1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Compared with the former Chinese character, this one seems to be much more easier as far as the strokes are mentioned. 甲(jiǎ) in the ancient Chinese means armors that soldiers wore when going to war. The original character of甲is in the form of square or circle. There are altogether four pieces in a suit of armor. Later it developed into simply a crisscross.

Picture a and b are just a crisscross, so it’s easy. In picture c (小篆, xiǎozhuàn, the lesser script)  it’s just like the capital “T” under the radical “宀”.

Picture d look similar to the modern Chinese character. Picture e is the regular script (楷书, kǎishū). As usual the last two are also the character written in the cursive script and running script respectively.

That’s all for this time’s “the Origin of Chinese Characters”. Please do not hesitate to e-mail me at zhaopingping@crifm.com, if you have any suggestions or comments about the article. I wil adopt the reasonable ones to better serve for you.

(edited by Zhao Pingping)