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The Chinese Character, an Interpretable Chinese Culture

The character originally referred to all the utensils made of fired earth. In oracle bone inscriptions, it looks quite similar to an unvarnished earthen jar. Later, the word means the tile piece made of fired earth which is used to cover the house roof. In small seal script, it takes the shape of two interconnected tile pieces with opposite sides upward. Moreover, the word has become the semantic radical of the Chinese characters that refer to vessels similar to jar.

It's better to be the...

The idiom means that it's better to be the pieces of jade than to be the tile free from damage. There is a story behind it.
Eave tile with pattern

Eave tile with pattern, also called tile end, is a fictile in architecture, referring to certain pendent part at the end of the pottery...

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