Since there are numerous Chinese characters, the appearance of some components of Chinese characters looks similar. As a result, Chinese people in ancient times might write the components incorrectly under the influence of another similar one in the process of writing. If you study in Mandarin language courses in China, you might have learned some characters with the components of 贝and月. Some characters with the two components were formed because of the wrong writing.
The original form of the component贝looked like the appearance of shell. In the period of Shang Dynasty, 贝indicated money and coins, making most characters with the component of贝are related to wealth such as 财、费、贵、贱、贫and赌. However, there are also some characters with 贝were not from 贝, but for the reason of incorrect writing such as员、则and贞.
Originally, the upper part of 员was 口and the lower part 鼎, meaning of the mouth of the ancient vessel was round. The right part of 则was 刀while the left side was also 鼎, carrying the meaning of inscribing flowers patterns on the vessel. Foreigners who attend to school to study in China may be told that the character贞was the combination of 卜and鼎. The three characters are written in the present forms because the original forms of 贝and鼎were so similar that people wrote them incorrectly.
The origin of the character 月has two kinds of explanation, one is from the shape of moon and the other is the shape of meat loaf. The characters with 月which comes from the shape of moon have something to do with astronomical phenomena such as明、朝、期and朗while those with 月which originates from the shape of meat loaf are related to the body like腰、背、肩and腿. However, there are some characters with 月have nothing to do with the two conditions mentioned above. Let’s take 朕and服as examples.
The left part of both characters was 舟meaning the gap of the boat. In the original pattern, the left of 服was a man pressed by one hand, indicating to take control of something. In addition, teachers who teach Mandarin Chinese may also tell you that the former form of 朋was two connected strings of shells. But it was wrongly written as two 月.