The Chinese character  rì 日 means sun or day, and is pronounced like the first two letters in the English word “right”. The early form of 日 rì was written as a circle with a horizontal stroke through the middle.  The circle signified the sun and the horizontal stroke signified the solid light. The reason why the character is now written as it is today is rather complex but has to do with the east west and north south movements of the sun. In my upcoming course I’ll explain this more fully. As 日 signifies the sun, most of Chinese characters that associate with the sun have 日 as a component, eg. 旦 dàn meaning sunrise.