Radical (Chinese character)
One example of simpler characters combining to form a more complex one is the complex character 明 míng meaning "bright" or "tomorrow", which is made up of the radicals 日 rì meaning "sun" or "day" and 月 yuè meaning "moon" or "month", both of which are simple characters that can exist by themselves, and the putting together of sun 日 and moon 月 to make one character show that either the sun and moon pass before tomorrow comes, or that they are the bright objects in the sky that shine light on the earth. An example of characters with radicals that don't exist by themselves is the complex character 休 xìu meaning "to stop", “to cease” or "to rest", which is made up of the radical 亻, which is a variant of the simple character 人 rén meaning "person" or "human", though the variant never exists as by itself must therefore attach itself to another character to form a complete character, and the radical 木 mǔ meaning "wood" or "tree", hinting what a person might want to do after he/she ceases working (like lying on a tree).