"Guilin landscape and water under the heavens." A word A shows the peculiar features of Guilin's beautiful landscapes, as if it is incomparable. So, where does the meaning of "A" as the first and first come from?
Considering the etymology, a variety of glyphs are displayed, some like the field shape with a cross, some directly marked with a cross shape, and some paintings with a cross or handle in the arc. Saying that it is a pictogram is actually an abstract symbol that will be intentional. This also leaves room for multiple interpretations.
One theory is that the ancient word "armor" is the shape of the shield of war, which is originally meant to be a soldier holding a protective card when fighting, which is used to block arrows or resist spears. At a cursory glance, it also makes sense that ancient soldiers did not fight with shields to defend or attack?
Moreover, the shield is placed in front of the defense, providing a basis for "first". In addition, judging from the formation of the platoon formation of ancient warfare, soldiers holding shields were often in the first phalanx. Later, the armor worn by the soldiers was also put on the outside for self-defense, just like the shell of a turtle. This has been associated from the protective meaning of "nail" to the reference to the hard shell. The materials for making armor are gold, hemp, and leather, and the Han Dynasty had an iron smelting process, so the armor is also called iron armor, and it is also called "XuanJia". This "XuanJia" comes from the worship of the "God of Xuanwu". "Xuanwu is a turtle snake", the turtle has a carapace, with a strong protective function. Isn't armor the hard tortoiseshell worn on a soldier? How relaxed and self-satisfied it is to return to the field, take off the battle robes, and return to the civilian life of farming and reading!
However, the shield shape of "A" seems to be difficult to carry the way of heaven and earth it contains. Therefore, another version is more able to reveal the natural principle of "A". According to the same glyph, it can be interpreted as the seeds of plants breaking out of their shells under the infiltration of spring rain. The shape of the "ten" is like a crack in the shell of a seed; the elongated handle should be the rhizome after the seedling breaks through the soil. Judging from this, the original meaning of "A" should be the bud that breaks out of the shell of the seed, that is, the state of germination. "The Meng of the East, the Yang Qi sprouts, from the wooden belt to the image of the armor." It is the eastern orientation, the spring erection machine, and the grass and trees breaking out of the shell when they are first born, "A" has the meaning of the birth of all things, that is, "first" and "initial", and at the same time characterizes the hard shell. The ten days of the lunar calendar take "A" as the first order, which is not unrelated to the natural phenomenon of the sunrise in the East and the beginning of all things.
I don't know whether it is a coincidence or an appendix or a discovery of wisdom, ten days to dry "methyl ethylene propyl butyl heptyl heptyl heptyl heptyl nondecyl", corresponding to the wheat from "seed, germination, tillering, growth, ear extraction, maturity, harvesting, threshing, seed selection, drying" and other ten stages.
It is these ten life nodes that make up the different seasons and time periods of the year. Plants are like this, and people go along with the four times, so why not? Headed by A, it seems more plausible accordingly.
Heaven and man sense, harmony is auspicious, like a handsome bird out of the cage, a dry well spring, a dry seedling to rain... Starting from a nail, the evolution of the heavenly stem and earth branch outlines a wonderful picture of human beings. Flowers blossom and fall, clouds scatter, what do you see? (Sha Shuiqing)