qiū · cau1
autumn; fall
Today 秋 combines 禾, ripened grain, with 火, fire. Its earliest history is less simple: oracle-bone forms used a creature-like sign, often identified as a cricket or locust, and sometimes added fire below it. Later script forms shifted toward the familiar grain-and-fire structure. Scholars do not agree on every step or on the exact creature, so this hand-drawn old-form sketch uses the well-attested later components rather than turning one debated theory into a tidy picture story.
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