This is an off-topic post continuing in an occasional series on Chinese character esoterica.
As an engineer, I am a bit obsessed with the structures and patterns of individual Chinese characters.
Recently (don't ask how), I stumbled upon the character 噩, and it got me thinking about symmetry within characters. Specifically, how many characters out there are symmetric across both the x and y-axes? Here are the ones I could think of:
一二十三川工口囗王丰井中日曰申田目回吕亘串車昌噩
I'm sure there's more out there; anyone think of any?
Lastly, this exercise reminds me of a Chinese character riddle a colleague once shared with me: starting from 日, by adding one stroke, you can make 9 different characters. Can you think of them all?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
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2 comments:
Should you count 川 and 井, do you think? They are not quite symmetrical, are they? Or do you reckon they are close enough?
日白旦田旧目由申甲？
flyingfish:
I agree that 川 and 井 shouldn't technically count, although then again neither should 二 and a few others on the list...
On 日+1, you got all except for one! (There's 9 total in addition to 日.)
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