金 Jin1 – metal, (gold, highly respected, money).  According to the ShuoWen the character shows two nuggets of metal buried deep within the layers of the earth, with an arrowhead.  You can see the character for earth 土 covered over and topped 亼.  The line covering earth represents the deep layers, the top shows an arrowhead.  Two dots represent the metal buried deep in the earth. Other sources suggest an axe (below) and an arrowhead (above), hence metal weapons.  

秋Qiu1 – autumn, (harvest time).  The character shows ripe grain 禾on the left – a plant 木, with ripened ears.  The right side is the character for fire 火 – the time when grain has been ripened by the heat of the sun.  

減 Jian3 – decrease, (reduce, lower, diminish).  The character shows water 水on the left, and to wound on the right – a phonetic (to wound 戌  (lance with a slash) with the mouth 口 – hence to bite).  Fluid leaking from a wound?

 

肺 Fei4 – lung/pulmonary.  The character shows hanging flesh on the left 肉, representing the physical body.  The right shows creeping plants growing outwards 巿, alluding to the fact that the lungs look like an inverse plant branching outwards. 

 

大腸 Da4Chang2 – Large Intestine.  Da shows a man 人 with arms and legs spread representing large or great.  Chang shows hanging flesh on the left  肉 (representing a body part), and rays of light 勿 from the sun 日on the right 昜, representing bright, glorious and expansive – so the glorious or expansive organ?

皮Pi2 – skin, (rind, peel; leather; naughty).  The character shows the right hand 又holding a hide.  肺主皮毛 Lung governs skin and body hair.  

魄Po4 – corporeal/animal soul, (vigour).  The character shows white or bright on the left 白(pertaining to metal – the character represents the first rays of the sun.  The right side shows spirit or ghost 鬼, a head 甶 and swirls 厶, or a disconnected head (consciousness) with no body.  Together they represent the spirit of metal, the Po. 

 

白Bai3 – white; (clear; bright).  The character shows the sun 日, with a line 丿representing the first rays of morning sun – hence bright, white and clear.  Earlier forms suggest a bobbin of white cotton.  

泣Qi4 – weep, (sob, tears).  The character shows water 水on the left (representing the current of water), with a person standing on the ground 立on the right.  The water of a person is tears or weeping.  

腥 Xing1 – rotten (raw meat, rank, fishy).  The character shows flesh 肉on the left, and a phonetic on the right (star 星 - the star 日above生“to give birth to” - a plant shooting from the ground).

 

憂You1 – sadness, grief, sorrow, melancholy (also worry, concern, oppression).  From the top the character shows a head 頁, a contained 冖heart 心 (representing a feeling), and dragging/shackled legs 夊 – so the thought and constrained feeling of dragging legs.  

 

悲Bei1 – sadness, sorrow, grief.  The character shows a heart 心, representing a feeling, and above two people 人back to back and not communicating or in opposition 非.  So the feeling of disconnection or opposition.  

 

辛 Xin1 – pungent, acrid, (hot).  (Other meanings 8^th of 10 heavenly stems; toilsome or laborious, hardship or suffering).  The character is for the original meaning.  It shows a shield 干, or to offend, with “exclamation marks” above to show severely offend.  Below this is above or superior 上 (altered form), hence to seriously offend ones superiors is to know hardship or suffering.  

 

燥 Zao4 – dryness; parched; (impatient).  The character shows the flickering flames of fire 火on the left.  On the right is a phonetic (noisy 喿 – represented by many birds 品singing in a tree木).