Born as a drowning man under water, this 7-stroke

This 4-stroke character began as ancient pictograp

This 6-stroke character began as a pictograph of a

This 'chair' character hides a Tang-dynasty cultur

Born over 1,500 years ago as 'lofty wood,' 桌 didn

This ‘wood-cross’ character began as a prison st

Originally a Bronze Age drawing of fruit hanging f

This 'east' character began as a pictograph of a t

This 'cup' began as a carved wooden vessel 3,000 y

Though it looks like a moon character, 期 is reall

This 'clothes' character began as a pictograph of

This 'friend' character began as two ancient cowri

This 'moon' character is also 'month' — because a

This 'book' character began as a hand wielding a b

This 'yesterday' character hides a 'Z' in its righ

This character’s four dots aren’t decorative —

Born as sun-and-moon side by side on oracle bones,

This 'dozen' character hides in plain sight: its f

Ancient scribes drew 想 as an eye gazing at the su

This 'how' character hides a heart — literally: i

This 'very' began as a Bronze Age glyph meaning 'h

This 'picture' isn’t drawn—it’s cast by light:

Though now meaning 'shop,' 店 began as a Silk Road

This 'teacher' character began as a military comma

This 'age' character originally pictured a farmer

This 4-stroke character began as scattered dots ov

This 5-stroke 'write' character hides a 3,000-year

Originally a person under a roof with a ritual sta

Originally a roof sheltering a child—symbolizing

Born as a clever scribal shortcut — 'horse' + 'wo

Originally combining 'woman' and 'seniority', 姐 i

Invented in 1917 as China’s first gendered pronou

Originally a kneeling woman in oracle bone script

This 4-stroke character began as a cosmic exaggera

Born as a pictograph of a wedge-cut plot of earth,

This 'sit' character began as two people kneeling

Ancient scribes drew a whirlpool — now this 6-str

This 'question mark in disguise' has no meaning of

This 'drink' character hides a shout: same glyph p

Originally a ritual drum + mouth — this character