The Origin and Evolution of "Year"

Years, knowing and pictophonetic characters.

1. The word "nian" written by Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the upper part is a string of grain pictograms with drooping ears, and the lower part is a pictograph of a person with his arms hanging down and bending over. Together, the two words are like the shape of a person with negative grain, which means a bumper harvest and a bumper harvest. "People" is also a sound.

2. The shape of the word "Nian" on the bronze inscription is very similar to that of Oracle Bone Inscriptions, but the drooping of the ears of grain is more obvious, and people's waist is more curved. Slightly changed, people are associated with grain (as shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4).

3. In the small seal script stage, the seal script is neat, and the word "person" at the bottom of "year" is changed to "thousand", and "year" is transformed into pictophonetic characters, wo shapes and thousand sounds.

4. Its official script form, the last two strokes of "harmony" and the first stroke of "money" are all in a straight line.

5. Regular script after official reform. The custom is "Year". At first, this "person" looked like a "particle" on his head, and then disappeared completely.

6. It is now standardized, with "year" as the masculine gender.

Extended data:

Nian beast is an ancient legendary monster, which appears around the human community at the end of December every year, eating people and destroying villages. Bound by the year of the gods. The evening is removed in the middle of the last day of the twelfth lunar month, so the last day of the twelfth lunar month is called New Year's Eve. Because it was saved in 2008, a new day is called New Year.

References:

What are the detailed meanings of Modern Chinese Glossary and Nian? Han Dian