Has 氵 42 ‘water’, and 昜 161 (‘sun shining up high’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘hot sun, hot’. MS1995:v2:768-9; KJ1970:879; YK1976:388; OT1968:596. We suggest taking 日 66 ‘sun’ with as rays.
Mnemonic: RAYS FROM RISING SUN MAKE WATER HOT
382
L3
登
TŌ, TO, noboru
climb
12 strokes
登場 TŌJŌ appearance
登山 TOZAN mountaineering
木登り kinobori tree-climbing
OBI forms , ; bronze . Interpretations diverge. Often taken as 癶 ‘tread or step heavily’, with 豆 379 ‘food vessel’ as phonetic with associated sense ‘climb’ (Mizukami, Katō, Yamada). An alternative analysis is found in Ma, taking the second common OBI form above as showing a stone platform or pedestal for mounting a horse, with two helping hands below and the feet of the rider above; Shirakawa also takes the element similar in shape to 豆 as a mounting platform. MS1995:v2:894-5; KJ1970:733; YK1976:388; MR2007:239-40; SS1984:648. We suggest 豆 in its original meaning ‘tall food vessel’, and 癶 as funny feet.
Mnemonic: TWO FUNNY FEET CLIMB TALL FOOD VESSEL
383
L3
等
TŌ, hitoshii, nado
class, equal, et cetera
12 strokes
一等 ITTŌ first class
上等 JŌTŌ high class
等圧線 TŌATSUSEN isobar
Seal . Late graph (Shuowen). Has 58 ‘bamboo’, here denoting bamboo writing tablet, and 寺 149 (‘temple’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘arrange, put in order’. Similar to 第 359 ‘order’, but regarding the additional sense ‘equal’ which 等 has, Shirakawa cites a pre-modern Chinese commentary which explains this on the basis of sorting out big and small bamboo writing tablets, resulting in groups of tablets of equal size; if we accept this explanation, ‘etc. (et cetera)’ – meaning the inclusion of further similar items – can be regarded as an extended sense. KJ1970:482; YK1976:389; SS1984:648.
Mnemonic: BAMBOO TABLETS ETC AT TEMPLE ARE ALL CLASSED EQUAL
384
L4
動
DŌ, ugoku/kasu
move
11 strokes
動物 DŌBUTSU animal
動機 DŌKI motive
動き ugoki movement
Seal . Late graph (Shuowen). Has 力 78 ‘strength, power’, and 重 326 (‘heavy’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘shake’, to give meaning ‘exert power’, and by extension ‘move’. YK1976:391; KJ1970:704; OT1968:128.
Mnemonic: STRENGTH MOVES HEAVY OBJECT
385
L3
童
DŌ, warabe
child
12 strokes
童話 DŌWA nursery tale
児童 JIDŌ children
童心 DŌSHIN child’s mind
Bronze . Seal . Bronze form has 辛 1535 ‘needle’ over 重 326 (‘heavy’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘slave’, also with 目 76 ‘eye’ added in the middle. In ancient China, slaves were tattooed on the forehead with a needle to indicate ownership, and ‘eye’ here is taken to denote forehead, the eye being much easier to represent pictographically. There is debate over this graph’s diff erent meanings ‘slave, servant’ and ‘child’. Qiu observes that in ancient texts 童 represented both ‘slave, servant’ and ‘child’, and that by the time of Shuowen the NJK graph 僮 had been devised to create the orthographically contrastive pair 童 ‘slave, servant’ as opposed to 僮 ‘child’, but even after that 童 was still often used for ‘child’, and likewise 僮 has meanings of both ‘child’ and ‘servant’. In early Chinese, the associated words for ‘slave, servant’ and ‘child’ appear to have been of the same pronunciation, assuming they were in fact separate words (Schuessler lists them together as one entry). Aesthetically a displeasing graph at bronze stage because it consists of multiple elements one on top of the other; this visual imbalance became moderated at the seal script stage. MS1995:v2:984-5; KJ1970:735; YK1976:392; QX2000:350-51; AS2007:500. Take modern graph as 立 77 ‘stand’ and 里 238 ‘village’.
Mnemonic: CHILD STANDS IN VILLAGE
386
L3
農
NŌ
farming
13 strokes
農場 NŌJŌ farm
農民 NŌMIN farmers
農業 NŌGYŌ agriculture
OBI ; bronze ; seal . Some variation in shape, but OBI commonly has 林 79 or 森 40 ‘forest’ (these two graphs originally not necessarily distinguished strictly as in modern Japanese) with 辰 ‘clam’ (later written as NJK 蜃), sometimes also with 又 2003 (or other equivalent graph for) ‘hand’. Overall meaning is ‘cut (small) trees and vegetation with sharpened clam shells to clear for growing crops’.
Has 氵 42 ‘water’, and 昜 161 (‘sun shining up high’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘hot sun, hot’. MS1995:v2:768-9; KJ1970:879; YK1976:388; OT1968:596. We suggest taking 日 66 ‘sun’ with 