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: “人” (ren, “people”) and 夫(fu, “adults, husband”)

The character of the oracle bone script for “人” (person) resembles a person standing up with arms outstretched. The modern Chinese character for “人” is just as simple. The character “人” can refer either to all people or to a specific type of person, such as men (nan ren: 男人); women (nv ren: 女人)；or the elderly (lao ren：老人).

In ancient times, adults (da ren: 大人) were known as “fu 夫”. The character “夫” consists the character “大” (da: “big”, it looks like the frontal view of a standing man, whose outstretched arms and straddled legs give him an awe-inspiring appearance) with a horizontal stroke on top. The horizontal stroke represents the hair clasp worn by the ancient Chinese people. In ancient China, men who were 20 years old had to put their hair in a coil and use a clasp to keep it in place. This symbolized that the man had reached adulthood and aoule get married. Thus, “夫” can also mean “husband”, as in the word “丈夫” (zhangfu: “husband”).