<p>I am pretty sure that it says: <code>中華皇家御膳之寶</code>.</p>

<p>The extra strokes are added to balance the character. I'm not an expert, but I do sometimes see extra strokes added, or squiggles added to straight lines to balance a seal character.</p>

<p>This is how I would draw the character <code>中</code> normally. As you can see, there is some empty space on the bottom.</p>

<pre><code>       *
*      *      *
***************
*      *      *
 *************
       *
       *
       *
       *
       *
</code></pre>

<p>So some people do this too. The extra ink on the bottom balances the character. The flourish does not add extra meaning.</p>

<pre><code>       *
*      *      *
***************
*      *      *
 *************
       *
    ***
   *
    ***
       *
</code></pre>

<p>As for <code>寶</code>, I am reminded of this character because of the <code>宀王貝</code> components, as you have pointed out. I believe it is an artistic choice to shift places of the components, as I could not find an example of this particular style online.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T14:19:41.747Z
2020-01-30T14:26:26.340Z
2020-01-30T14:26:26.340Z
Daniel Cheung
<p>Using an excessive number of clericalified variants (<a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E9%9A%B6%E5%AE%9A" rel="nofollow noreferrer">隸定字</a>), I would say that the closest characters are</p>
<blockquote>
<p>蕐皇家御膳*寶</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Shuowen Jiezi</em></a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lesser seal</a> standard, the closest characters are</p>
<blockquote>
<p>中家御膳*寶</p>
<hr />
<p>*Actually, the older structure of 「善」 is 「」 (⿱羊言), and that is what the photo and <em>Shuowen</em> seal form both are</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a more modern orthography,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>中華皇家御膳之寶</p>
<p><em>Treasure Trove</em> (寶) <em>of</em> (之) <em>Royal</em> (皇家御) <em>Chinese</em> (中華) <em>Cuisine</em> (膳)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is no character where the doorway is, so there are eight characters in total. The rest of this answer will focus on the more difficult to identify characters.</p>
<hr />
<h3>中</h3>
<p><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty" rel="nofollow noreferrer">商</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">甲</a><br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/m2v3HxmC/Show-Image.png"><br><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference" rel="nofollow noreferrer">甲</a>398<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&amp;bh=32500&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">合集32500</a></kbd><kbd>商<br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions" rel="nofollow noreferrer">金</a><br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/cHX485nf/Show-Image.png"><br>中且觶<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=6213&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成6213</a></kbd><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Zhou" rel="nofollow noreferrer">西周</a><br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/7Zjf9cb4/Show-Image.png"><br>七年趞曹鼎<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=2783&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成2783</a></kbd><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_dynasty" rel="nofollow noreferrer">秦</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_and_wooden_slips" rel="nofollow noreferrer">簡</a><br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/FHKJK3kf/Show-Image.png"><br><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/QinwenziReference" rel="nofollow noreferrer">秦</a>197<br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuihudi_Qin_bamboo_texts" rel="nofollow noreferrer">睡虎地秦簡</a></kbd><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty" rel="nofollow noreferrer">漢</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">隸</a><br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/tTH2VBjR/A00020m002.png"><br><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%94%90%E5%85%AC%E6%98%89" rel="nofollow noreferrer">唐公房</a>碑<br>　</kbd><kbd>今<br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">楷</a><br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/prj0939d/Show-Image.png"><br><br>　</kbd></p>
<p>「中」 depicts a <em>military flag</em> with flowing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_streamer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">streamers</a>. This was later extended to mean <em>authority</em> (中央), then <em>centre, middle</em>.</p>
<p>The streamers stopped being written as part of the character very early on, but sometimes they were added back in decorative scripts as horizontal lines protruding from 「中」 (, , etc.)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In contrast, <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=163" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「乍」 looked incredibly different</a> in early scripts.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<h3>華</h3>
<p><kbd>西周<br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/t4JCwVTp/Show-Image.png"><br>不栺方鼎<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=2735&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成2735</a></kbd><kbd>秦<br>簡<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/QMWNxG1z/Show-Image.png"><br>編年紀34<br>睡虎地秦簡</kbd><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty#Eastern_Han" rel="nofollow noreferrer">東漢</a><br>隸<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/fLc9y0m1/1.png"><br><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A6%AE%E5%99%A8%E7%A2%91" rel="nofollow noreferrer">禮器碑</a><br>　</kbd><kbd>今<br>楷<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/Qt8XgBv2/Show-Image.png"><br><br>　</kbd></p>
