Interesting Chinese characters 白bái white - 月yuè moon - 明mínɡ bright

We will learn 3 charcaters which are related to SUN today,

白bái white - 月yuè moon - 明mínɡ bright

We know 日means sun in Chinese, if you put one more stroke on the sun to show the light of the sun, you got the character 白which means white, just the color of the light of the sun.

•         白天（báitiān）      day time

•         白酒（báijiǔ）       white spirit

•         白色（báisè）        white(color)

月，doesn’t it look like a moon? Yes, it does! Let’s look at the oracle bone character 3000 years ago.

oracle bone character moon

•         一月（yīyuè）          January

•         一个月（yí ɡe yuè）     one month

•         月饼（yuèbǐnɡ）         mooncake

明=日+月. The sun and the moon which are the brightest stars in the sky, so we put them together to mean Bright. This character also got the meaning of Next.

oracle bone character bright

•         明天（mínɡtiān）   tomorrow

•         明年（mínɡnián）   next year

•         明珠（mínɡzhū）    bright pearl

The order of the characters

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