家　新　広　古　上

家 combines a roof (宀) on top with a pig (豕) underneath. In ancient times, people and livestock lived under the same roof — a house with a pig was the very image of a home. Livestock represented wealth and family prosperity.

新 is built from 辛 (hard work / bitter) on the left, 木 (tree) in the middle, and 斤 (axe) on the right. The image is of an axe cutting into a fresh tree — the newly split wood with its bright white interior was the ancient symbol for something completely new.

広 is the simplified form of 廣. It shows a cliff or overhang (广) with a large, open space underneath — like a vast shelter extending under a rocky ledge. The original full form 廣 includes more strokes showing pillars of a great hall.

古 combines 十 (ten) on top with 口 (mouth) below — the idea of ten generations of mouths, meaning stories passed down through many generations. What has been spoken of for ten generations is truly ancient. Some scholars also see it as a skull: a mouth on an old bone.

上 is a simple but elegant directional indicator — a short stroke or dot placed above a baseline. The ancient form was literally a vertical mark sitting on top of a horizontal line, pointing upward. Its partner 下 (below) is the mirror image with the mark below the line.