The roots of “Please 请” are kind of messy

请 Please
qing3 = please

 

The right-hand phonetic 青 is also in the word for“semen”: 精 jing1.

This makes sense: the bottom is the moon stand-in for “flesh” and the top looks like an explosion—
“flesh exploding” would describe “semen.” And no wonder it means “please.”

The character on the left of semen is “rice” 米 mi3. Think about what rice pudding looks like and you’ll have a clue to this character. It also means “essence” and “spirit.”

The word “poison” 毒 du2 also has that exploding top and, oddly, “mother” on the bottom (negative propaganda about women here, again built into the language), and semen is a kind of neurotoxin. You introduce it into the vagina, and itstarts a nine-month process that is very difficult to stop.

But 米 doesn’t just mean “rice” and “semen.” It also represents one of the causes of semen: “breasts,” which are “mimi” 咪咪, but better to think: