L8

Question 1

川

Answer 1

STREAM // flows like water like character, by Chinese doesn’t allow wavey lines sadly (just a little-un, not bigger) / flood

Question 2

州

Answer 2

STATE // drops of land form like silt islands in the river, and state lines are drawn between them in water

Question 3

顺

Answer 3

OBEY // stream… head… does one obey the head? or the stream of public opinion? One must obey one or the other!

Question 4

水

Answer 4

WATER // walking stick dropped into water splashed everywhere / water 氵 / snowflake 氺

Question 5

永

Answer 5

ETERNITY // William Blake saw “infinity in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour”, while here we have sod all in sand and eternity in a drop of water

Question 6

脉

Answer 6

BLOOD VESSELS // if you were to lay someone’s blood vessels in a line, they would stretch to eternity. you’d have to rip them from the flesh, though! yuck, nasty.

Question 7

求

Answer 7

REQUEST // “We request your presence” a formal invitation to the wedding of of Mrs Snowflake and Mr DripDrop

Question 8

泉

Answer 8

SPRING // a bubbling spring, with fresh white water atop it

Question 9

原

Answer 9

FLATLANDS // “The flatlands are alive with the sound of music”, as she skips through springs before halting at a cliff face

Question 10

泳

Answer 10

SWIM // absolute bliss, water for eternity swimming into the sun

Question 11

洲

Answer 11

CONTINENT // continents are regions seperated by great bodies of water

Question 12

沼

Answer 12

MARSH // marshes summon water to their land, but alas, soon they are over-run with bog!

Question 13

沙

Answer 13

SAND // the sister character of ‘gravel’ but here water has created finer particles. You wouldn’t be able to walk barefoot on it, by the watery sea otherwise, would you?

Question 14

江

Answer 14

YANGTZE // China’s mississippe, the girder is actually Huck’s raft, and it’s a working river too.

Question 15

汁

Answer 15

JUICE // needle juice, diluted with water. Excruciating.

Question 16

潮

Answer 16

TIDE // like in algebra, do the grouping first to make this ‘water’ + ‘dynasty’. Imagine the ebb and flow of tides as matching the rise and fall of dynasties.

Question 17

源

Answer 17

SOURCE // water + flatlands. under the arid flatlands lies the source of water… better dig down to in.

Question 18

活

Answer 18

LIVELY // at a bangin’ lively party, tongues babble like splashing water

Question 19

消

Answer 19

EXTINGUISH // in fighting the fire, accuracy is key and here each spark is individually targeted by water / disappear / vanish

Question 20

河

Answer 20

RIVER // upgrade from ‘stream’. The ‘little engine that could’ has become amphibious and is heading upriver, puffing spikes out still.

Question 21

鱼

Answer 21

FISH // Fisherman catches and binds up a fish, gets home and chucks its head on rive field and the rest on his floor for the cat. Bind, field, floor.

Question 22

渔

Answer 22

FISHING // adding a pre-step to ‘fish’, the unsuspecting fish is swimming around obliviously in water.

Question 23

湖

Answer 23

LAKE // a legend, people whose flesh is old get cast out accross the water, a life-ending lake

Question 24

测

Answer 24

FATHOM // the rules that surveyors use require a wooden measure, used to fathom the depths of water

Question 25

土

Answer 25

SOIL // not a pictograph, but just remember it, eh??

Question 26

均

Answer 26

EQUAL // Soil is ladled up into equal portions for each person to plant in. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than other” said the uniformed pigs

Question 27

肚

Answer 27

BELLY // which fleshy part of one’s belly looks most like a mound of soil…?

Question 28

尘

Answer 28

DUST // a small piece of soil. Imagine trying to fill a plant pot with that!

Question 29

填

Answer 29

FILL IN // when you fill in a form, you need to provide true information. don’t you? But actually, f*** them, being all nosy and asking for your P60, send back the form with a shovel of soil in the envelope!

Question 30

吐

Answer 30

SPIT // If you had a mouth full of soil, you’d spit..!

Question 31

压

Answer 31

PRESSURE // at the whitby cliffs, the slightest drop of extra pressure (lots of soil makes pressure), would be catastrophic. particularly at cliffs, though.

Question 32

圭

Answer 32

>> BRICKS >> Pile up mud bricks to make a wall.

Question 33

哇

Answer 33

WHAAAA // cry out, like the tumble of bricks from one’s mouth / vomit / wow

Question 34

寸

Answer 34

CHINESE INCH // just under 1 1/3 english inches, or a tenth of a chinese foot. A drop of 10!
/ glue – V frequent!

Question 35

封

Answer 35

SEAL // Instead of using hot wax to glue the letter seal, you use an unbreakable brick. Thoughtful, if a tad pricey to post.

Question 36

时

Answer 36

TIME // time is fixed and constant, it’s as if a clock is literally glued to the sun

Question 37

寺

Answer 37

BUDDHIST TEMPLE // so fervant is the sentiment of some monks that they would physically glue their feet to the soil of temples

Question 38

火

Answer 38

FIRE // pictography, like a bloke on fire.

/ also appears as cooking fire like in 点

Question 39

灭

Answer 39

DESTROY // a fire raises its eyes to the ceiling, with intent to destroy the very room you’re in! yipes, the flames are licking the roof tiles

Question 40

灰

Answer 40

ASHES // after the fire, carry a bucket of ashes by your side until they scatter afar

Question 41

烦

Answer 41

VEXED // when vexed, one feels ‘really burned out’ as if your head is on fire

Question 42

炎

Answer 42

INFLAMMATION // fire belongs in the fireplace, not above it. if it’s over the fireplace, there’s a danger of the whole place being inflamed.

Question 43

淡

Answer 43

THIN // fire and water dilute each other, or thin each other out

Question 44

灯

Answer 44

LAMP // it’s tough to read by the fireplace, so our ancestors invented a way of nailing down fire into a neat lamp

Question 45

点

Answer 45

SPOT // a witch can use the spots in a cooking fire to tall fortunes

Question 46

照

Answer 46

ILLUMINATE // to make something obscure (say, clay) more evident, one has to cook it in fire (kiln) to make a shiny, very visible pot. Illuminating chefs’ lives.