Really odd "translation" question...

[(米洛)]

大家好,

Hey all,

I've been studying Chinese for a couple years, and haven't really gotten to the point where I can think in Chinese or anything, but I did have a super bizarre dream the other day...

I am not trying to be new-agey or anything, but I am pretty curious about the dream. I was in an old high school classroom and my current boss (who in real life is the director of an art museum and knows nothing about Chinese) was the teacher. He took a marker and drew a Chinese character upon the board and said, "this is your task- to figure out what this word means." The dream was really vivid and it was probably all random, but like I said, I'm still a bit curious...

The character that he wrote, as far as I know, doesn't exist. On the left was the ren radical (亻, as in 他) and on the right was cai (才), surrounded by the wei enclosure radical (囗, as in 国). Essentially it looked like the traditional character for ge (個), but instead of 古 there was 才.

I've learned that 团 (tuan) means group in simplified Chinese, but I can't find any word that includes 团 or its traditional equivalent, 團, with a ren radical on its side. Is it possible that there could be an archaic word out there that fits that description?

I imagine that there likely isn't, so I'm just wondering... How would all of you "interpret" that made-up character? I don't have a good enough grasp of the Chinese language to perceive this level of abstraction in the correct way, if that makes sense... Would this word just be gibberish? Or could one draw some kind of "definition" or "translation" from it?

I'm not hugely invested in this or think that its a sign from the universe or anything, it's just personal intrigue. When you wake up and the last thing you dreamt is somebody saying "you must figure out what this means," it kind of sticks with you.

Thanks for your help!!!!!

[imron]

It doesn't appear to exist in the Unihan database, which means either it doesn't exist, or it's extremely rare and you won't currently be able to type it or display it on a computer.

Maybe the dream means don't waste your time learning unnecessary characters

[Hofmann]

You ask how I would interpret it? Well first I just wouldn't recognize it, so I'd look it up. Failing to find it, I'd think it's just some character that somebody made up. Depending on how 才 is written, it could be probably pronounced like 團, probably meaning something loosely related or completely different; or it could be some unpredictable ideographic compound.

[muirm]

Obviously it means "loner": one person standing outside of the group.

[li3wei1]

Or it could mean leader, a person with a group following him, or teacher, a person standing in front of a group.

[tysond]

Using my mnemonics, this would be Chuck Norris 亻 and a Team 团.

Given that we all know there's no team big enough to contain Chuck Norris (see The Expendables 2 for details), I believe "loner" is the correct interpretation.

In my imagination this would be used in the Chinese words for "freelancer", "Single's day", "American independence day" and "internet addict".

[skylee]

It could be something created by artist Xu Bing.

http://www.xubing.com/index.php/site/projects/year/1987/book_from_the_sky

[abcdefg]

人才 = talented

http://www.mdbg.net/...wdrst=0&wdqb=人才

[(米洛)]

This is super interesting to me, thanks for all your input! I like the connotations of "loner" and "leader," whether it would mean just one of those things or both simultaneously. And I didn't even think of 人才. Thanks! That was really fun to read and helpful.

Xu Bing's Book From the Sky is way, way cool. I can't believe how much effort he put into that.