Chinese glyphs for male and female

The Mandarin word for male and female are nán 男 and nǚ 女, respectively. The design of the glyph for male, nán 男, is rather simple, it is built by stacking blocks of rice field (田) and labor (力, 力 is abstracted from a picture of an arm) together. Directly translation of the semantic elements gives us: Male 男: worker 力 in the field 田.

The motive force element can also be placed around any position in the field, e.g. on the right hand side 㽖

The Hokkien word for male and female, on the other hand, are completely different. In Hokkien, male is termed tsa-poo while female is called tsa-bóo.

And the recommended glyphs by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan are 查埔 and 查某, respectively. For example

這个 旅行團的 查埔人 比 查某人 較少。

We must give our attention to the glyph 查 since it could be describing a common feature found in both male and female.

$$ \begin{align} \tfrac{木}{旦} &= 查\\ \tfrac{\frac{木}{日}}{一} &= 查\\ \tfrac{杳}{一} &= 查 \end{align} $$

The last construction is particularly interesting because the glyph 杳 is often associated with femininity and darkness (#FFF), for instance:

是故民氣，杲乎如登於天，杳乎如入於淵

The multiplicative inverse of 杳 is 杲 and the quality of 杲 is masculine and bright (#000).

$$ \tfrac{木}{日} \times \tfrac{日}{木} = 杳 \times 杲 = 1 $$

是故民氣，杲乎如登於天，杳乎如入於淵

| 簪 | 臢 | 贊 | 賛 | 簮 | 簪 | 兓 | 竝 | 兟 | 旡 | 无 | 先 | 夫 | 大 | 立 | 天 | 既 | 旣 | 蠶 | 蝅 | 憯 | 朁 | 替 | 𣄺 | 𣄰 | 𣄲 | 旤 | 𣄸 | 𣄴 | 𣄵 | 𣄱 | 𣄯 | 𣄷

$$ \begin{align} \tfrac{竹}{朁} = \tfrac{⺮}{朁} = \tfrac{竹}{替} = \tfrac{⺮}{替} = 簮 &= 簪\\ \tfrac{先 + 先}{日} = \tfrac{夫 + 夫}{日} = \tfrac{旡 + 旡}{日} = 替 &= 朁\\ \tfrac{先 + 先}{貝} = \tfrac{夫 + 夫}{貝} = \tfrac{旡 + 旡}{貝} = 賛 &= 贊\\ \tfrac{旡 + 旡}{\frac{日}{虫 + 虫}} = \tfrac{无 + 无}{\frac{日}{虫 + 虫}} = \tfrac{天 + 天}{虫} = 蝅 &= 蠶 \end{align} $$

查甫 = 杲甫 = 旡甫 = 簪甫 = 田甫 = 大甫 = 禾甫

查房 = 杳房 = 旡房 = 簪房 = 妰娝 = 查某

Oracle bone script of 旡, a side view of a seated person, very similar to Japanese seiza 正座 posture. An alternative rendering is 㒫.