<p>「華」 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Baxter%E2%80%93Sagart_%282014%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Baxter-Sagart OC</a>: <strong>/*qʷʰˤra/</strong>) originally depicted a <em>flower</em>, now written as 「花」. The petals of the flower would be stroke-transcribed as 「」 in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">regular script</a> (e.g. in the clericalified <em>Shuowen</em> lesser seal variant 「」). The bottom of the stalk was drawn in the shape of 「于」, which doubled as a phonetic hint (<strong>/*ɢʷ(r)a/</strong>).</p>
<p>Semantic 「艸・艹」 (<em>grass</em>) was added on later (see second form above).</p>
<p>「華」 was also overwhelmingly used for the meaning <em>flourishing</em> &gt; <em>magnificent, splendid</em> (<strong>/*N-qʷʰˤra/</strong>) very early on via semantic extension from <em>flower</em>. The character 「花」 was invented later to represent the original sense of 「華」.</p>
<hr />
<h3>之</h3>
<p>You're basically looking at a branch evolution here:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Series A:</p>
<p><kbd>商<br>甲<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/g2RRzF0B/Show-Image.png"><br><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference" rel="nofollow noreferrer">鐵</a>16.1<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&amp;bh=11654&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">合集11654</a></kbd><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_and_Autumn_period" rel="nofollow noreferrer">春秋</a><br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/ry3Nmv17/Show-Image.png"><br>秦公簋<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=4315&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成4315</a></kbd><kbd>春秋<br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/2jQSbWhm/Show-Image.png"><br>姑馮同<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=424&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成424</a></kbd><kbd><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">篆</a><br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/brJVhkjb/Show-Image.png"><br><a href="https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&amp;file=77390&amp;page=76" rel="nofollow noreferrer">之部</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">說文解字</a></kbd><kbd><br><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E9%9A%B6%E5%AE%9A" rel="nofollow noreferrer">隸定</a><br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/SQz0PbDK/1.png"><br><br>　</kbd></p>
</li>
<li><p>Series B:</p>
<p><kbd>商<br>甲<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/g2RRzF0B/Show-Image.png"><br>鐵16.1<br>合集11654</kbd><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period" rel="nofollow noreferrer">戰國</a>・<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">晉</a><br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/DwJjsWKT/Show-Image.png"><br>兆域圖銅版<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=10478&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成10478</a></kbd><kbd>戰國・<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">楚</a><br>簡<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/7Ptj2rTS/Show-Image.png"><br>12<br><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%85%E5%B1%B1%E6%A5%9A%E7%B0%A1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">包山楚簡</a></kbd><kbd>戰國・楚<br>簡<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/3Nyhv88b/Show-Image.png"><br>129<br>包山楚簡</kbd><kbd>秦<br>簡<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/j5c67TgN/Show-Image.png"><br>法141<br>睡虎地秦簡</kbd><kbd>今<br>楷<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/cCmsW9Jd/Show-Image.png"><br><br>　</kbd></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>「之」 (<strong>/*tə/</strong>) originally depicted <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=141" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>a foot</em> 「止」</a> pointing away from an abstract <em>place</em> represented as a horizontal line 「一」, indicating the meaning <em>to go</em>. 「止」 (<strong>/*təʔ/</strong>) simultaneously hinted at the sound.</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>「之」 (<em>to go</em>) and 「止」 (<em>foot</em>) are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate" rel="nofollow noreferrer">cognate</a>.</li>
<li><em>Foot</em> is now written using the derivative 「趾」.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><p>The shape 「」 is what you find as a character component in other characters, e.g. in <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/31534/radicals-in-%e7%ad%89-why-%e5%a3%ab-instead-of-%e5%9c%9f">「寺」</a> or <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=585" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「志」</a>. Normally, it is further corrupted into 「土」 or 「士」 in the modern form.</p>
</li>
<li><p>「之」 is the stand-alone character.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>寶</h3>
