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人

in

人 is less 'person' than 'one body you can count'

The picture One body standing on two feet — a single unit you can count, divide by, and point at. 人 is a person counted one by one; 民 is people bundled into a mass to be governed.

Characters

Where the picture shows up in 人

  1. heads counted to the end

    이 동네 인구(人口)가 줄고 있어요.

    i dong-ne in-gu-ga jul-go i-sseo-yo

    The population of this town is shrinking.

    Counting the standing bodies house by house down a list where the blank lines keep growing

  2. dividing food by bodies

    삼겹살 이 인분(二人分) 주세요.

    sam-gyeop-sal i in-bun ju-se-yo

    Two portions of pork belly, please.

    Lines scored across one slab of meat, splitting it evenly by the number of bodies standing there

    The person becomes the measuring cup.

  3. which land the body stands on

    저는 외국인(外國人)이에요.

    jeo-neun oe-gu-gi-ni-e-yo

    I'm from another country.

    A body that stood inside one country on the map, now standing on this side of the border line

  4. many bodies leaning one way

    이 빵이 인기(人氣)가 많아요.

    i ppang-i in-gi-ga ma-na-yo

    This bread sells really well.

    Hands crowding again and again toward just one slot on a shelf full of bread

  5. this very body

    본인(本人)이 오셔야 해요.

    bo-ni-ni o-syeo-ya hae-yo

    The person themself has to come, not someone else.

    A finger picking out, from a crowd holding papers, the one whose name is written there

All of it in one picture

人 is one body standing on two feet. Count those bodies to the end and you have population; divide the food by that count and you have portions. Say which land a body stands on and you have a foreigner; let many bodies lean toward one thing and you have popularity. And point your finger at this one body rather than any other, and you have the person themself.

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