I Became The Chief Of A Primitive Village-Chapter 367: Why Can’t It Be Replaced?

Yu Ying placed the paper on the table, her pink eyes revealing anticipation.

Every time it came to lessons, she was always the happiest. She was just that delighted to learn.

"Shaman, which character are we going to learn first?" Yu Ying asked.

"Let’s start with the character for craftsman, it’s a little challenging to write." Su Bai smiled, writing the character ‘匠’ on the paper.

Yu Ying tilted her head looking at that character, mumbling, "This character looks so strange." She was not just unfamiliar with it, she also had an odd feeling about it.

The character ‘匠’ had a semi-enclosure structure, completely different from the numerals that she had learned before. Her confusion was inevitable.

"Here. Just give it a try. This character is a bit difficult." Su Bai said.

For someone who was just beginning to learn Chinese characters, this character was not that simple, as the strokes were quite numerous. Stil, she had learnt harder characters like ‘纸’ (paper), so this should not be that difficult.

Yu Ying held the quill pen, sitting very properly as she carefully copied the character on the paper.

Her pink eyes slightly closed as she softly said, "Shaman, this character is hard."

The fox eared girl directly copied the outer frame first, then wrote the ‘斤’ character inside.

However, since the initial frame was written too narrow, the ‘斤’ character was written too small, making the whole thing look crooked and lacking proper proportion.

"That’s not how you write it." Su Bai laughed, as the result was truly amusing to look at.

Yu Ying put down the quill pen, pouting as she said, "How should it be written? It’s so difficult."

She found it extremely awkward to write, not knowing how to start the first stroke.

She hesitated for a long time before making the first stroke, and that was how it turned out.

"First you need to understand the character’s structure…" Su Bai thought for a moment but decided against explaining, thinking it would not be helpful, "Well, Just watch me write it again."

He first wrote the top horizontal stroke of ‘匠’, the ‘-’, then wrote the ‘斤’ inside.

This was the standard way to write ‘匠’. Many people wrote the outer frame first, then wrote ‘斤’ inside, which constrains the inner ‘斤’s size. When that happens, the overall result looks awkward and unattractive, barely resembling a Chinese character.

"There, that’s how it’s done. You need to follow the stroke order." Su Bai handed the quill pen back to the fox eared girl.

"Alright." Yu Ying took the quill pen and began studying earnestly. With the demonstration, writing became more manageable.

Although the first few characters were written crookedly, the later ones turned out quite well.

Overall, they looked proper, appearing square and orderly, quite different from before.

"Shaman, how did I do?" Yu Ying asked with a smile.

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Su Bai nodded approvingly, praising her. "Well done, it is now presentable. Just practice a few more times."

"Yes, but Shaman, why is it this character ‘匠’ that represents craftsman? Couldn’t something else replace it? It seems so complicated!" Yu Ying asked.

It was a fair question. After all, could this character not be replaced with one that was just two or three strokes? Why did it need to be so complex?

"Each Chinese character has its origin, formed over a very long period to become what it is today, it’s difficult to explain everything in detail. But, if you wish to know, I will tell you.”

“Actually, the character ‘匠’ first appeared during the Warring States period, originally meaning carpenter, later extending to mean skilled workers. At that time, ‘匠’ did not look like it does now, it appeared as a square black block. That black block had very dense strokes due to limitations at the time, and if not written well, they would all blend together.”

“After some time of changes, ‘匠’ began to gradually change, becoming elongated in its second form. Then it returned to a dense form, and after four or five more changes, it became the simple character we see today."

"I see… then how do you write the character for wood and stone?" Even though Yu Ying could not understand everything the Shaman had said, she was curious about these two characters as well.

"Here, watch carefully, these two characters aren’t very difficult." Su Bai picked up the quill pen to demonstrate.

He wrote out the characters for wood, ‘木’ and stone, ‘石’, stroke by stroke, as these two characters had relatively simple strokes and stroke order.

"Sir, these two characters are simple, I should be able to write them well." Yu Ying confidently said.

She confidently picked up the quill pen and began copying, paying attention to every stroke.

"Don’t press too hard when writing, relax a bit," Su Bai noticed she was almost puncturing the paper.

If he had not reminded her, the paper would likely have had a large hole before the character was even completed!

Yu Ying realised this and immediately relaxed her fingers, indeed she had been pressing too hard.

She laughed awkwardly and said, "I wasn’t paying attention, I was too focused on the character."

The fox eared girl was so afraid of writing incorrectly that she focused all her attention on the pen, naturally resulting in using too much force.

"Don’t be nervous, take it slow. It doesn’t matter if you write well or poorly, the most important thing is practice. Just write it a few more times." Su Bai advised.

For someone practicing writing for the first time, there was really no need to rush for perfection. Taking it slowly is fine, being too hasty would be counterproductive.

"Why are these two characters called wood and stone? Couldn’t they be called something else?" Yu Ying asked curiously.

The fox eared girl felt these two characters were very different from how she imagined wood and stone.

"Don’t you think this, ‘木’, looks like a tree? The top represents branches and leaves, the bottom represents roots, making it look like the character for wood."

Su Bai paused and looked at the stone character, ‘石’, saying, "The same applies to this stone character."

Actually, both characters were pictographs from ancient bone inscriptions, where people named things based on their appearance.

However, by modern times, they gradually evolved into the simple character forms currently seen today.

"So that’s how it is. There are so many stories behind each character!" Yu Ying said, having gained much insight.

She could be said to be increasingly fond of writing, practicing previously learned characters whenever she had spare time.

"Keep practicing until you’ve mastered it." Su Bai gestured.

"Shaman, you taught me to write my name last time, I’ve already learned how to do it!" Yu Ying said proudly.

"Oh? Show me then." Su Bai said expectantly, wanting to see the result of her hard work.

Yu Ying picked up the quill pen and began writing carefully. Since she had practiced for a long time, she wrote those two characters quickly.