<p><kbd>商<br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/j2fFkTwz/Show-Image.png"><br>作父癸<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5360&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成5360</a></kbd><kbd>西周<br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/26ypGg7w/Show-Image.png"><br>父乙簋<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=3862&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成3862</a></kbd><kbd>西周<br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/ydvzmcgw/Show-Image.png"><br>鄭虢仲簋<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=4025&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成4025</a></kbd><kbd>春秋<br>金<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/2STBMXZJ/Show-Image.png"><br>國差<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=10361&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成10361</a></kbd><kbd>戰國・楚<br>簡<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/BQ4xLsSR/Show-Image.png"><br>221<br>包山楚簡</kbd><kbd>今<br>楷<br><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/HLR0vhGm/Show-Image.png"><br><br>　</kbd></p>
<p>「寶」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: <strong>/*pˤuʔ/</strong>, <em>treasure/valuables</em>) actually had about <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/jinwen?kaiOrder=5056" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a million variants</a>, mainly because Chinese characters weren't standardised back then and about <a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=%E5%AF%B6&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">90% of bronzeware had the character 「寶」 inscribed</a> somewhere. These variants do share about half their components with 「寶」, however.</p>
<p>The structure which survives today contains semantic 「宀」 (<em>building</em>), semantic 「玉」 (<em>jade</em>), semantic <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=700" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「貝」</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowrie#Monetary_use" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>cowrie shell</em> &gt; <em>money</em></a>), and doubly semantic and phonetic <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=423" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「缶」</a> (<strong>/*p(r)uʔ/</strong>, <em>jar</em>). The whole character indicates <em>valuables</em> (玉, 貝, 缶) stored inside a <em>building</em> (宀). If you see two or three components out of 「宀」, 「玉」, 「貝」, 「缶」 in a character, you're very likely looking at 「寶」.</p>
<p>The non-standardisation back then affects not only the components' presence, but the <em>location of the components</em>. On a component-transcription basis, the forms displayed here (listed from left to right) are, using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_description_language#Ideographic_Description_Sequences" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ideographic description sequences</a>,</p>
<ol>
<li>寶 (same structure as the modern form)</li>
<li>⿱宀⿰⿱玉貝缶</li>
<li>⿱宀⿰缶⿱玉貝</li>
<li>Same as 2.</li>
<li>Same as 1.</li>
</ol>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=156" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「王」</a> and <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=261" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「玉」</a> had different histories, but converged in shape later. As a character component, the shape 「王」 almost always represents 「玉」 (e.g. 弄, 玻). The times where the shape 「王」 actually represents 「王」 is mostly on the right hand side or the bottom of the character (汪, 皇), and these characters are pretty rare.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p><strong>References:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>季旭昇《說文新證》</li>
<li><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">小學堂</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">國學大師</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">郭沫若《甲骨文合集》</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="http://chinese-linguipedia.org/search_source.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">漢字源流</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ctext.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">中國哲學書電子化計劃</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&amp;res=77351" rel="nofollow noreferrer">宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T14:33:22.333Z
Whoops, forgot 「之」. Hold up...
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T15:49:44.923Z
I really prefer 楚简 之，hhh
Toosky Hierot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T15:52:36.447Z
@TooskyHierot 楚簡文字撇捺太多了，看不清楚 @@
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T15:54:39.537Z
然而我作业抄楚简抄得要吐了。。。
Toosky Hierot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-31T09:56:06.050Z
What? 中 was actually a military flag? I had always thought it was a 会意 character, with the vertical stroke being in the _middle_ of the square...
Sweeper
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-31T10:02:09.310Z
@Sweeper That sounds like a convenient mnemonic, but things like this are determined by linguistics, palaeography, and textual analysis. A lot of people spread information from their own guesses :(
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T14:27:40.413Z
2020-01-31T00:22:24.457Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
dROOOze
<p>There's this restaurant in Beijing (approximate location: <a href="https://j.map.baidu.com/ff/Lev" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Baidu Ditu</a>; I think it's called 御仙楼) which has gigantic letters on the front.  The letters are around 3 people high.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/d08NFTM7/212920157.jpg"><br>
  <sub>(<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/LqniS.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Imgur version</a>.)</sub></p>
</blockquote>

