What are the two brightest things the ancient world knew? The scribes put them side by side: the sun 日 and the moon 月, together in one character. Sun-and-moon means bright — and because the bright new day follows the night, 明 also came to mean the next day, and clear understanding itself.
A piece of culture
The Brilliant Dynasty In 1368 a former beggar-monk drove out the Mongol rulers and founded a new dynasty. He named it 明 — the Brilliant, the dynasty of sun and moon. Ming China rebuilt the Great Wall in the stone form you can walk today, built the Forbidden City, and sent admiral Zheng He's giant treasure fleets as far as Africa — decades before Columbus sailed. When you hear "a Ming vase", this is the 明 it is named after.
Use it in a real word
明天
míngtiān · ming4 tin1
tomorrow — the "bright day" ahead; you already know 天