The story of 畫

picture, draw

畫 is composed of 聿 and the variant of 田(field, farmland). 聿 depicts a hand holding a pen, means writing, fields are important properties, the borders between them must be accurate and clear, we should use a pen to draw and map them out, so 畫 has the meaning of plan or delimitation, but such meaning has been replaced by 劃, now 畫 mostly means drawing. On the other hand, the lower part of 畫 in Oracle bone inscriptions is not the picture of a field, the meaning is still unknown, which can be seen as a kind of pattern or design. However, no matter if it is field or something else, the meaning of 畫 won’t be affected, no need to canvass.