苦

ku3 means “bitter”: on top is the grass determinant, below is 10 mouths. The ten mouths symbolize ten generations and is the idea of old, ancient. gu 古。 Apparently in ancient Chinese “old plants” meant bitter; the plant dries out and loses its sweetness with age.

辛

xin1 is the image of a dagger which was used to inflict punishment for crimes: branding or scarring the criminal in ancient societies is common, in China cutting of the nose e.g.. The top is li4 the standing man character

立

head is the dot on top line on the bottom is the dirt two vertical lines for legs and the top horizontal line is the arms。 beneath li is 10

十。

This is the same as Roman numeral X but is tilted on it’s side in Chinese！

Xin is a pictogram; it’s a picture of a dagger but the pictogram is composed of two other characters, the
standing man+ten=dagger.
shi li  十 立

Ku is a symbol: this is called an associative idea character – two ideas are brought together to express a third
grass+old=bitter.
kou shi cao 口十草

Xtremely
Intense
Nasal
PUNISHMENT 辛

Knowledge
Understanding
BITTER 苦