Little shoots struggle through the soil.
Roots struggle to find water.
Families, clans, and society. The drawing shows the stem and leaves of a young plant struggling upward through the surface of the soil, represented by the horizontal line, while its roots struggle downward for nourishment. Alternately, it may depict a young plant reaching upward toward the sky, since a horizontal line at the top of a drawing more commonly represents the heavens. Chinese writing is historically based on drawings, not spoken words. These original illustrations represent the oldest forms of the Chinese characters that later became the names the Hexagrams.