部首radical (⺮)部件component (rest of character)书写your drawing
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字源zìyuánEtymology & Structure
字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight
简 stacks bamboo over a gate: 简 = ⺮ + 间. The bamboo radical ⺮ on top is semantic and the whole point of the character; 间 (jiān) sits beneath as the phonetic, lending the sound while the original 閒 it derives from once pictured moonlight slipping through a gateway. Read the glyph from the top down and you are looking at a thing made of bamboo.
That thing is a 简, a single strip of split bamboo, planed flat, scraped smooth, and ruled for a vertical column of brush characters. Before paper spread in the Han, every document lived on these slips. A clerk wrote one column per strip, then bound a row of them edge to edge with cord, and the bundle rolled up into the earliest Chinese book. Archaeologists still pull such tied bundles, 简牍 (jiǎndú), from Warring States and Han tombs, the silk cord rotted away but the bamboo legible.
The abstract senses fall straight out of the object. A bamboo slip is narrow, so only what is essential fits: hence 简单 (jiǎndān), simple, and 简短 (jiǎnduǎn), brief. A slip carried to someone became a written message, so 简 took on the literary sense of a letter, preserved in 书简 (shūjiǎn). And because writing demands choosing what to keep, 简 reaches further into to select, surviving in 简拔 (jiǎnbá), to pick out and promote.
Japanese keeps the slip and the brevity in 簡 (kan), as in 簡単 (kantan), simple. The mainland simplified the lower 閒 to 间, but the bamboo on top, the part that names the thing, never moved.
简单jiǎndānPlain & Brief
简单jiǎndānsimple, easy
A 形容词 xíngróngcí
简 (slip, hence pared down) + 单 (single, plain). The everyday word for simple, whether a task, an idea, or a person who is uncomplicated. Negated as 不简单 it flips to mean impressive, no small feat.
这道题很简单。
Zhè dào tí hěn jiǎndān.
This problem is very easy.
他能做到这一点，真不简单。
Tā néng zuòdào zhè yì diǎn, zhēn bù jiǎndān.
That he can pull this off is really no small feat.
辨析 biànxī · 简单 vs. 容易简单 describes a thing as uncomplicated in itself; 容易 (róngyì) describes an action as easy to do. A task can be 简单 in structure yet not 容易 to finish.
简短jiǎnduǎnbrief, short (of speech, text)
A 形容词 xíngróngcí
简 (pared down) + 短 (short). Brief in the sense of few words: a brief speech, a brief reply, a brief note. The narrow slip rendered literal as length.
他做了一个简短的发言。
Tā zuò le yí gè jiǎnduǎn de fāyán.
He gave a brief speech.
简便jiǎnbiànsimple and convenient, handy
A 形容词 xíngróngcí
简 (pared down) + 便 (convenient). A method or procedure that is both simple and easy to use, with no fuss in the steps.
这种付款方式很简便。
Zhè zhǒng fùkuǎn fāngshì hěn jiǎnbiàn.
This payment method is simple and convenient.
简介jiǎnjièSummaries & Records
简介jiǎnjièbrief introduction, synopsis
N 名词 míngcí
简 (brief) + 介 (to introduce). The short blurb that sums up a book, a company, a film, or a person. The about-line under a profile is a 简介.
请写一段公司简介。
Qǐng xiě yí duàn gōngsī jiǎnjiè.
Please write a short company introduction.
简历jiǎnlìrésumé, CV
N 名词 míngcí
简 (brief) + 历 (one's history, experience). A condensed record of your schooling and work, the document you send with a job application. Literally a brief life-history.
我把简历发到你的邮箱了。
Wǒ bǎ jiǎnlì fā dào nǐ de yóuxiāng le.
I sent my résumé to your email.
简称jiǎnchēngabbreviation, short name
VN 动名词 dòngmíngcí
简 (brief) + 称 (to call, a name). The shortened form of a long name: 北大 for 北京大学, 联合国 from its full title. As a verb, to abbreviate something as.
简 (simple) + 化 (the -ize / -ify suffix, to turn into). To make a process, a procedure, or a script simpler. The very term 简体字 (jiǎntǐzì), simplified characters, is the product of this verb applied to writing itself.
公司决定简化报销流程。
Gōngsī juédìng jiǎnhuà bàoxiāo liúchéng.
The company decided to streamline the reimbursement process.
辨析 biànxī · 简化 vs. 简体简化 is the act of simplifying; 简体 (jiǎntǐ) names the resulting simplified form, paired against 繁体 (fántǐ), the traditional form.
精简jīngjiǎnto cut down, trim, pare
V 动词 dòngcí
精 (refined, essential) + 简 (pared down). To trim away the excess and keep only what is needed, used of staff, budgets, text, and organizations. Sharper and more deliberate than plain 简化.
简 (plainly) + 直 (straight, directly). An adverb of emphasis: put plainly and directly, it amounts to. Used to push a statement to its extreme, often with a touch of exasperation or wonder.
这简直太棒了！
Zhè jiǎnzhí tài bàng le!
This is simply amazing!
成语chéngyǔIdioms & Set Phrases
言简意赅yán jiǎn yì gāithe words are brief but the meaning is complete: concise and to the pointThe highest praise for writing or speech: few words, nothing missing. 赅 means complete, sufficient. The standard compliment for a tight report or a well-edited essay.
删繁就简shān fán jiù jiǎncut the complex and move toward the simple: prune the excess删 to delete, 繁 the complicated, 就 to go toward, 简 the simple. An editor's motto, applied to prose, procedures, and design alike.
因陋就简yīn lòu jiù jiǎnmake do with the crude and the simple: get by with what little there is因 to rely on, 陋 crude, 就 to settle for, 简 the simple. Said of working within tight means, building or running something on a shoestring without waiting for better tools.
简明扼要jiǎn míng è yàosimple, clear, and gripping the essentials: succinct and pointed简 simple, 明 clear, 扼要 to grip the crux. Common in formal evaluation of summaries and briefings, marking a text that wastes no words.
记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image
Picture a Han clerk at a low desk before paper exists. He lifts one narrow strip of split bamboo, 竹 (zhú) over it in your mind, and through the gateway 间 behind him the late sun slants in. The strip is the width of a single column, and that narrowness decides everything: only the essential words will fit. He writes one short line, then sets the slip aside.
Hold that image and the whole character family unrolls from it. The slip is too narrow for the elaborate, so what survives on it is 简单 (jiǎndān), simple, and 简短 (jiǎnduǎn), brief. Tie a few slips with cord and you have a 简历 (jiǎnlì), a brief life laid out in columns, the ancestor of the résumé. Carry one slip to a friend and it becomes 书简 (shūjiǎn), a letter.
When you later meet 简化 (jiǎnhuà), to simplify, see the clerk shaving a fat bundle of slips down to a thin one, cutting until only the spine of the meaning remains. The bamboo on top of the glyph is always the same gesture: take the wide and unruly, plane it onto a narrow strip, keep only what counts.
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