with single top stroke as a broken tip.
Mnemonic: BIG ARROW WITH BROKEN TIP
146
L4
姉
SHI, ane
elder sister
8 strokes
姉妹 SHIMAI sisters
姉さん neesan* elder sister
姉上 aneue elder sister (formal)
Etymology disputed. Generally recognised from bronze stage onwards . Has 女 37 ‘woman’, and a phonetic interpreted in various ways, such as 市 144 (‘market’), with associated sense ‘young plant sprouting’ (Katō), or as (CO; ‘vegetation growing vigorously’) with associated sense ‘unequal’ (Mizukami, Tōdō) or ‘projecting’ (Ogawa). The Kangxi zidian dictionary lists both 姉 and 姊, with the same meaning, but treats the latter as auxiliary to 姉, which stands as the main entry. MS1995:v1:320-21; KJ1970:14-15; TA1965:770-76; OT1968:255; ZY2009:v1:203-4.
Mnemonic: WOMAN GOING TO MARKET IS AN ELDER SISTER
147
L4
思
SHI, omou
think
9 strokes
思想 SHISŌ ideology
思考 SHIKŌ thought
思い出 omoide recollection
A graph of relatively late occurrence, initial forms and . Mizukami interprets the top element as CO 囟 ‘skull’, with 心 164 ‘mind, heart’; Ogawa is in agreement. Shirakawa takes the top element to represent ‘brain’. MS1995:v1:502-3; OT 1968:364; SS1984:368. We suggest taking top element as 田 63 ‘field’ though it is incorrect as the etymology.
Mnemonic: I THINK MY HEART WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY FIELD
148
L4
紙
SHI, kami
paper
10 strokes
表紙 HYŌSHI book cover
和紙 WASHI Japanese paper
手紙 tegami letter
A late graph (Shuowen) . Traditionally the invention of paper has been attributed to Cai Lun, who did invent a type of coarse paper in AD105, but in earlier times scraps of different fabrics and the like were used. Before paper appeared, texts in China were written on various materials, the closest to paper being silk. This accounts for the use of 糸 29, the ‘thread’ determinative. 氏 522 (which originally represented a ladle) serves as phonetic for ‘smooth’. SS1984:370; OT1968:769; KJ1985:474.
Mnemonic: APPLY LADLE TO THREADS TO MAKE PAPER
149
L3
寺
JI, tera
temple
6 strokes
竜安寺 RYŌANJI Ryoan Temple
寺院 JIIN Buddhist temple
山寺 yamadera mountain temple
Mizukami takes bronze forms to combine ‘hand’ 920 寸 orig. ‘hand’, with 止 143 ‘stop’, latter acting as phonetic with associated sense ‘control’; Katō broadly agrees. Ogawa identifies same two elements as ‘keep in the hand’. Instead of 止, Tōdō takes top element as 之 (NJK; ‘move, go’, see 151). Note some OBI and bronze forms of 止 and 之 are very similar (之 might originally have depicted foot, like 止); Karlgren asserts 止 ‘is mostly used in the bone and the bronze inscriptions as loan for the homophonous 之 in its various meanings’ (Schuessler has these two graphs as near-homophones, not complete homophones in Late Han times). Originally meaning ‘control with hand’, in Han times 寺 acquired the sense of ‘place to control/administer’, and also – after transmission of Buddhism to China c.1st century A.D. – the more specialized sense of ‘Buddhist temple’. By clerical script stage upper element had changed to 土. MS1995:v1:392-3,18-19; KJ1970:480; OT1968:285; BK1957:253-4; AS2007:613; SK1984:230. Take as 土 64 ‘ground’ and 寸 920 ‘hand’.
Mnemonic: HAND OFFERS GROUND TO TEMPLE
150
L4
自
JI, SHI, mizukara
self
6 strokes
自分 JIBUN oneself
自然 SHIZEN Nature
自信 JISHIN self-confidence
Based on pictograph of nose . Extended meaning ‘self’ reflects custom of Chinese people visually referring to themselves by pointing to the nose, whereas Western people typically point at the chest. MR2007:287-8; MS1995:v2:1086-88; KJ1970:482-3. Use 目 76 ‘eye’.
Mnemonic: NOSE JUST A STROKE AWAY FROM THE EYE, SYMBOLISING SELF
151
L5
時
JI, toki
time, hour
10 strokes
時代 JIDAI era, period
二時 NIJI two o’clock
時々 tokidoki sometimes
As Mizukami and Ma note, OBI forms such as have 之 ‘move, go’ (NJK graph taken either as foot moving away from boundary line or as vegetation sprouting up out of ground; see too 149), here as semantic and phonetic meaning ‘move’, and 日 66 ‘sun, day’, to give a sense ‘movement of the sun’, and then – by extension – ‘season, time’. Ogawa interprets instead as 日 and 寺 149 (in later forms) as phonetic with associated meaning ‘go’. Came to be used for ‘hour’ when the Twelve Branches were adopted to refer to the way a 24-hour day was divided up into twelve segments each of two hours. MS1995:v1:618-20; MR2007:352; SS1984:382; AS2007:463, 613; OT1968:468. Suggest 寺 149 ‘temple’ as a mnemonic.
Mnemonic: TELL TIME BY SUN ON TEMPLE
152
L4
室
SHITSU, muro
room, house
9 strokes
室内 SHITSUNAI indoors
教室 KYŌSHITSU classroom
室町 Muromachi place/period name
OBI forms such as depict ‘roof/building’ 宀 30, under which there is a graph
