; seal . Has top element which is a regularized version of what was originally a pictograph of the stomach (taken by Mizukami as stomach with food in it, and by Katō as showing the stomach as an internal organ), and lower element 月 209 ‘flesh, meat’. MS1995:1072-3; KJ1970:17; YK1976:54. Suggest taking 田 as 田 63 ‘field’.
Mnemonic: FLESHY STOMACH SEEN IN FIELD
448
L3
印
IN, shirushi
seal, sign, symbol
6 strokes
印刷 INSATSU printing
印判 INBAN seal
目印 mejirushi guiding mark
OBI ; seal . OBI form shows hand pressing down on a kneeling person, to give ‘press someone down from above and make kneel/submit’. Some OBI forms have a right hand, others have a left hand, reinforcing Qiu’s observation that orientation of graphs at the OBI stage was rather inconsistent. The meaning ‘press’ gave rise to extended usages such as ‘(name) seal’ and ‘printing’, the latter reflecting the development of printing using a system of flat blocks or plates (originally wood, later metal). Earliest surviving large-scale example of printing on paper dates back to AD868 in China, though printed designs on silk in that country can be dated back to the Later Han dynasty. Katō and Yamada treat 抑 2060 (‘suppress’) as an alternative form of 印 (抑 has a second ‘hand’ 扌 34 added as a determinative). MS1995:v1:178-9; KJ1970:65-6; YK1976:59; QX2000:67; MT1993:265.
Mnemonic: HAND PRESSES DOWN ON PERSON AS ON SEAL
449
L4
英
EI
superior, england
8 strokes
英才 EISAI talent
英国 EIKOKU England
英語 EIGO English language
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 艹 53 ‘plant’, and 央 254 ‘center’ as phonetic with associated sense ‘blossom’, and by extension ‘beautiful, excellent’. The sense ‘Britain’ reflects the adoption by the Chinese of this graph for its sound value (ying) to represent the Chinese version of ‘England’, i.e. 英 国 Yingguo). The choice of 英 seems to show a positive view of England/Britain at the time. YK1976:65; KJ1970:77; OT1968:846.
Mnemonic: SUPERIOR PLANTS IN THE CENTER OF ENGLAND
450
L3
栄
EI, sakaeru, haeru
flourish, glory, shine
9 strokes
光栄 KŌEI glory, honor
栄養 EIYŌ nutrition
繁栄 HAN’EI prosperity
Bronze ; seal ; traditional 榮. Original meaning of 榮 is ‘Chinese parasol tree’ (Latin names: Firmiana platanifolia, or Firmiana simplex). Has 木 73 ‘tree’ with as phonetic with associated sense ‘light [in weight]’ (Katō, Yamada) or ‘surround’ (Ogawa, Tōdō). The ‘light [in weight]’ proposal is based on association with the wood of this tree being light; the ‘surround’ view is based on the blossoms being perceived as encircling the whole tree. Both these interpretations of the phonetic are listed by Mizukami, who also notes another proposal – that is an abbreviation of CO 熒 ‘light [of a lamp/fire]’. Katō dismisses the latter theory (first noted in Shuowen) as erroneous, but a contrasting assessment is offered by Schuessler, who includes the early Chinese linguistic forms for both 榮 and 熒 in the same word-family meaning ‘bright, dazzle’. If accepted that the graph originally referred to a type of tree, meanings such as ‘shine’ and ‘flourish’ represent loan usages, whichever of the above analyses is followed. KJ1970:81-2; YK1976:66; OT1968:497; TA1965:509-12; MS1995:v1:682-3; ZY2009:v2:528,675; AS2007:575.
Mnemonic: GLORIOUS TREE FLOURISHES UNDER ORNATE COVER
451
L3
塩
EN, shio
salt
13 strokes
食塩 SHOKUEN table salt
塩水 shiomizu saltwater
製塩所 SEIENSHO saltworks
Seal ; traditional 鹽. Traditional form has 鹵, based on pictograph of salt or salty soil contained in a basket-like container, and 監 1159 (‘watch’) as phonetic with associated sense ‘bitter’ (Katō, Yamada); Schuessler, though, considers the proposed associated sense ‘bitter’ as unlikely here, on linguistic grounds. Ogawa, by contrast, takes the sense of the phonetic as ‘soak in water’, namely seawater. This is noted tentatively as a possibility by Mizukami also, who gives a bronze equivalent that includes 氵 42 ‘water’ as an additional component, though the ‘water’ component here could alternatively reflect part of a process for obtaining salt (‘rock salt’) from salty soil. Salt was an important trading commodity in ancient China, as in other ancient civilisations, due in part to its preserving qualities. The modern (block script) form has 土 64 ‘earth, ground’, reflecting that one salt production method was from the ground. The right-hand side is a simplified modification in shape to the upper right and lower elements of the traditional form (examples of the simplified right-hand side can be found in Han time clerical script). KJ1970:105; YK1976:71; OT1968:1158; MS1995:v2:1502-3; AS2007:554; WM1974:121. Suggest taking four components: 土 64 ‘ground’, 41 ‘person’, 口 22 ‘mouth’, and 皿 300 ‘dish ‘.
Mnemonic: PERSON SPITS SALTY DISH FROM MOUTH TO GROUND
