暑 reading
Origin of the character
The character '暑' is a phono-semantic compound, formed by joining '日' (sun), which carries the meaning, with '者', which indicates the sound. In ancient oracle-bone and bronze scripts, it sometimes depicted a person standing beneath the '日' (sun), portraying someone suffering under the blazing heat. It connects with '煮' (to boil), reinforcing the sense of "hot." By the small-seal script it settled into its present form of '日' and '者', clearly conveying the meaning "the sunlight is scorching."
How it is built
暑 (hot) = 日 (sun) + 者 (one/that)
This character combines '日' (sun) with '者', a pronoun or demonstrative. '者' originally serves a phonetic role while also pointing to a particular object, as in "this" or "that"; here it functions either to emphasize "the very heat of this sun" or as a sound element evoking "something boiling." Other characters expressing heat include '暖' (warm), formed from '日' and '爰' (warmth), and '溫' (warm), formed with '昷', which denotes water and mildness.
In its line
Cold comes, and heat goes.
Line 5 of 250 in the Thousand Character Classic.
Words with this character
- 避暑山莊피서산장
A villa or garden built in the mountains to escape the heat. Especially famous is the Bishu Shanzhuang, the Rehe summer palace where the Qing emperors Kangxi and Qianlong tended to state affairs during the hot season.
- 酷暑혹서
Bitterly severe heat. The character '酷' means "harsh" or "extreme," and the term is used to express the intense heat of summer.
After writing
In Confucianism, "heat" is understood as the season in which all things grow and ripen within nature's cycle. Humans should accord with nature's order, yet it is also something to be "overcome." Mencius said that "when Heaven is about to entrust a great mission to someone, it first torments their mind and will, exhausts their sinews and bones, starves their body, and frustrates their endeavors so that nothing goes as they wish" — suggesting that enduring nature's hardships, heat included, is part of self-cultivation.Confucianism
As you drew each stroke slowly, did a moment from today come to mind?
