0081 看

看

This character is a great picture. A hand,

手,

over an eye, shading it,

目,

means ‘to watch, to see, to examine.’

It’s pronounced KAN and miru in Japanese, and it’s kàn in Chinese.

The archaic characters are very close to the modern one:

 .

The eye in that second character above is very attentive, don’t you think?

0080 葉

葉

This character means ‘leaf.’ It’s pronounced YŌ and ha or happa in Japanese, and yè in Chinese.

The upper part,

艹,

stands for ‘grass,’

and the lower part,

木,

is the familiar character for ‘tree.’

The bit in the middle,

世,

means ‘generation, world, society, era, life.’ It and the tree are actually just there as a sound hint, but one can put all the parts together—grass, tree, and life—and maybe that will remind one of ‘leaf.’

However, another way to deal with this character is by looking at the archaic versions:

  .

It sure looks like those are trees...with leaves. And the bit that now means ‘generation, world, etc.,’ in the middle, just looks like the branches of the trees. And the ‘grass’ on top also just looks like leaves. Sometimes it seems like scribes over the centuries tended to regularize these older pictures by drawing them as if they were made of pieces which (today?) have other meanings. Or maybe those branches ‘generate’ the leaves.

0079 責

責

This character has somewhat different meanings in Chinese and Japanese. In the former it means ‘one’s duty, responsibility,’ but in the latter it means ‘to blame, censure, or condemn,’ as well as ‘responsibility.’ And in either case, it’s hard to connect the elements of the character with the meaning. It’s pronounced SEKI and semeru in Japanese, zé in Chinese.

The lower part,

貝,

means ‘sea shell, cowry, (and in Chinese only) money.’ The meaning of the upper part, apparently a combination of

亠  and  土,

is not very clear. Japanese doesn’t use it on its own and in Chinese it seems to mean ‘to stab,’ but it takes a different form in that case:

朿.

Very confusing.

So let’s just assume that money is the root of all evil. Or cowries are the root of all evil, as in the old days when, in some societies, cowries could be used as cash. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_money

And when money is combined with the very confusing device on top of the character, there will be something heavy coming along, either some sort of responsibility or blame for using such an obscure mark.

0078 先

先

This character means ‘first, ahead, previous, the future.’ In Japanese, it can be pronounced SEN and saki, and in Chinese it’s xiān.

All my informants (see Useful Information) agree that the two ‘legs’ in the bottom half of the character,

儿

signify ‘a man.’ No one agrees, or even has a convincing story about the top half. So we are left to our own devices.

牛

represents a cow or a bull (which no commentator mentions), and this is very close to the top half of the character. It seems helpful to see a man and a bull together and picture the man driving the bull ahead, or even into the future.

0077 忘

忘

This character means ‘to forget.’ The Japanese pronunciation is BŌ or wasureru. The Chinese pronunciation is wàng.

The lower figure is the familiar ‘heart, mind’ character, somewhat flattened to fit the space available. Here’s the character as it stands on its own:

心.

The upper figure,

亡,

means ‘perish, destroy, die, dead.’ It was really only put in to provide a clue to the sound of the word, but its meaning can be useful in remembering the character. Its early forms,

  ,

showed a man in a grave or someone going into a hiding place. Wieger says that the right-angled line represents a hiding place and that the upper figure is an early form of

入,

which means ‘to enter.’

All of this adds up to ‘perishing from the mind,’ meaning ‘to forget.’

0076 果

果

Here’s an easy one: This character means ‘fruit,’ ‘accomplish,’ or ‘result.’ It’s pronounced KA or hatasu in Japanese, guǒ in Chinese.

There’s the character

田,

meaning ‘field,’ and

木,

meaning ‘tree.’ If you have a tree in a field and all goes well, you should get a result—fruit.

Here are some archaic versions:

     .

I don’t know why they seem to be upside-down. Shouldn’t the tree be on the field, rather than the field on the tree?

0075 年

年

This character means ‘year,’ pronounced NEN or toshi in Japanese and nián in Chinese.

Sources agree that it represents a man carrying home the year-end harvest, as represented by the character for grain-on-the-stalk (left, below) or rice (right, below):

禾   米.

By extension, then, the year-end harvest came to represent ‘year,’

The man and grain can be seen, sort of, in the archaic characters,

 .

I can make out the grain on top, and I assume that the thing something like a question mark on the bottom is the man. It looks a lot like

子,

which now means ‘child.’ It’s hard to see why that symbol would mean ‘man.’ Wieger says that 子 is a baby with two hands swathed up, and thus the single ‘leg.’ However, it also meant ‘sage, teacher,’ because, as an honor, the ancient Emperors called such wise men ‘sons.’ So maybe the people carrying the grain are ‘children of the sacred grain,’ or something like that; that’s merely my speculation. Seeing the grain and the man in the modern character are difficult, though.

