美术
měishù · HSK 3
artistic production
🎨 美 = beauty + 术 = craft/art; beauty-craft = fine arts
美 (měi) means beautiful; 术 (shù) means art, craft, or technique. Together 美术 literally reads as the craft of beauty, the standard Chinese term for fine arts or visual arts.
美 — sheep 羊 on top + big 大 below
美 is traditionally explained as a pictograph of a person (大) wearing a large sheep or ram's-head ornament, suggesting beauty through adornment. An alternative reading takes 羊 (sheep) over 大 (big) to mean 'a big, fat sheep'—seen as delicious and pleasing, hence 'beautiful, good'.