0005 黙

黙

MOKU, in the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word (given in all-caps), and damaru in the native Japanese pronunciation, means 'to be silent.' The four lower marks represent fire; they're an alternate form of

火

The flames are apparent; maybe this is even Flame Man walking around and throwing off fireballs. The 'contraction' with four marks in a row must be a gas stove burner.

The character in the upper left of MOKU/damaru means 'a hamlet.'

里

But that character with flames added

黒

means 'black.' Just guessing, but maybe that's because what's left after a hamlet burns is just...black. Whoa! I just found this in Wieger (in an earlier form of the character, which I didn't find in his index by stroke count because it has a different stroke count from the modern form), and he says it represents the stuff that fire deposits around the aperture through which the smoke escapes, i.e., soot. Which is black. So the earlier character meaning 'smoke hole' got changed, it looks like, so that it's now indistinguishable from the character that means field (the four-square box), which is part of the character meaning 'hamlet.'

The character in the upper right of MOKU/damaru

犬