‘baby born amidst outflowing amniotic fluid’ (see also 247) as semantic and phonetic, giving ‘baby born amidst amniotic fluid’; meaning later generalized to ‘flow out’. The earlier seal form has ‘water’ 水/氵 written twice. KJ1970:585; MS1995:v2:778-9; YK1976:495; OT1968:581.
Mnemonic: INVERTED CHILD BORN IN WATERY FLOW
433
L4
旅
RYO, tabi
journey
10 strokes
旅行 RYOKŌ journey
旅費 RYOHI travel expenses
旅人 tabibito traveler
OBI ; seal . Has 353 ‘flag’, with what is today a CO 从 meaning ‘follow’, which Yamada takes as phonetic with associated sense ‘accompany’, while Katō and Mizukami take as ‘many together’, to give an overall meaning of ‘(many) people/soldiers gathered beneath a flag’. Historical meanings include ‘group of 500 troops’ (still used in modern Chinese to mean ‘troops’); also ‘troops moving’, and then in generalised sense ‘journey’. MS1995:v1:602-3; KJ1970:900; OT1968:456. We suggest taking 方 223 as ‘side’, and as ‘odd clothes’ (see 衣 444).
Mnemonic: PUT ODD CLOTHES ON ONE SIDE FOR JOURNEY
434
L3
両
RYŌ
both, pair, money
6 strokes
両方 RYŌHŌ both sides
両手 RYŌte both hands
両替 RYŌgae money exchange
Bronze ; seal ; traditional form: 兩. A variant of , depicting a gourd split in half (not quite completely), with the short curved lines inside representing membranes. Originally meant ‘split into two’, then took on more generalised sense ‘two’. Shuowen takes it instead as pictographically representing a pair of scales, but modern scholars consider this analysis carries no weight – though perhaps useful as a mnemonic. MS1995:v1:98-9; KJ1970:200-01; YK1976:496-7.
Mnemonic: SCALES WEIGH BOTH PARTS OF A PAIR
435
L3
緑
RYOKU, ROKU, midori
green
14 strokes
常緑樹 JŌRYOKUJU evergreen
緑青 ROKUSHŌ verdigris
緑色 midoriiro green
OBI ; seal ; traditional 綠. Seal form onwards has 糸 29 ‘thread’, and 䩑 (CO; OBI and bronze forms of the latter are typically taken as originally a pictograph showing wine being strained and dripping down), the latter as phonetic with associated sense ‘verdigris’, including its color. (Verdigris is a bluish-green coating which comes out of copper and forms on its surface; later written 録 640 qv [the meaning ‘record, make a copy’ is a later loan usage].) The overall meaning of 緑 was originally ‘silk the color of verdigris’; later it was used for just the color itself. KJ1970:932,931; YK1976:499; MS1995:v2:1018-9,v1:474-5. We suggest taking 䩑 as a hand ヨ squeezing liquid/water (see 水 42 ‘water’).
Mnemonic: HAND SQUEEZES GREEN DROPS IN THREAD-LIKE FASHION
436
L3
礼
REI
propriety, bow
5 strokes
失礼 SHITSUREI impoliteness
礼服 REIFUKU formal attire
敬礼 KEIREI bow
OBI ; seal ; traditional 禮. OBI forms consist of 豊 only. Some bronze occurrences have礻 723 (‘offering table; deity’) as determinative. OBI stage, consisting only of 豊 (811 [‘abundant, many’]), is taken to mean ‘ritual offering vessel’ (Mizukami [OBI]); in one view (Katō), the vessel was originally a certain type of shell. Shirakawa and Katō consider 豊 here to stand for the later CO graph 醴 ‘sacred sweet wine’. Katō notes that there were numerous rituals practised in ancient China, but the most important centered on the drinking of sacred wine, and so the graph 禮 with its wine association came to be used for rituals in general. Some scholars (including Katō and Shirakawa) view 礼 as a separate graph from 禮, not just a variant of the latter, but the interpretation of the right-hand element in 礼 is disputed. According to Shirakawa, the form 礼 is found in texts such as epitaphs dating from Han times; the Jiyun dictionary (11th century AD) treats 禮 as the old form of 礼. In either case, the graph expresses propriety in the observation of ritual. YK1976:502; MS1995:v2:958-9; KJ1970:226; SS1984:896; OT1968:26; ZY2009:v3:858.
Mnemonic: PERSON KNEELS AT ALTAR SHOWING DUE PROPRIETY
437
L3
列
RETSU
row, line
6 strokes
列車 RESSHA train
列次 RETSUJI sequence
前列 ZENRETSU front row
Seal . Has 刂 198 ‘knife, cut’, and an early form (see 302), interpreted as skeletal remains (possibly this depicted just the occipital bone, which forms back and base of skull and
‘baby born amidst outflowing amniotic fluid’ (see also 247) as semantic and phonetic, giving ‘baby born amidst amniotic fluid’; meaning later generalized to ‘flow out’. The earlier seal form has ‘water’ 水/氵 written twice. KJ1970:585; MS1995:v2:778-9; YK1976:495; OT1968:581.
