Bronze forms , . First depicts lightning (see 申 338 ‘say’). Second more common, comprising i] lightning component, with ii] 示 723 as semantic (showing table/altar, by extension ‘deity’), to give meanings ‘thunder’ or ‘thunder deity’, then just ‘deity’. i] here is in Tōdō’s word-family ‘extend, stretch’; Mizukami and Katō take as thunder and lightning. MS1995:v2:944-5; KJ1970:575; YK1976:287.
Mnemonic: THUNDER GOD SAYS SOMETHING SPIRITED AT THE ALTAR
341
L4
真
SHIN, ma
truth, essence
10 strokes
真実 SHINJITSU truth
写真 SHASHIN photograph
真っ白 masshiro* pure white
OBI ; bronze ; seal ; traditional 眞. Katō and Yamada feel there are no OBI or bronze forms, so on basis of later seal form they provisionally see it as ‘inverted person’ 匕 258 with inverted 首 155 ‘head, neck’, with meaning ‘heavy fall’/‘upside-down’; with ‘true’ a loan usage. Mizukami, though, lists the much earlier OBI form, and two possible analyses: i] 匕 ‘person fallen upside down’ (distinguish from 七 32 ‘seven’) with , with sense ‘turn upside down’ (original way of writing NJK 顚 ‘summit’, ‘fall over’); ii] 匕 ‘spoon’ with 鼎, 3-legged cauldron’, with sense ‘fill up container’ (original way of writing NJK 塡 ‘obstruct; fill, fall’); Tōdō also includes in word-family meaning ‘be filled right up’. Again, ‘true’ is a loan usage. Gu also seems to support taking top element in OBI as ‘person’. KJ1970:212; YK1976:288; MS1995:v2:918-20, v1:154-5, v2:1516-8; TA1965:745. We suggest taking as 具 284 ‘equipment’ and 十 35 ‘ten’.
Mnemonic: THE TRUTH IS, THE EQUIPMENT IS IN TEN PIECES
342
L3
深
SHIN, fukai/meru
deep, deepen
11 strokes
深遠 SHIN’EN profundity
深海 SHINKAI deep sea
深入り fukairi going deeply
Bronze . ‘Water’ 氵 42, and 穼 or 罙 as phonetic, a river name; loan usage for ‘deep’. MS1995:v2:760-61; KJ1970:565-6; YK1976:289. Take 木 73 ‘tree’ and variant 穴 860 ‘hole’.
Mnemonic: DEEP WATERHOLE NEAR TREE
343
L4
進
SHIN, susumu/meru
advance
11 strokes
前進 ZENSHIN advance
進化 SHINKA evolution
進言 SHINGEN advice, proposal
OBI ; seal . Comprises 辶 85 ‘walk, go’, and 隹 324 (‘bird’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘go out (with footwear on)’. MS1995:v2:1296-7; KJ1970:563; YK1976:289.
Mnemonic: ADVANCE LIKE A MOVING BIRD
344
L4
世
SEI, SE, yo
world, generation
5 strokes
世紀 SEIKI century
世話 SEWA care
世の中 yononaka world at large
Bronze ; seal . Generally taken as the graph for ‘thirty’ (the ‘ten’ graph 十 35 written three times in a slightly modified way), on the basis that about thirty years made up one generation. Qiu, though, considers the early Zhou bronze form of 世 ‘clearly was simply the top part of 䭚’, which was the original way of writing 葉 428 ‘leaf’; as both Qiu and Katō note, 葉 also had the meaning ‘generation’ (Qiu links with the fact that leaves grow out once a year). In similar vein, Shirakawa takes as originally depicting plants growing. ‘The world, society’ is an extended usage. MS1995:v1:10-11, v2:1126-7; KJ1970:50-51; YK1976:295; QX2000:182; SS1984:492. Suggest take the two lower laterals as ‘two’ 二 65.
Mnemonic: THE ODD WORLD OF THE GENERATION OF ’32
345
L3
整
SEI, totonou/eru
arrange
16 strokes
整理 SEIRI arrangement
整備 SEIBI maintenance
微調整 BICHŌSEI fine tuning
Bronze ; seal . Has 敕 (a variant of 勅 1727 ‘edict’ qv), which in itself has a meaning of ‘arrange properly’, and 正 43 (‘correct’) as phonetic with similar associated sense ‘put in order, arrange’; in Tōdō’s word-family ‘bring together/arrange in one place’. MS1995:v1:586-7; KJ1970:584; YK1976:306; TA1965:472-4.
god, spirit, deity