<p><strong>Question</strong>: What does it say in gigantic characters on this building?</p>

<p>My guesses</p>

<pre><code>膳 家 乍
山 御 坐
？ ？ 皇
</code></pre>

<p>The bottom-left looks similar to characters <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/?kaiOrder=64011" rel="nofollow noreferrer">64011</a> <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/?kaiOrder=65188" rel="nofollow noreferrer">65188</a> <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/?kaiOrder=65194" rel="nofollow noreferrer">65194</a> on <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb</a> using <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36182/18338">the method described by dROOOze</a>.  The first three components appear to be 宀王貝.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T09:48:07.883Z
I’ll post some details on the harder to read ones soon - on mobile atm
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T09:49:14.067Z
Thanks!  Haha.  I got four out of eight.
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T09:50:37.210Z
You can’t view imgur, right? I’ll attempt to use that hosting service you mentioned the other time
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T09:53:27.593Z
Well... there are "workarounds" to Imgur not working, e.g. copy/paste the Imgur URL into another site.  It's not efficient, but it works.
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-30T10:05:08.673Z
lol I looked at the upper left character and thought to myself "seriously dude, even if you dont know the character you can at least look up the strokes" and then I looked at the second character, and the third, and I no longer know what I'm looking at
小奥利奥
<character-identification><seal>
What does it say in gigantic characters on this building labelled "Treasure Trove of Royal Chinese Cuisine"? (Characters identified: 中華皇家御膳之寶)
# What does it say in gigantic characters on this building labelled "Treasure Trove of Royal Chinese Cuisine"? (Characters identified: 中華皇家御膳之寶)

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-01-30)

There's this restaurant in Beijing (approximate location: [Baidu Ditu](https://j.map.baidu.com/ff/Lev); I think it's called 御仙楼) which has gigantic letters on the front. The letters are around 3 people high.

> ![](https://i.postimg.cc/d08NFTM7/212920157.jpg)  
> ([Imgur version](https://i.sstatic.net/LqniS.jpg).)

**Question**: What does it say in gigantic characters on this building?

My guesses

```
膳 家 乍
山 御 坐
？ ？ 皇

```

The bottom-left looks similar to characters [64011](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/?kaiOrder=64011) [65188](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/?kaiOrder=65188) [65194](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/?kaiOrder=65194) on <http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/ccdb> using [the method described by username_1](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/36182/18338). The first three components appear to be 宀王貝.

**Tags:** character-identification, seal

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I’ll post some details on the harder to read ones soon - on mobile atm  
> **username_0**: Thanks!  Haha.  I got four out of eight.  
> **username_1**: You can’t view imgur, right? I’ll attempt to use that hosting service you mentioned the other time  
> **username_0**: Well... there are "workarounds" to Imgur not working, e.g. copy/paste the Imgur URL into another site.  It's not efficient, but it works.  
> **username_2**: lol I looked at the upper left character and thought to myself "seriously dude, even if you dont know the character you can at least look up the strokes" and then I looked at the second character, and the third, and I no longer know what I'm looking at  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-01-30. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Using an excessive number of clericalified variants ([隸定字](https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E9%9A%B6%E5%AE%9A)), I would say that the closest characters are

> 蕐皇家御膳\*寶

In the [*Shuowen Jiezi*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi) [lesser seal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script) standard, the closest characters are

> 中家御膳\*寶
>
> ---
>
> \*Actually, the older structure of 「善」 is 「」 (⿱羊言), and that is what the photo and *Shuowen* seal form both are

In a more modern orthography,

> 中華皇家御膳之寶
>
> *Treasure Trove* (寶) *of* (之) *Royal* (皇家御) *Chinese* (中華) *Cuisine* (膳)

There is no character where the doorway is, so there are eight characters in total. The rest of this answer will focus on the more difficult to identify characters.

