Chinese Language --- Ji Shi

Ideographs are graphic representations of abstract ideas; that is for ideas that do not have a physical form that can be readily rendered into a line drawing format, an abstract symbolic representation is created. Examples are: shang "on," "above;" xia "below," "under," and xiong "evil".  Originally, a dot or shorter line was placed either above or below the horizontal boundary line to indicate the concepts of "above," shang, and "below," xia. The character xiong "malevolent" represents a deep pit, into which an unwary traveler has fallen.