一目了然
yī mù liǎo rán · HSK 7
obvious at a glance (idiom)
👁️ 一 one + 目 eye + 了然 fully clear = one eye-glance and it is all clear
Breaks down as 一 (one) + 目 (eye) + 了然 (completely clear). One single look with the eye and the whole thing is understood. Describes facts or layouts so plain that a single glance settles them.
一 — single horizontal stroke
一 is one of the simplest pictographs in Chinese, depicting a single horizontal line to represent the number one. It has retained essentially the same form since oracle bone script over 3,000 years ago. By extension it also means 'first,' 'whole,' or 'same.'
了 — pictograph of swaddled child with no arms
了 originally depicted an infant wrapped in swaddling cloth, with the arms hidden or bound — a variant of 子 (child) without the arms. From 'finished wrapping' it extended to mean 'completed' or 'finished,' which is its main modern grammatical use as an aspect particle marking completed action.