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The character 物, whose traditional and simplified forms are identical, is composed of the semantic component 牛, meaning "cow" or "bovine", combined with the phonetic and semantic component 勿, which initially depicted a blade or a banner and conveyed a sense of differentiation or marking. Its earliest usage referred specifically to types or colors of sacrificial cattle, a meaning derived from the practice of selecting and marking animals for ritual purposes. From this concrete, ritualistic origin, the term broadened significantly to denote all kinds of colored or patterned objects, then objects in general, and eventually encompassed the entirety of the external, material world. This expansion allowed it to acquire profound abstract weight in classical Chinese philosophy, where it came to represent all things that exist in opposition to the self or the mind, solidifying its role as a fundamental concept for discussing matter, affairs, and phenomena.
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Example Sentences Hide
我喜欢小动物。
这个食物很好吃。
植物需要阳光。
我收到一个礼物。
请保管好你的物品。
水是重要的物质。
我对物理很感兴趣。
博物馆里有很多历史文物。