The Chinese Character, an Interpretable Chinese Culture

“草(Cao, grass)” is a pictographic character in oracle bone inscriptions. It vividly resembles two blades of grass thrusting out of the earth. The character in the small seal script has basically the same shape as that in oracle bone inscriptions. In the regular script, the character becomes what it looks like now with a character “早 (Zao, early)” attached below its original. The character “草(Cao, grass)” in Chinese language is also a radical written as “艹”. Words carrying this radical are mostly associated with plants, such as “花” (Hua, flower), “菇” (Gu, mushroom), “葱” (Cong, scallion), “芝” (Zhi, glossy ganoderma), and so on.

The character “草” originally means uncultivated land. It later becomes a general term for herbaceous plants. By extension, it carries the meanings of “manuscript” and “first draft”; it can also be used to describe something rough and coarse. The character also means “hasty” and “careless”. Hence comes the name of “草书” (Caoshu, cursive script), a style of Chinese calligraphy with strokes flowing together.