The oracle bone inscription "male", composed of "field" and "force", indicates the use of a plow to plow in the field. Since most of the farmers are men, they are called "male".
The oracle bone inscription "Shu" depicts a kneeling man holding the moon in both hands, indicating that people work in the morning before the moon sets, to reflect the early time.
The oracle bone inscription "herd", holding a whip to herd cattle, the original meaning is grazing.
The oracle bone inscription "耤" (jí) depicts a person who cultivates the land with both hands and feet, and uses the soil to plough the field with 耒 (lěi), which originally means to plough.
The oracle bone inscription "Lao", the glyph above is two "fire", below is a "clothes", some experts believe that this glyph refers to people sewing clothes under the lamp, in order to express the meaning of hard work.
Theoracleboneinscriptionfor“劳(láo)”featurestwoChinesecharacters“火(huǒ,fire)”aboveandone “衣(yī,clothing)” below. Someexpertsbelievethatthischaracterrepresentsapersonsewingclothesbylamplight,symbolizinghardwork.
(Text translation: Tong Lin, Zhang Rui)