What breathes

Pictograph: a side view of a fish — head on top, scales (the middle 田-like grid) in the body, tail fin at bottom. Oracle bone forms are even more recognizably fish-shaped. Three forms: 繁體 魚 / 新字体 魚 / 简体 鱼 (the simplified form replaced the bottom four-dot tail with a single line).

Chinese New Year cultural pun: The Mandarin word 鱼 (yú, fish) is a homophone with 余 (yú, surplus / leftover). The phrase 年年有余 (niánnián yǒu yú, "may you have surplus every year") is a classic New Year wish, and is why fish appear on dinner tables for Chinese New Year — the dish embodies the wish for prosperity. This pun is invisible to non-Chinese speakers but central to the cultural meaning of fish in East Asian dinners.

魚 / 鱼 is one of the most productive radicals for fish-species names: 鯉 / 鲤 (carp), 鯨 / 鲸 (whale), 鮭 / 鲑 (salmon), 鯖 / 鲭 (mackerel), 鮨 (sushi-grade fish, Japanese only). Walk through any Japanese fish market and you'll see dozens of 魚-radical characters.

Mandarin: yú, rising 2nd tone (simplified 鱼). 鱼 (yú, fish), 钓鱼 (diàoyú, fishing — also slang for "catfishing" online), 鱼肉 (yúròu, fish flesh), 金鱼 (jīnyú, goldfish), 章鱼 (zhāngyú, octopus). The Internet slang 摸鱼 (mōyú, "stroke the fish" → slack off at work) is everywhere on Chinese social media.

Japanese: on-reading ギョ (gyo) for compounds — 魚類 (gyorui, fish category / fish kind), 熱帯魚 (nettaigyo, tropical fish), 金魚 (kingyo, goldfish — note kun-on hybrid), 漁業 (gyogyō, fishing industry — using 漁 = water + fish). Kun-reading さかな (sakana) is the everyday word — お魚 (osakana, fish — polite, often refers to fish as food at dinner table). The reading うお (uo) is older / more poetic — 魚市場 (uoichiba, fish market).

The Japanese sushi/sashimi vocabulary is built on this character — 寿司 (sushi), 刺身 (sashimi), and the entire menu of Japanese 魚 (sakana) types.

Memory aid: head + scaled body + tail = the fish, drawn whole from the side.

角 is a drawing of an animal's horn — the inner diagonal marks the grain etched into it. Horn is the original sense; from the horn's sharp angularity grew "corner, angle," and the geometric "angle" formed where two sides meet.

Mandarin: jiǎo, 3rd tone (horn, angle, corner). But when it means an actor's "role" it is read jué — 角色 (juésè, a role), 主角 (zhǔjué, leading role). A one-character, two-sounds case. 三角形 (sānjiǎoxíng, triangle), 角度 (jiǎodù, angle / degree). It is also a literary currency unit, one-tenth of a yuan — 角 (jiǎo).

Japanese: on-reading カク (kaku), kun つの (tsuno, horn) and かど (kado, corner). 三角 (sankaku, triangle), 角度 (kakudo, angle), 角 (tsuno, horn), 街角 (machikado, street corner). The world of sumo wrestling is called 角界 (kakukai).

Korean hanja-sound "gak": 角度 (gakdo, angle), 三角形 (samgakhyeong, triangle), 直角 (jikgak, right angle), 頭角 (dugak, prominence — "showing one's horns"). Every 角 of school mathematics is this character.

Memory aid: an animal's horn with its grain etched in — from its sharp angularity comes "angle."

鳴 is a compound ideograph of 口 (mouth) and 鳥 (bird) — a bird (鳥) crying with its mouth (口). Its meaning is transparently visible. The 鳥 (bird) seen earlier sits right inside it.

The simplified form is 鸣, with 鳥 reduced to the simplified bird 鸟 — the form splits by mode.

Korean hanja-sound "myeong": 共鳴 (gongmyeong, resonance), 悲鳴 (bimyeong, a scream), 自鳴鐘 (jamyeongjong, an alarm clock), 耳鳴 (imyeong, tinnitus). From a bird's cry the meaning broadened to all "sounding, ringing."

Mandarin: míng, 2nd tone. 鸣叫 (míngjiào, to chirp), 共鸣 (gòngmíng, resonance), 鸣笛 (míngdí, to sound a horn), 一鸣惊人 (yìmíng-jīngrén, "to startle people with a single cry" — to make a name overnight). Japanese: on-reading メイ (mei), kun な.く (naku), な.る (naru), な.らす (narasu). 鳴く (naku, to cry), 悲鳴 (himei, a scream), 共鳴 (kyōmei, resonance), 雷鳴 (raimei, thunder). An animal's cry is 鳴く (naku) in Japanese — 鳥が鳴く (a bird cries).

Memory aid: a bird (鳥) crying with its mouth (口) — from a cry to all sounding.

羊 is a sheep's head seen from the front — the two top strokes are the curved horns, below is the face. In East Asia the sheep symbolized auspiciousness, beauty, and goodness, so it appears in many characters of positive meaning.

Look at the characters built with 羊 and you see that sheep equals "good": 美 (beautiful = 羊 + 大, a big sheep is beautiful), 善 (virtuous), 義 (righteous), 祥 (auspicious), 養 (to nurture), 群 (flock) all grow from 羊.

Korean hanja-sound "yang": 羊毛 (yangmo, wool), 山羊 (sanyang, goat), 羊頭狗肉 (yangdugugyuk, "sheep's head, dog meat" — false advertising), 羊腸 (yangjang, a winding road, "sheep's gut"). The eighth zodiac animal is 羊 (未).

Mandarin: yáng, 2nd tone. 绵羊 (miányáng, woolly sheep), 山羊 (shānyáng, goat), 羊肉 (yángròu, mutton), 羊毛 (yángmáo, wool). The zodiac Sheep is 羊 — 属羊 (shǔ yáng, born in the year of the Sheep).

Japanese: on-reading ヨウ (yō), kun ひつじ (hitsuji). 羊 (hitsuji, sheep), 羊毛 (yōmō, wool), 羊羹 (yōkan, sweet bean jelly), 子羊 (kohitsuji, lamb). The zodiac 未 (hitsuji) is this animal.

Memory aid: two curved horns over a sheep's face — a big sheep (羊 + 大) is beauty itself (美).