He (和)
The Chinese character "和," which is pronounced in pinyin as "he," originated in the inscriptions on oracle bones and on ancient bronze objects. In the Explanation of Script and Elucidation of Characters (Shuo Wen Jie Zi), the renowned Eastern Han Dynasty philologist Xu Shen (c. 58-c. 147) stated: "The character '和' means responding. Made up of two parts, it is pronounced as 'he' according the left part '禾,' with the right part '口 (mouth) as its radical." This interpretation shows that "和" is a pictophonetic character. Its radical is "口," indicating that its original meaning might be connected to mouth. The so-called "responding" refers to the echoing of sounds made by mouths. Since "和" originally meant the echoing of sounds, naturally there would be different states of echoing. For example, there are not only concordant sounds but also sounds of high pitch that meet with little response. The ancients named the optimum state of the echoing of sounds as "和," which is equivalent to "being harmonious."
Hence, we can conclude that "和" emphasizes the state of harmony. It is used by the ancients to describe the wonderful state of nature or social affairs, and it is also an ideal state that the ancients longed to achieve.
和
“和”字起源很早，在甲骨文、金文中都已经出现。按照许慎《说文解字》的解释，“（和），相应也，从口，禾声”，这说明“和”是一个形声字。“和”字的形部是“口”，说明“和”的含义最初应当是跟口相关的。所谓“相应”，即口发出的声音相互应和。既然“和”最初指的是声音之间的相应，那么很自然地，声音之间的相应会有不同的状态，比如完美应和、曲高和寡等。古人将相应得恰到好处的状态、完满的状态称为“和”。
可以说，“和”强调作为一种状态、境界的含义，也即和谐。这是古人对于自然和人事美好境界的描述，也是古人渴望达到的理想境地。
