The old form of 东, written 東 in Traditional Chinese, is not simply “the sun behind a tree”. Early graphs show a vertical line passing through a tied or bulging shape. Many paleographers read this as a bundle or bag, while other scholarly interpretations have been proposed; the graph was then used for the similar-sounding word “east”. The familiar sun-and-tree story is a useful modern memory aid, not a settled origin. This sketch keeps the early central pole and bound bundle.
A piece of culture
Turn toward the sunrise East is the direction of sunrise, so Chinese tradition often connects 东方 / 東方, “the east”, with morning, spring and new beginnings. Those associations appear in poetry, art and everyday place names, although their exact use changes with context. Pair 东 with the 北, 南 and 西 direction characters and you can begin reading maps, station signs and addresses.