Posted 2017/7/3
In oracle bone inscriptions, this character is made up of two footprints in the same direction. Two feet walking one after the other, so the original meaning of this character is walk. In the small seal script, the character is written as which comprises two heels with one following the other. We can still recognize such traces from its structure now. “步” (bù) can also refer to the distance between two walking feet. By extension, it means “step” as in “初步” (chū bù, preliminary) and “步骤” (bù zhou, procedure), “situation” as in “地步” (dì bù, condition), and so on.
