天分
tiān fèn · HSK 7
natural gift
🎁 天 heaven + 分 portion = the share heaven hands you, i.e. inborn talent
天分 literally reads as a heaven-allotted portion: 天 means sky or natural, 分 means a share or part. So a person's 天分 is the slice of ability they were born with rather than trained into.
天 — 一 (one/sky) above 大 (big person)
Originally a pictograph of a person (大) with an emphasized head, representing what is above — the sky or heavens. The top stroke evolved into 一, symbolizing the vast expanse overhead. From 'sky' it extended to mean 'day,' 'heaven,' and 'nature.'
分 — knife 刀 + eight 八 (split apart)
分 originally depicted a knife (刀) cutting something into two parts, shown by 八 above (which itself meant 'divide'). The core sense is 'to divide' or 'split', from which extended meanings like 'portion', 'minute', and 'part' developed. Pronounced fèn, it carries the sense of an allotted share.