The story of 召

summon, convene

召 is composed of 刀 and口. In here, 刀 actually is the variant of匕(the picture of a spoon), 口 is the variant of皿(a container or a bowl). The original form of 召 is quite complicated, it is the picture of two hands holding a spoon and taking up wine from a wine bottle to a bowl, depicts master(most likely an emperor) serving his guest(most likely the feudal barons) in ancient China, which also can be seen as a picture of the king meeting with his feudal baron. 召 has the meanings of greeting, fairness and connection, but such three meanings have been replaced by 招, 迢 and 紹 respectively, now 召 means calling together or summoning. Note: The original form of召 can be only seen in KangXi Dictionary(康熙字典), such HanZi is composed of two variants of 手(hand), 召, 酉(the picture of wine bottle) and 皿(the picture of bowl or container), but no one use it now, but we can understand the original meaning of 召.