Posted 2017/8/13
The Chinese Character, an Interpretable Chinese Culture“Feng” (“蜂”) is a pictophonetic character in the oracle bone inscriptions, with the phonetic element on top and two worms at the bottom. The form is an expression of ancient people’s deep understanding of insects, with all insects making sounds like “feng” being called “feng” (bees). In the small seal script and regular script, the “feng” (“奉”) radical at the top is replaced by its homophone “逢”, with the two worm radicals remained at the bottom. In its simplified version, the original phonetic element is moved from the top to the right.
“Feng” is a character meaning bees, including honeybees, hornets and wasps etc. In most cases, it is especially used to mean “honeybees”. Bees are social insects, so the phrase “fengqi” means “to emerge in large multitudes like bees”.
