“山”字是一个象形字,甲骨文中的“山”字就像三座山峰的样子。汉语中“三”这个数字往往表示数量多,所以用三座“山峰”代表层层的山峦①。为了简便,后来三座“山峰”被简化成三竖,这就是现代汉字“山”的来历。The character “山” (mountain) is a pictograph; in oracle-bone script, it looks like three mountains. The number three in Chinese means multitude; so, three mountains represent a chain of mountains. Later, three mountains were simplified into three vertical strokes: this is how the Chinese character “山” came into being.
