We can see from the above-mentioned Oracle Bone Inscriptions glyph that on its right is a pointer in one hand; On the lower left is a word "Zi", which stands for a child. On the word "Zi", there are two cross symbols, which indicate the traces of whipping. The whole glyph "teach" means that a person is educating a child with a pointer. The glyphs of inscriptions on bronze and seal script follow the Oracle Bone Inscriptions glyph, and their structures are basically the same. The font of "Jiao" in regular script is slightly different from that of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and He, and the word "Xiao" on the left has become a pictophonetic character.
In Shuo Wen Jie Zi, it is said: "Teaching is what is applied above and what is effective below." It means that the original meaning of the word "teach" is to teach above and imitate below. Duan Yucai notes the cloud: "When giving, you must pay attention to it." The next effect, so follow the effect. "The word" teaching "is still used as the meaning of" education "and" teaching "today, and it seems that we can also get a glimpse of some information about ancient educational methods from its word-making methods. The ancients said that "if you are not strict in teaching, you are lazy", which means that teachers are lazy if they are not strict in educating students. Later, the meaning of "education" was extended to the meaning of "teaching". For example, in Zuo Zhuan's Thirty-one Years of "xianggong", it is said that "teach him what he doesn't know and sympathize with his shortcomings", which means that he should teach what he doesn't know and make up for what he lacks. When teaching, the word "teaching" should be pronounced as "jiāo", which means imparting knowledge and skills. After "teaching", the meaning of "order" was extended, such as Wang Changling's poem "Out of the Great Wall" in the Tang Dynasty, "Only make Longcheng fly, and don't teach (jiāo) Huma to cross the Yinshan Mountain". Here, "stan" and "don't teach" are opposite words. "stan" means "only allow" and "only allow", and "not teach" means "not allow" and "not allow". Only the famous soldiers who fought against Xiongnu can be stationed in Longcheng, and Xiongnu's army can't cross Yinshan Mountain. Later, it was extended by "teaching" and "education" to refer to an academic or an academic faction. For example, Zheng Xuan's "Six Arts" said: "Fu (→) teaches in ten words. "The word' jiao' here refers to academic factions. Later, it was extended to "religion". For example, "Biography of Empresses in the New Tang Dynasty" said: "Buddhism is different from the old religion. "The word' jiao' here refers to religion.