作文 (zuò wén)

Character breakdown

• 作 (zuō) · 7 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 乍 represents the sound.

• 文 (Wén) · 4 strokes

  Pictograph of a man with writing (possibly a tattoo) on his chest. In later scripts the writing was abbreviated to a dot or omitted altogether.