According to the legend, when Cangjie created Chinese characters, he noticed not only everything in the universe, but also the human race itself. Chinese characters, therefore, reflect not only the Chinese people’s understanding of the world but also their understanding of the human body. Many Chinese characters are related to the human body.

Study Chinese: “比” (bi, “to compare”) and “北” (bei, “north”)

The character “比”, which resembles two people standing together, means “to juxtapose” or “to be close to”. This is preciously meaning of the character “比” in the following line of ancient poetry: “Bosom friends within the four seas are close neighbors through separated by great distance”. Later, the character “比” evolved to mean “to compare”. In the past, Chinese scholars had to take many examinations. Their results would be compared to see who was academically superior. Scholars with excellent examination results could serve as officials. These kinds of examinations, therefore, were known as “大比” (dabi, literally “big comparisons”).

Whereas the character “比” depicts two people standing together, the character “北” depicts two people with their backs to each other. Therefore, the original meaning of “北” was “back”. Later, the Chinese people added the component “肉” (rou, meaning “flesh”) to form “bei(背)”，the modern Chinese character for “back”.