The story of 括

include, enclose

括 is composed of the BuShou of 手(hand) and 舌. 舌 in there is actually the simplified combination of 氏(surname) and 口(mouth), 氏 depicts a bowing man, which has the meaning of lowering, our mouth will be bigger if we lower it(chin). Mouth opens widely has the meaning of including everything, man picks thing by hand, also means keeping control of something. Annotation: The combination of 氏(surname) and 口(mouth) is an old HanZi, now it is no longer used, Shuowen Jiezi(說文解字) said this word means ‘stuffed mouth’, it is wrong.