Lesson 9

Question 1

li

Answer 1

里

rice field+land (soil)
A land division based on the size of a rice field would be a li. (0.5 kilomenters)

Question 2

quantity

Answer 2

量

daybreak+li
Quantity has to do with measuring time (daybreak) and distance (li).

Question 3

bury

Answer 3

埋

soil+computer (li)
Hold a funeral service where I bury the old computer, shoveling some soil on top.

Question 4

black

Answer 4

黑

computer(li)+animal horns+cooking fire
A computer, its brains impaled on the horns of a dilemma, overheats. The flames pouring out of the computer, to char everything a sooty black color.

Question 5

black ink

Answer 5

墨

black+dirt (soil)
A long, heavy string soaked in black ink marks the dirt on a baseball diamond.

Question 6

risk

(V.)

Answer 6

冒

hood+two+eye
A hood with two slits for the eyes. A burglar wearing this mask risks a lot more than just being recognized.

Question 7

same

Answer 7

同

hood+one+mouth
A monk’s hood is drawn down over the eyes, so all you can see is the mouth. Monks have the same life, same food, same ideals. And the same prayer: you can think of one mouth under a hood as the character for everything that is the same about monastic life.

Question 8

cave

Answer 8

洞

water+monk (same)
With a stream running through the cave, the water is the same inside or outside the cave.
Early monks lived in caves, but they couldn’t do without water. To fix this problem, a monk has filled his cave neck high with water.

Question 9

lovely

Answer 9

丽

one+helmets+drops
A lovely couple! Two biker helmets with chin straps hanging from the ceiling in the suburban home of the pair of ex-Hell’s Angels; now a lovely married couple.

This character also looks like a lovely pair of earrings.

Question 10

orientation

Answer 10

向

drop+helmet+mouth
The alien with a helmet and prominent mouth is disoriented, having wandered away from his spaceship (the drop in the distance). Give him his first orientation to earth!

Question 11

echo

(N.)

Answer 11

响

mouth+orientation
When I need orientation out of a dark place, my mouth can let out a shriek like a bat. I’ll let the echo guide me.
This also looks like an animation of an echo in a Batman comic.

Question 12

esteem

(V.)

Answer 12

尚

small (sparks)+glass cover (hood)+mouth

A small glass cover displays the stuffed and mounted mouth of an ancestor I esteem. We esteem the words of our forefathers, and now we esteem the very mouth that spoke them.

Question 13

character

Answer 13

字

house+child
Just as a child born to a Chinese house is given characters for its name, it is also taught character by his parents.

(the zi in hanzi)

Question 14

guard

(V.)

Answer 14

守

house+glue (Chinese inch)
You have to stick like glue to that person’s house to guard it.

Question 15

finish

(V.)

Answer 15

完

house+beginning
To finish the house, we start at the beginning with the foundation, all the way to the end with the roof and chimney. Now it’s finished!

Question 16

disaster

Answer 16

灾

house+fire
(compare to destroy: roof+fire)
“When disaster strikes…” What strikes before the disaster is a match in an old wooden house, consuming the entire structure in a great, roaring fire.

Question 17

proclaim

Answer 17

宣

house+daybreak (with an extra stroke above)
A missionary proclaims the good news “shouting it from the housetops” day in and day out. Daybreak with an extra stroke on top shows both sunrise and sunset. He never ceases to proclaim.

Question 18

nighttime

Answer 18

宵

house+candle (resemble)
A house with a candle in it. Pulling an all-nighter. Passing the nighttime burning the candle at both ends.

Question 19

peaceful

Answer 19

安

house+woman
A peaceful moment: A Normal Rockwell of a weary woman of the house, slouched in a chair, resting in a peaceful, finally quiet living room after putting her noisy bickering children down for a nap: jam, toys, paints, and toilet paper strewn around as evidence of the havoc they caused.

Question 20

banquet

Answer 20

宴

house+day+woman (peaceful)
We see the entire day of work that comes between a woman and her house in preparing for a dinner banquet. Pictorially “interrupting” her peaceful relaxation.

Question 21

mail

(V.)

Answer 21

寄

house+strange
Hansel and Gretel are heading towards the strange Gingerbread House with an armful of letters to mail. They have to actually enter the strange house in order to mail the letters

Question 22

wealthy

Answer 22

富

house+wealth
How many wealthy people get that way through simple inheritance, being born into the wealth of their parents’ house.

Question 23

store up

Answer 23

贮

shellfish+house+floor
A family stores up its clams by hiding some of them under the roof of the house and others under the floorboards.