The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji. Kenneth G. Henshall

The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji

Shirakawa, however, interprets the upper element more literally as a person with outstretched limbs, to give a meaning such as ‘cleanse someone of their crimes’, which one imagines would be a final cleansing! Popularly believed to show ‘earth’ 土 64 over 灬. This is incorrect, but useful as a mnemonic. BK1957:209-10; OT1968:964; SS1984:505.

Mnemonic: BIG FIRE MAKES EARTH GLOW RED

千

SEN, chi

thousand

3 strokes

千円 SEN’EN thousand yen

五千 GOSEN five thousand

千鳥 chidori plover

Etymology unclear. Early forms such as might suggest interpretation as 人 41 ‘person’ with 十 35 ‘ten’, representing ‘ten people [each one hundred years old]’. This was the traditional interpretation (Shuowen), but it is incorrect, as in early times the graph close in shape to the modern 十 stood for ‘seven’ 七 32. Shirakawa takes it as a version of the old graph for 人 ‘person’ modified to represent ‘thousand’ by the addition of a horizontal stroke, with 人 as a phonetic element (a view shared by Katō). BK1957:104; AS2007:424; SS1984:515; KJ1985:84.

Mnemonic: ADD A STROKE ON TOP, AND TEN BECOMES A THOUSAND

川

SEN, kawa

river

3 strokes

川口 kawaguchi rivermouth

川柳 SENRYŪ comic verse

江戸川 edogawa Edo River

Based on pictographs of water flowing between two river banks, such as the OBI form later stylized. See also 水 42 ‘water’. SS1984:515; QX2000:175; KJ1970:631.

Mnemonic: RIVER FLOWS BETWEEN TWO BANKS

先

SEN, saki

prior, precede, tip

6 strokes

先生 SENSEI teacher

先月 SENGETSU last month

指先 yubisaki fingertip

The OBI form for 先 shows a foot on top of a person, signifying ‘walk ahead, go first’. (This is similar in principle to 見 20 ‘look’, in which the majority of OBI forms show an exaggerated eye on top of a person, thereby focussing on what the eye does, i.e. ‘see’.) This is an interpretation quite widely held (Shirakawa, Karlgren, Ogawa). Katō, however, sees the top element in some of the OBI and bronze forms differently, not as 止 143 (q.v.) but as 之 (NJK; ‘move, go’), a graph indicating movement (either by a person walking or a plant growing). In either case, Katō then takes the top element as phonetic in function with associated sense ‘die’, giving ‘those who have gone before’, and by extension ‘the past’, and ‘advance’. The majority view is perhaps the one to follow. SS1984:515; BK1957:131-3; OT1968:87; KJ1970:627; QX2000:53. As a mnemonic, suggest taking as a simplified 生 44, showing plant(s), with the ‘bending person’ element 儿 (see 41).

Mnemonic: BEND TO GO THROUGH UNDER-GROWTH – YOU PRECEDE ME!

早

SŌ, hayai

early, fast

6 strokes

早急 SŌKYŪ immediately

早口 hayakuchi rapid speech

早死に hayajini early death

Etymology uncertain. Early form Possibly adopted in Chinese at an early stage as a phonetic loan in the sense of ‘early’. Yamada takes it as ‘sun bursting out’ (see 日 66 ‘sun’), with 十 35 ‘ten’ seen as a phonetic with an associated sense of ‘open, burst out’. Sunrise came to mean ‘early’, then ‘fast’. QX2000:96,272,392; SS1984:539; OT1968:460.

Mnemonic: SUN SHOWS TEN BUT IT’S STILL EARLY

草

SŌ, kusa

grass, plant

9 strokes

雑草 ZASSŌ weed

草書 SŌSHO cursive script

草地 kusaCHI grassland

Seal late graph (Shuowen). 艹 (short form of 艸 ‘grass, plants’), and 早 52 (‘fast, early’) as phonetic to give meaning ‘acorn’ (Qiu, Katō), but borrowed early on for ‘grass, plants’. The borrowed usage soon prevailed. QX2000:266; KJ1970:427; TA1965:216-8.

Mnemonic: GRASS GROWS FAST

足

SOKU, ashi, tariru

leg, foot, suffice

7 strokes

不足 FUSOKU insufficiency

足首 ashikubi ankle

足音 ashioto footsteps

OBI Pictograph of kneecap down to foot. At this stage 足 and 正 43 were often written the same. ‘Suffice’ is loan use. SS1984:543; BK1957:313; MS1995:v2:1260-62,v1:702-03.

Mnemonic: ROUND KNEE AND FOOT SUFFICE TO SHOW LEG

村

SON, mura

village

7 strokes

村長 SONCHŌ village head

農村 NŌSON farming village

村人 murabito villager(s)

Etymology unclear. Seems a late graph, not in Shuowen dictionary of ca.100AD. Ogawa treats it as variant of CO graph 杶 ‘lacquer tree’ which was used phonetically in the sense of ‘village’ in place of another graph for ’village’, 邨, which may be taken provisionally as阝 (邑) ‘settlement, village’ (see 376), and 屯 1806 ‘accumulate, stay’ as semantic and phonetic. OT1968:490-91; KJ1985:311. Use 寸 920 ‘measure’ and 木 73 ‘tree’ for mnemonic.

Mnemonic: MEASURE TREES TO BUILD A VILLAGE

大

DAI, TAI, ōkii, ō-

big

3 strokes

大会

Скачать книгу