---

### 中

`商  
甲  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/m2v3HxmC/Show-Image.png)  
甲398  
合集32500``商  
金  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/cHX485nf/Show-Image.png)  
中且觶  
集成6213``西周  
金  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/7Zjf9cb4/Show-Image.png)  
七年趞曹鼎  
集成2783``秦  
簡  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/FHKJK3kf/Show-Image.png)  
秦197  
睡虎地秦簡``漢  
隸  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/tTH2VBjR/A00020m002.png)  
唐公房碑``今  
楷  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/prj0939d/Show-Image.png)`

「中」 depicts a *military flag* with flowing [streamers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_streamer). This was later extended to mean *authority* (中央), then *centre, middle*.

The streamers stopped being written as part of the character very early on, but sometimes they were added back in decorative scripts as horizontal lines protruding from 「中」 (, , etc.)

> In contrast, [「乍」 looked incredibly different](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=163) in early scripts.

---

### 華

`西周  
金  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/t4JCwVTp/Show-Image.png)  
不栺方鼎  
集成2735``秦  
簡  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/QMWNxG1z/Show-Image.png)  
編年紀34  
睡虎地秦簡``東漢  
隸  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/fLc9y0m1/1.png)  
禮器碑``今  
楷  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/Qt8XgBv2/Show-Image.png)`

「華」 ([Baxter-Sagart OC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Baxter%E2%80%93Sagart_%282014%29): **/\*qʷʰˤra/**) originally depicted a *flower*, now written as 「花」. The petals of the flower would be stroke-transcribed as 「」 in [regular script](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script) (e.g. in the clericalified *Shuowen* lesser seal variant 「」). The bottom of the stalk was drawn in the shape of 「于」, which doubled as a phonetic hint (**/\*ɢʷ(r)a/**).

Semantic 「艸・艹」 (*grass*) was added on later (see second form above).

「華」 was also overwhelmingly used for the meaning *flourishing* > *magnificent, splendid* (**/\*N-qʷʰˤra/**) very early on via semantic extension from *flower*. The character 「花」 was invented later to represent the original sense of 「華」.

---

### 之

You're basically looking at a branch evolution here:

* Series A:

  `商  
  甲  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/g2RRzF0B/Show-Image.png)  
  鐵16.1  
  合集11654``春秋  
  金  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/ry3Nmv17/Show-Image.png)  
  秦公簋  
  集成4315``春秋  
  金  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/2jQSbWhm/Show-Image.png)  
  姑馮同  
  集成424` `篆  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/brJVhkjb/Show-Image.png)  
  之部  
  說文解字` `隸定  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/SQz0PbDK/1.png)`
* Series B:

  `商  
  甲  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/g2RRzF0B/Show-Image.png)  
  鐵16.1  
  合集11654``戰國・晉  
  金  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/DwJjsWKT/Show-Image.png)  
  兆域圖銅版  
  集成10478``戰國・楚  
  簡  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/7Ptj2rTS/Show-Image.png)  
  12  
  包山楚簡``戰國・楚  
  簡  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/3Nyhv88b/Show-Image.png)  
  129  
  包山楚簡``秦  
  簡  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/j5c67TgN/Show-Image.png)  
  法141  
  睡虎地秦簡``今  
  楷  
  ![](https://i.postimg.cc/cCmsW9Jd/Show-Image.png)`

「之」 (**/\*tə/**) originally depicted [*a foot* 「止」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=141) pointing away from an abstract *place* represented as a horizontal line 「一」, indicating the meaning *to go*. 「止」 (**/\*təʔ/**) simultaneously hinted at the sound.

> * 「之」 (*to go*) and 「止」 (*foot*) are [cognate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate).
> * *Foot* is now written using the derivative 「趾」.

* The shape 「」 is what you find as a character component in other characters, e.g. in [「寺」](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/31534/radicals-in-%e7%ad%89-why-%e5%a3%ab-instead-of-%e5%9c%9f) or [「志」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=585). Normally, it is further corrupted into 「土」 or 「士」 in the modern form.
* 「之」 is the stand-alone character.

