無

Original meaning: to dance.

In oracle bone script (甲骨文), the character showed a person (大 shape) standing with long ornamental tassels hanging down — depicting a ritual dance.

As time passed, this character was borrowed phonetically to mean “none” / “not have”.

To distinguish the original meaning “dance,” the component 舛 (misstep) was added, forming 舞 (dance).

Later, in seal script (篆書), scribes added 亾 (亡 “to perish”) to reinforce the “not have” meaning.

The bottom 灬 in the modern form 無 looks like “fire,” but it’s not originally related to fire — it’s simply a cursive simplification from earlier scripts.

In Classical Chinese and literary contexts, 無 is widely used for “not” or “none.”

In modern spoken Mandarin, the phrase 没有 (méiyǒu) is used instead for “don’t have,” while 無 (无) remains in compounds or formal/literary style.

In Japanese, read as mu or bu (in compounds), meaning “nothingness” — a key concept in Zen (e.g., 無心 “no-mind”, 無我 “selflessness”).

In Korean, it is read 무 and widely used in compounds like 무한(無限, infinite), 무죄(無罪, innocent).

无, 橆