Radical 31-1 禾hé, cereal

Radical 31-1 禾hé, cereal

“ After the hard work in the fields, the farmer finds his smile again when he sees the rice plant bent over with the weight of the grains! “ 
  

“ The pictogram represents a cereal plant heavy with grains, with the leaves growing upwards and the roots downwards. “ In the ancient character on the left we can clearly see that 禾hé, cereal, has the upper part, the head, bent to one side, representing a plant full of ripe grains. This indicates prosperity and a good harvest. With this character we can make the words 稻禾 dào hé rice plant , 禾田 Hétián  paddy field, 禾苗 Hémiáo Seed plants or small rice plants.

     

The ancient Chinese saw that the more grains the plant had, the more the head bent over.

One Chinese proverb says: 饱谷穗头往下垂，瘪谷穗头朝天锥 Bǎo gǔ suì tóu wǎng xiàchuí, biě gǔ suì tóu cháotiān zhuī “The more grains of rice on the plant, the more the head bends over, the fewer the grains of rice, the more the head stands up straight”.

In other words, the more talent, culture and wisdom a person has, the more modest he or she is. Instead, when a person has no real talent, culture or wisdom he or she feels the need to be presumptuous or arrogant. Many Chinese sayings use apparently contrasting symbols or complementary features to make the message even stronger.

 ©兒童手搏文創Kids Shou Bo Arte Cultura & Saggezza Cinese Elaborated by M°Dante Basili /M°Stefano Danesi  Translated by Neil Berry