Chinese character Shou4 is very far-reaching.

Today, we would like to bring a new Chinese character in Chinese learning lesson online that is rarely used in people’s daily conversations. In spite of that, it is also meaningful and important for both Chinese and foreigners to know what today’s key word is and how to use it, because it is full of deep root of culture. Let us look at this character 寿（shou4）. It is equal to longevity in English.

As you can see, how did it evolve? As a matter of fact, judging from the Shou4 in oracle bone scripts, its strokes were very complicated. According to our online Chinese lessons’ contents, the original pattern of it was 畴（chou2）, which means lots of fields. Basically, the meaning of Shou4 is the old or the aged, because those who living long must have been aged. Shou4 (longevity) first found in bronze script is an old photogram. It was written in various ways in bronze script. The complicated pattern of original Shou4 was fixed in clerical script in the Han Dynasty and has been used so far. So the simplified Shou4 (longevity) has a very long history.

In modern Chinese, the word of learning Chinese Shou4 mainly refers to longevity. In other word, it has a long lifespan. Then its meaning is extended to Yan2 Nian2 Yi4 Shou4 (prolong life) and the expectation of a kind of long and wonderful life. For this reason, Chinese people usually use this character to express a pretty good wish. As it known to all, China is a country in which people respect the aged and care about children. In Chinese daily life, Shou4 is represented in various forms. We can find it on people’s cloth and containers such as bowls, but it has different forms. Actually, the Shou4 can be changed into different patterns found on clothes, bowls, and dishes. They are patterns with blessing.

Let us introduce a kind of fruit, peach. It is as a gift that Chinese people would like to send it an aged person’s birthday. Chinese people believe that peach is rather good for health. Chinese people often link lots of food with a traditional Chinese medicine concept namely Yin-Yang. It actually corresponds to cold and heat. Peach is mild property. The appropriate amount of peach can offer us nutrition. And its character is Tao2 (peach) represents a very special image in Chinese culture. The shape of peach is like a heart, plus its mild property, so Chinese people like to place it at birthday party. Besides, there was a person called God of Longevity. It is called 寿星 (Shou4 Xing1). The person’s image is that an old man holding a big peach was considered as the God of Longevity.

Chinese people usually celebrate their 60^th birthday. That is, people will treat the birthday solemnly and importantly since they turn sixty years old. Chinese people think that a person living to sixty years old will become real persons of longevity.

So today’s Chinese online lesson in our Happy Chinese study center will come to an end. We hope that you can master this key word and use it correctly.

Source: 

http://chinesetool.bloggets.net/chinese-character-shou4-is-very-farreaching/