---

### 寶

`商  
金  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/j2fFkTwz/Show-Image.png)  
作父癸  
集成5360``西周  
金  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/26ypGg7w/Show-Image.png)  
父乙簋  
集成3862``西周  
金  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/ydvzmcgw/Show-Image.png)  
鄭虢仲簋  
集成4025``春秋  
金  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/2STBMXZJ/Show-Image.png)  
國差  
集成10361``戰國・楚  
簡  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/BQ4xLsSR/Show-Image.png)  
221  
包山楚簡``今  
楷  
![](https://i.postimg.cc/HLR0vhGm/Show-Image.png)`

「寶」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: **/\*pˤuʔ/**, *treasure/valuables*) actually had about [a million variants](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/jinwen?kaiOrder=5056), mainly because Chinese characters weren't standardised back then and about [90% of bronzeware had the character 「寶」 inscribed](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=%E5%AF%B6&jgwfl=) somewhere. These variants do share about half their components with 「寶」, however.

The structure which survives today contains semantic 「宀」 (*building*), semantic 「玉」 (*jade*), semantic [「貝」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=700) ([*cowrie shell* > *money*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowrie#Monetary_use)), and doubly semantic and phonetic [「缶」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=423) (**/\*p(r)uʔ/**, *jar*). The whole character indicates *valuables* (玉, 貝, 缶) stored inside a *building* (宀). If you see two or three components out of 「宀」, 「玉」, 「貝」, 「缶」 in a character, you're very likely looking at 「寶」.

The non-standardisation back then affects not only the components' presence, but the *location of the components*. On a component-transcription basis, the forms displayed here (listed from left to right) are, using [ideographic description sequences](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_description_language#Ideographic_Description_Sequences),

1. 寶 (same structure as the modern form)
2. ⿱宀⿰⿱玉貝缶
3. ⿱宀⿰缶⿱玉貝
4. Same as 2.
5. Same as 1.

> [「王」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=156) and [「玉」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=261) had different histories, but converged in shape later. As a character component, the shape 「王」 almost always represents 「玉」 (e.g. 弄, 玻). The times where the shape 「王」 actually represents 「王」 is mostly on the right hand side or the bottom of the character (汪, 皇), and these characters are pretty rare.

---

**References:**

* 季旭昇《說文新證》
* [小學堂](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/)
* [國學大師](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/)
  + [郭沫若《甲骨文合集》](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/)
  + [中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/)
* [漢字源流](http://chinese-linguipedia.org/search_source.html)
* [中國哲學書電子化計劃](https://ctext.org/)
  + [宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》](https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&res=77351)

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Whoops, forgot 「之」. Hold up...  
> **username_4**: I really prefer 楚简 之，hhh  
> **username_1**: @username_4 楚簡文字撇捺太多了，看不清楚 @@  
> **username_4**: 然而我作业抄楚简抄得要吐了。。。  
> **username_5**: What? 中 was actually a military flag? I had always thought it was a 会意 character, with the vertical stroke being in the _middle_ of the square...  
> **username_1**: @username_5 That sounds like a convenient mnemonic, but things like this are determined by linguistics, palaeography, and textual analysis. A lot of people spread information from their own guesses :(  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-01-30. Score: 2

I am pretty sure that it says: `中華皇家御膳之寶`.

The extra strokes are added to balance the character. I'm not an expert, but I do sometimes see extra strokes added, or squiggles added to straight lines to balance a seal character.

This is how I would draw the character `中` normally. As you can see, there is some empty space on the bottom.

```
       *
*      *      *
***************
*      *      *
 *************
       *
       *
       *
       *
       *

```

So some people do this too. The extra ink on the bottom balances the character. The flourish does not add extra meaning.

```
       *
*      *      *
***************
*      *      *
 *************
       *
    ***
   *
    ***
       *

```

As for `寶`, I am reminded of this character because of the `宀王貝` components, as you have pointed out. I believe it is an artistic choice to shift places of the components, as I could not find an example of this particular style online.


---

