Origin

This character appears to be a picture of a valley itself. The shape shows a narrow opening at the top that widens as it goes down, mimicking how a valley looks when viewed from above or in profile—steep sides coming together and then spreading out. The vertical lines suggest the walls of the valley, while the opening captures that distinctive geography of land that slopes down into a depression. Over time, the pictorial details simplified into the modern form, but the basic shape still echoes that geographical feature.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.