outstretched playing with a ball”. This adheres to the ancient meaning, respecting the evolution of the form of Chinese characters, which allows users to comprehend the beauty in the evolution of Chinese characters, and to better grasp the meaning and form of Chinese characters.

The character 推 is a sonogram. Inscriptions on ancient bronze objects show a 手 and a pronunciation of 隹. The left side 扌 refers to a hand while the right side 隹 a bird. The meaning of the character has not changed, with relatively little change to the form of the character since ancient times. MagiChinese interprets “推” as “a hand pushing a bird away”. This fully respects the origins of Chinese characters, giving users more scientific and effective contents for learning Chinese characters.

The character 看 is an ideograph. Inscriptions on ancient bronze show the character with a hand above the eye, implying using one’s hand to cover one’s eyes to gaze into the distance. MagiChinese interprets “看” as “a hand touching an eye as the eye looks far off into the distance”. This strictly adheres to the ancient form and meaning of the Chinese character, enabling users to truly achieve scientific and effective recognition of Chinese characters!

The character 电 is an ideograph. From 雨 or from 申, its essential meaning is sharp lightning occurring during a thunderstorm, and its ancient meaning has not changed. In the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty this character appears like lightning crackling from various directions. Later inscriptions on ancient bronze objects show the character’s change, with the character “雨” added to emphasize that lightning is an occurrence accompanied by rain. Today this character has been simplified to “电”. MagiChinese interprets “电” as “a bolt of lightning in the clouds”. This adheres to the ancient meaning, respecting the evolution of the form of Chinese characters, which allows users to comprehend the beauty in the evolution of Chinese characters, and to better grasp the meaning and form of Chinese characters.