0074 送

送

This character means ‘to send.’ It’s pronounced SŌ and okuru in Japanese and sòng in Chinese. Remember that for Japanese, the pronunciation in upper-case letters is the one derived from the Chinese of the time when Japan adopted the Chinese writing system. Of course, Japanese already had a word meaning ‘send,’ and that word is represented in lower-case letters.

The character wrapping around the left and lower sides,

辶,

means ‘walk, walking.’ The other part of the character,

关,

now means ‘a frontier pass,’ ‘close,’ and ‘relation,’ and it’s not commonly used in Japanese on its own. Sears says it’s a contraction of a character that meant ‘the maid of the bride, who is sent to the bride’s new home with her.’ Thus, the character originally meant ‘to send off the new bride on her wedding day.’

0073 紙

紙

This character means ‘paper.’ In Japanese it’s pronounced kami and in Chinese it’s zhī.

The left-hand figure,

糹(Chinese style); 糸 (Japanese style),

means ‘silk’ in Chinese today and ‘thread’ in Japanese. The archaic version,

clearly shows that 糸 represents two cocoons on a spindle from which threads dangle down for spinning. In early days, writing was often done on silk, so it’s understandable that the word ‘paper’ might be related to ‘threads’ or ‘silk.’

The right-hand figure,

氏

means ‘clan’ or ‘family name,’ and serves here to give a clue to to the sound of the character, which does those of us learning to read today’s languages little good for remembering the meaning. Luckily, it looks a bit like a flat surface that has been folded across the middle, like a book or newspaper, which should help us remember the meaning—‘paper.’

0072 泣

泣

This character means ‘cry, moan, weep.’ It’s pronounced KYŪ or naku in Japanese and qì in Chinese.

As with 0071, the left-hand figure,

氵,

is the vertically compressed form of

水,

which means ‘water.’  The right-hand figure,

立 ,

is there to provide a phonetic clue to the word’s pronunciation, and means ‘to erect, to rise, to stand up.’ It is itself a picture of a man standing up, as can be seen clearly in the archaic versions of the character below:

  .

So, we have a man standing beside some water, and there are plenty of things a man could be doing beside some water. In order to remember the character, we could think of a man crying a river of tears.

0071 法

法

This character means ‘law, method, rule.’ It’s pronounced HŌ or nori in Japanese, fǎ in Chinese.

No author claims to understand its origin. The figure on the left,

氵,

is the vertically compressed form of

水,

which means ‘water.’ The figure on the right,

去,

means ‘to leave, to pass (as in time passing), to move away.’ The archaic character,

,

doesn’t help too much in understanding the meaning, though some water, a man, and something like a pot are clearly visible. Therefore, I propose remembering the character with these Taoist-style thoughts:

The Rule is that water goes away. It leaves, flows, or simply evaporates. Also, it seeks to be level, i.e., lawful.

0070 迎

迎

This character means ‘to meet, receive, greet.’ In Japanese it’s pronounced GEI or mukaeru, and in Chinese it’s yíng.

The element that wraps around the left and lower sides

辶

means ‘walk, walking.’ The rest of the character,

卬,

is there to give a sound clue. As usual in these cases, it’s up to the learner to figure out some way to make the character memorable. To me, 卬 looks like a pair of swinging doors in an old Western saloon. I can imagine a meet-and-greet taking place right near those doors after a walk up the dusty street.

0069 崩

崩

This character means ‘to crumble, fall to pieces, collapse.’ It’s pronounced HŌ and kuzusu in Japanese, and in Chinese it’s bēng.

The upper figure

山

means ‘mountain,’ and the representation is pretty transparent. Three peaks. The lower part of the character consists of two of these:

月.

And each of them means ‘moon, month.’ They are just there as phonetic clues to the pronunciation of the word.

The archaic forms

  

suggest a way of remembering the character’s meaning. Can you see the moon characters as a representation of an avalanche down the slopes of the mountain?

0068 頭

頭

This character means ‘head’ (the one on your shoulders) as well as ‘head (of an organization), leader, top.’ In Japanese it’s pronounced many ways, including TŌ, atama, kōbe, and kashira, and in Chinese it’s toú.

The right-hand figure

頁

once represented a man: a head upon a body. The two little bits on the bottom are the body; the majority of the figure above that is the head. (Currently in Japanese and Chinese, though, this character means ‘page, sheet.’)

The left-hand figure

豆

means ‘beans, peas,’ and is there to supply a sound hint for the character. Most of the sound-hint figures we’ve seen so far have been on the right side of the character, but here’s one on the left.