泉 draws water welling up from an opening in rock — a small round spring mouth at the top, fresh water spilling downward and outward beneath it. Over the centuries that opening was reshaped into 白 and the falling water below became 水, but the character is still, at its root, a picture of water finding its own way out of the earth. That is why so many hot springs, mineral-water brands, and spa towns across China still carry 泉 in their name today.
A piece of culture
Bathing like an emperor Tang dynasty emperors built an entire palace, Huaqing Palace, around a natural hot spring outside Xi'an, where Emperor Xuanzong bathed with his beloved consort Yang Guifei. The poet Bai Juyi immortalized their romance — and that very spring — in one of China's most famous poems, "Song of Everlasting Regret". Visitors can still soak in pools fed by the same mineral spring today, more than 1,200 years later.
Use it in a real word
泉水
quánshuǐ · cyun4 seoi2
spring water — literally "spring's water"; you already know 水