This character is a pictography of the precious cowrie shell.
Used in early feudal times as money, it came to mean also "valuables". The
regular form
shows a live shell with feelers; but today, like the money it once
represented, the shell reveals its hollowness in the simplified form.
shows a live shell with feelers; but today, like the money it once
represented, the shell reveals its hollowness in the simplified form
.
