The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji. Kenneth G. Henshall
utilises a modified version of the 214 determinative system which provides some ingenious modifications making it convenient for the modern user, albeit at the cost of obliterating a small number of significant traditional differences.
7.6 Individual Etymologies; Mnemonics
Sometimes the explanation of a particular character is a clear-cut one, indicating general agreement regarding the etymology concerned. Often, though, scholars vary in their analysis of a specific character, in which case several or more different interpretations are given. The abbreviated references at or towards the end of the explanation for each character indicate the scholars whose work has been referred to. Where several different interpretations are given, they should be taken as examples of varying opinion rather than an exhaustive listing of all opinions. In the course of compiling the explanations for the 2,136 character entries in this book, discussion and comments have been included as judged appropriate. Some entries have more detailed discussion added in the form of a note, given before the references; readers who are looking for less detail need not concern themselves with the notes.
Feedback from the original edition of this book shows that many readers find mnemonics helpful for memorizing characters. For readers who need this feature, a mnemonic is included at the bottom of each and every entry. Note carefully that the mnemonic is intended purely to help memorize the character shape; it does not necessarily reflect the actual etymology of the character concerned.
8 Sources Used and Terminology in This Book
8.1 Sources Used
The early and pre-modern dictionaries introduced were referred to as noted above (Section 5), extensively so in the case of Shuowen jiezi and Kangxi zidian. Extensive use was made also of work by Japanese and Chinese scholars, particularly the former. Just a few will be singled out for mention here. For OBI and bronze forms, Mizukami’s Kōkotsu kinbun jiten was particularly helpful, as it makes use of primary material from the Chinese Academy of Sciences such as that contained in 甲骨文編 Jiaguwen bian (Collected Oracle Bone Characters; J.: Kōkotsubun hen), and 金文編 Jinwen bian (Collected Bronze Characters; J.: Kinbun hen) (one of several editions). For clerical script, Sano’s Mokkan jiten was invaluable. For word-families in Chinese, Tōdō’s Kanji gogen jiten was an important source. Among works by Chinese scholars, Qiu’s Wenzixue gaiyao (referred to in its English translation: Chinese Writing) provided many insights, and Gu’s Hanzi yuanliu zidian (Dictionary of Origin and Development of Chinese Characters) was helpful for many relatively obscure characters and its analyses. In English, the work by Schuessler entitled ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese often provided a useful perspective from the viewpoint of reconstructed linguistic forms. Works such as the above have been noted as references to individual entries where they were used; in addition, Satō’s Kanji hyakka daijiten was of considerable general use overall.
8.2 Terminology in This Book (arranged alphabetically)
Character and graph are used only for stylistic variation, and without any significant difference of meaning. They refer to the symbols known in Japanese as 漢字 kanji and in Chinese as 漢字/汉字 hanzi.
CO Chinese-only characters: see under NJK.
Complex graph/character refers to a character which can be analyzed into two or more meaningful elements, e.g. 因 can be divided into 囗 ‘enclose, surround’ (determinative 31) and 大 56 ‘big’, as opposed to 竹, which cannot be broken down into smaller elements each of which has meaning.
Compound graph/character: see Complex graph/character.
‘Determinative’ refers to a recurrent element (character shape), usually meaningful, and typically within the set of 214 such elements first set out in the Zihui dictionary published in China in 1615. Determinatives can occur as independent characters (there are one or two exceptions such as 艸 ‘plants, vegetation’, which occurs only in compound characters, in the form 艹), or as elements in compound characters such as 木 73 ‘tree’ in 松 536 ‘pine tree’. The term ‘radical’ has traditionally been used in the past for ‘determinative’, but is less preferable because the meaning ‘root’ inherent in the etymology of the word ‘radical’ suggests that an element so labelled has been a feature of a compound graph from the outset, whereas in almost all cases the determinative/radical was added later, as explained in Section 2 above (‘Formational Principles of the Chinese Script’).
Element and graph element are used without significant difference of meaning. Either term may refer either to a constituent part of a particular graph which can occur only as a dependent element, e.g. 氵 ‘water’ as part of a more complex graph such as 海 94 ‘sea’, or to a constituent element in a compound graph which can occur independently, e.g. 耳 31 ‘ear’ in 聞 219 ‘hear’.
Homomorphic means ‘having the same shape’. Used in those cases (relatively rare) where two graphs with different meanings coincide in shape.
Morpheme is a minimal grammatical unit (sometimes referred to as a minimal unit of meaning) which forms the building block of words. To give an example from English, ‘book’ is one morpheme and also one word, but ‘books’ is one word but two morphemes, since it can be broken down into two functional units (morphemes), viz. ‘book’ and ‘-s’ (noun plural marker). A particular morpheme is not always pronounced the same: in the word ‘eggs’, for instance, the noun plural marker is pronounced as if it were written ‘z’.
NJK, meaning non-Jōyō kanji, is used in this book to refer to characters which are not included in the expanded Jōyō kanji list of 2010 (2,136 characters) but are included in Nelson’s Japanese-English Character Dictionary (ca. 5,400 characters). The purpose of this is to recognize that there are many characters outside the Jōyō kanji list which can sometimes be encountered in modern Japanese texts. This is admittedly only a ‘rough and ready’ arrangement, for two reasons. Firstly, the Nelson dictionary includes various characters which the reader is very unlikely to encounter in modern Japanese texts, e.g. 龠 ‘flute’, which is included necessarily because it is one of the 214 determinatives (or ‘radicals’, as Nelson calls them, following the older terminology). Secondly, ‘NJK’ is a term used in this book to contrast with ‘CO’, meaning ‘Chinese only’ (either modern or pre-modern texts). What this means is only that CO characters are not listed in the Nelson dictionary; this by itself is no guarantee that CO characters will never appear in a modern Japanese text. Despite these provisos, it is thought that the designations NJK and CO will still be of some value to the reader as a general indication.
Phonetic with associated sense: refers to the phonetic element in a compound graph, with the phonetic element also having a semantic function, but one which typically is different from its usual dictionary meaning; this different meaning is due in a particular case to a connection to a word-family in Chinese. For instance, 扱 1012 ‘handle, treat as’ consists of 扌 34 ‘hand’ and 及 1202 ‘reach’; 及 functions here as phonetic with the associated sense ‘take in, gather’, and not in its usual dictionary sense ‘handle, treat as’. Another example is 男, consisting of 力 78 ‘strength’ and 田 63 ‘rice-field, paddy field’, but here involving 田 as phonetic with the associated sense ‘endure’. If further details and examples are needed, see ‘Word-Families and the Chinese Script’ (Section 3 above).
Traditional form: in the case of modern Japanese, refers to older character shapes based on those in printed versions of Kangxi zidian which were adopted in early official Japanese government lists such as the first Jōyō kanji list of 1923 (1,962 characters) and then abbreviated in the Tōyō kanji list of 1946 (1,850 characters) and later official lists including the Kaitei Jōyō kanji list of 2010 (2,136 characters). In some cases, there are differences in the shape of a graph between Kangxi zidian and the first Jōyō kanji List of 1923. There is, in other words, a degree of looseness in the term ‘traditional form’. See also ‘Printed Texts and the Calligraphic Tradition’ (Section