This 'speak' character hides a 3,000-year-old barg

Originally a kneeling child pictograph, 子 now wea

This three-stroke character began as a dot beneath

This 'can' character began as a roaring bear in or

This minimalist 3-stroke character began as a carp

Born 3,000 years ago as a mouth sealed inside a wa

This 'year' character began as a pictograph of a f

Originally a bronze-age scene of people debating u

Originally a bronze-age diagram of two ritual obje

This 4-stroke character began as twin arrows flyin

This 5-stroke character began as two footprints st

Born as a pictograph of a person chiseling — now

Born as a sprout breaking earth in oracle bones, t

This humble 5-stroke character didn’t exist in cl

This 'come' character began as a picture of wheat

This ‘time’ character began as a sun observed by

This 'he' character wasn't ancient — it was inven

This 'I' began as a Bronze Age warrior’s halberd

This 'country' character began as a walled village

Originally a pictograph of a person standing betwe

This deceptively simple 3-stroke character began a

Originally a pictograph of a person standing tall

Originally a ritual banner pole — now the philoso

Born in Song-dynasty cursive script, 这 fused 'wri

This two-stroke character began as a walking human

Originally a bronze-age image of mouths chanting i

This ‘have’ character began as a hand clutching

This two-stroke character began as a spear hook in

Originally a pictograph of a pheasant — now the w

This 'at/in/on' character began as a foot stamping

The earliest form of 一 appears in oracle bone ins

The earliest form of 的 appears in Warring States