The pictographic element of the Chinese written script: 02 (Animal characters)

The characters with the most obvious pictographic element are those for animals.  Here, I give the traditional version first, then the simplified.

    (For those who might not know this:  the simplified script, officially adopted by post-1949 mainland China [The People's Republic of China], was mostly artificially created for cutting down the level of illiteracy -- yes, it's hard for Chinese people, too, to learn their own written script.  I say "mostly artificially created", because a lot of simplified characters already existed in some simplified form or other in real life down the centuries, a sort of unofficial cursive / shorthand adopted by the users.  So, the Language Reform Committee seemed to have taken a lot of their inspirations from the grassroots level -- why not?

    Back in the 1960s, I remember my second sister writing the two halves of the character for "trust / letter" 信 xìn as 亻and 文, which is not on the official list.  After all, the character 這 (zhè / this) has been simplified to 这, with the 言 half reduced to 文, so why not the 言 in 信?  An oversight on the part of the Language Reform Committee?  That's another story to come.)

    Characters for animals:  you will see that the traditional forms are closer pictographically to the animals themselves, but all credit to the Language Reform Committee for trying their best to match the spirit while reducing the number of strokes required to write the characters.

馬 / 马 mǎ / horse

魚 / 鱼 yú / fish

鳥 / 鸟 niǎo / bird

烏 / 乌 wū / crow; black (can't see the eye in the bird)

爪 / 爪 zhǎo (/ [colloquial] zhuǎ) / claw

龜 / 龟 guī / tortoise

龍 / 龙 lóng / dragon

   If you can't visualise the animals from the characters (whichever version), you can google the brush stroke renditions for a more artistically realistic version.

Chinese expressions: 02 (有靈性 / 有灵性)

  

I've been listening to a few story-telling series on YouTube for my insomnia.

    They are soothing because the majority of the stories are set in the China of a few hundred years ago (rather than modern life which is what I have trouble with), and a lot of them feature animals that have been saved by humans then coming back later to repay their debt, which is touching (especially after I've seen all too many grasping ungrateful humans only out for their own interests).

    There's a Chinese expression: 

有靈性 / 有灵性

yǒu líng xìng

"have spirit nature"

to have spirituality

靈性 / 灵性 / líng xìng / spirituality is something that the Chinese would immediately understand because it's more widely believed, but perhaps not so easy to convey in English because it's not such a commonly held belief (I think).

(from googling) 

动物有灵性，这不仅体现在生物学上的高智商、复杂情感和特殊能力（如大象的嗅觉、海豚的记忆、狗的忠诚），也源于文化和传说中对狐狸、蛇、黄鼠狼等动物的“灵物”崇拜，认为它们有通灵法力，能与人互动，并受到佛教道教等思想的推崇，强调对生命的尊重和善待。

(google translate)

Quote

Animals possess a spirituality, which is not only reflected in their high intelligence, complex emotions, and special abilities in biology (such as the sense of smell of elephants, the memory of dolphins, and the loyalty of dogs), but also stems from the cultural and legendary worship of animals such as foxes, snakes, and weasels as "spiritual beings," believing that they have spiritual powers and can interact with humans. This belief is also revered by Buddhist and Taoist philosophies, which emphasize respect for and kindness towards life. 

Unquote

(from googling)

Quote

Among animals, snakes, turtles, soft-shelled turtles, foxes, weasels, crabs, eels, and hedgehogs are all considered highly spiritual creatures. Snakes, in particular, are believed to possess the strongest spirituality and magical power. The Taoist classic *Taishang Ganying Pian* states that "killing turtles and snakes without cause" is something even Heaven cannot protect one from.

Unquote

(from googling) Taishang Ganying Pian / 太上感應篇 / The Treatise on Response and Retribution holds great relevance in our current era of moral collapse and turbid confusion.

    The YouTube stories do feature quite a few snakes and foxes (the highest count in the ones I've heard), a few cows, one turtle, a kind of fish, but not crabs.

    The spirituality element refers to them knowing gratitude and the need to show gratitude / acknowledge the debt, i.e., they are not what some people call "dumb animals" but actually able to process higher-intelligence levels of the workings of life.

    I've seen a YouTube video of a dog in the same courtyard as a number of fish that have been left on the concrete floor, still alive -- presumably freshly caught and going to be served up for dinner.

    The dog uses its snout to splash, in turn, the fish with some of the water from the little puddles on the courtyard floor, to try and help the fish a bit.

    This would come under 有靈性 / 有灵性 / yǒu líng xìng / "have spirit nature" / have spirituality.  The dog can process what it sees -- that the fish are struggling to live, being left on the concrete floor -- so it tries to keep them alive by using its snout to shovel water onto the fish.  This is what some humans are not even capable of.

    On a lighter note, I once saw a video from the CCTV records in a dogs' home.  Staff had noticed dog food stocks going down, and initially thought it might've been theft.  Going through their CCTV records, they saw that what had been happening was:  one particular dog somehow managed to get out of its kennel after staff had gone home.  Wandering around, it then discovered that the door to the food store room was not locked, so it went around all the individual kennels to let the occupants out (by standing up on its hind legs and using its front paws to push the door handle down), then led them to the store room for a midnight feast -- night after night.

Chinese characters: 02 (鮮 (鲜) / xiān, xiǎn)

 

鮮 (鲜) is made up of 魚 (鱼) / yú / fish and 羊 yáng / sub-family caprinae which includes sheep and goat.

    Pronounced in the first tone (level tone: xiān), it means “fresh”, which is easy to understand.  Fish and sheep/goat meat are strong in smell, especially if they go off, so they have to be fresh.  (I know, I know, the logic should be a character that indicates “not fresh” as they smell so strong, but then I tend to choose a path that makes it easier for my students to understand / remember.)

    Another reading for the same character, however, is a third tone version (xiǎn), which means “rare”, e.g., 

鮮有 / 鲜有 / xiǎn yǒu / “rare have” = to be few and far between 

鮮見 / 鲜见 / xiǎn jiàn / “rare see” = to be seldom met with 

鮮為人知 / 鲜为人知 / xiǎn wéi rén zhī / “rare by people know” = to be little known

    Now, isn’t that interesting:  that “fresh” and “rare” should share the same character!?

    Here's my personal theory.  In ancient days when the written script first came into being, technology hadn’t got to the point of making transporting fresh food fast and easy.

    Therefore, fresh fish would’ve been rare, because a huge tract of China is away from the sea and even from rivers.  

    Ditto fresh sheep/goat meat:  China doesn't have that much land for rearing grazing animals like cows and sheep, because so much of it is mountains or desert, so it’s not a country known for its dairy culture (haha, word play!).