雨
yǔ · HSK 1
rain
🌧️ Pictograph: a cloud with four water drops falling down
The character 雨 is one of the oldest pictographs in Chinese — the top horizontal is the sky, the box is a cloud, and the four small strokes inside are raindrops. It's also a radical in weather words like 雪 (snow) and 雷 (thunder).
雨 — pictograph: sky 一 + cloud 冂 + four water drops
雨 is a pictograph showing rain falling from a cloud under the sky. The top horizontal stroke represents the sky, the enclosing shape depicts a cloud, and the four small strokes inside are falling raindrops. Its meaning 'rain' has stayed consistent since oracle bone script.