The appreciation of the beauty has become one important part of people’s spiritual life. However, as early as in the late period of the Paleolithic Age, ancient Chinese people have had the aesthetic standards. Since they understood how to beautify their life, they invented the coloration technology. If you come to study Chinese in China, you should know that China is the earliest nation in the aspects of the textile industry and ceramic industry, which can be reflected in Chinese language.

There are four characters express different colors in inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty, namely, You, Bai, Chi and Huang. In the book Analytical Dictionary of Characters, 75 Chinese characters expressing colors are recorded, and more are added later. According to the elements of the characters, they can be divided into characters with the elements of 糸、丹、青、艸、赤、白、木、黄、黑、衣、羽、玉. The followings are some examples of the characters with these parts.

The original meaning of 红was the light red silk and people of later generations use it to describe the red silk fabric. However, the most ordinary meaning that the foreigners who study Mandarin in China often meet is to express the red color or colors close to it. 绿was originally used as the silk produced after colored by the blue coloring matter and yellow coloring matter. Then it was extended in meaning to represent the color of the grass and tree leaves.

With the original meaning of the silk material of the natural color, 素 was extended in meaning as the white color. 丹is often seen in the ancient stories books. It formerly meant a kind of native compound of quicksilver and sulfur and then expanded as the bright red color. 青was one of the most frequently used coloring matters but changed into blue color or dark green color.

During the period when you come to study Chinese in schools in China, you may hear that 蓝was a kind of indigo plant in ancient China which was one of the important coloring grasses in ancient China. At present, it is used as the blue color. In the past, 朱 was a kind of wood and became the vermilion color. 翠was a kind of bird with emerald green fur then gradually extended as color.