样

Tree radical on the left — pictograph of a trunk with branches above and roots below. Indexes 样 in the wood-and-plants family with 林, 树, 桥, 板. The original 樣 named a kind of acorn-bearing oak whose nuts were used as samples for trade — that 'sample, exemplar' became the modern abstract sense 'kind, type, manner.'

Right side 羊 supplies the sound (yáng → yàng, just a tone shift). 羊 itself depicts a sheep's head with horns — one of the oldest pictographs. Same phonetic appears in 洋 ocean, 养 to raise, 痒 itchy. In simplified 样 it replaces traditional 樣's 羕 phonetic with this cleaner shape.