Beyond你好nǐ hǎo

By Jodi Yim James, Staff Writer

 “你好” or nǐ hǎo is the popular Chinese way of greeting “Hello”. The literal meaning of nǐ hǎo is 'you good' in Chinese.

By Jodi Yim James, Staff Writer

 “你好”or nǐ hǎo is the popular Chinese way of greeting “Hello”. The literal meaning of nǐ hǎo is 'you good' in Chinese.

The "you" character or 你 "nǐ" has a standing person亻on the left. This standing person 亻is called rén and may look like this 人 sometimes.   

On the right, 尔, the top is a hat, or a roof, or cover冖, called a mì. This cover is over a central down stroke and two side strokes, one right, one left 小. This lower element 小 is actually xiǎo meaning small. It looks like a person is holding up their hands, palms facing each other, and describing something as "small".

When learning these three elements of this character for "you", some think of it as a picture of a person standing (the standing person 亻) facing another. The second or other person has a hat冖 , but even so, they are unimportant or small小.

The second character of the greeting 你好 nǐ hǎo is the character 好 hǎo. This character好 hǎo has two parts, one on the left and a second on the right. Together these two parts illustrate the meaning of "good" or goodness in Chinese culture. 

On the left is a picture of a woman in a dress女 called nǚ. This radical or element is in many characters, representing woman. On the right is a picture of a child or baby wrapped in a blanket子 called zǐ. Goodness in the Chinese culture is a mother with child. Over millennia, this cultural value resulted in over-population and then the public policy response of the one-child rule. In any case, children are highly valued in Chinese society.

The greeting "你好" nǐ hǎo  works as "Hello", throughout the day. However, greetings can be specific to the time of day. Here are seven, with notes about each greeting, following:

 1.    Notice the 早zǎo character which looks like a sun日 or rì coming up in a straight line over the horizon十.  This早zǎo character means early or morning. The 上shang character means upper, and looks like upper.

2.    午wǔ means noon so 上午shang wǔ means upper or above noon.

3.    中zhōng means middle so中午zhōng wǔ means midday or noon.

4.    下xià means lower or below, so下 午xià wǔ means after noon.

5.    晚wǎn means evening or late but it is early evening or晚上wǎn shang.

6.    安ǎn means peace, and it is a picture of a woman under a roof with a chimney since peace in the home is mom at home keeping the peace.

7.    夜yè means night or dark and裡lǐ means inside so夜裡 yè lǐ means in the night.