The word 早晨 is formed by combining two characters that each independently relate to the early part of the day. The first character, 早 (zǎo), depicts the sun (日) above the horizon line (a vertical line in its ancient form, later stylized), directly conveying the idea of "early" or "morning". The second character, 晨 (chén), itself is a compound ideograph that originally represented the time when farmers were in the fields under the sun (日), also meaning "morning". By joining them, 早 specifies and intensifies 晨, creating a single, reinforced concept that precisely means "early morning" or "morning", visualizing the specific period just after sunrise.