So 鱼 魚 yü "a fish" and 鸟 鳥 niao "a bird" are found in all characters of ichthyological or ornithological types, respectively.
人 jen "a man" is found in a large number of characters dealing with humanity under varied aspects; e.g. 你 ni "thou," 他 t'a "he," 作 tso "to make," 仗 chang "a weapon," 傑 chieh "a hero," 儒 ju "a scholar," "a Confucianist"; while it has been pointed out that such words as 奸 chien "treacherous," 媚 mei "to flatter," and 妒 tu "jealousy," are all written with the indicator 女 nü "woman" at the side.
The question now arises how these significant parts got into their present position. Have they always been there, and was the script artificially constructed off-hand, as is the case with Mongolian and Manchu? The answer to this question can hardly be presented in a few words, but involves the following considerations.
It seems to be quite certain that in very early times, when the possibility and advantage of committing thought to writing first suggested themselves to the Chinese mind, rude pictures of things formed the whole stock in trade. Such were
Sun, moon, mountains, hand, child, wood, bending official, mouth, ox, and claws.
in many of which it is not difficult to trace the modern forms of to-day,
日 月 山 手 子 木 臣 口 牛 爪
It may here be noted that there was a tendency to curves so long as the characters were scratched on bamboo tablets with a metal stylus. With the invention of paper in the first century A.D., and the substitution of a hair-pencil for the stylus, verticals and horizontals came more into vogue.
The second step was the combination of two pictures to make a third; for instance, a mouth with something coming out of it is "the tongue," 舌; a mouth with something else coming out of it is "speech," "words," 言; two trees put side by side make the picture of a "forest," 林.