480531170

423
有
YŪ, U, aru
have, exist
L4
6 strokes
SHOYŪSHAowner
UMUexistence
arigatōthank you
OBI forms , ; bronze . Mizukami, Katō
and Yamada all analyze the bronze form as
209 ‘meat, flesh’ (later modified in shape
through regularization to ) with 2003
‘(right) hand’; they also attribute the sense
‘offer’ to the latter, while Tōdō takes it instead
as ‘enclose, keep’. The overall meaning of
thus becomes ‘offer meat held in the hand’, or
‘keep in the hand’. The above does not account
for the OBI forms, however. The simpler OBI
424
遊
YŪ, YU, asobu
play, relax
L3
12 strokes
YŪRANsightseeing
YUSANexcursion
asobibaplayground
A post-Shuowen graph, found in Yupian (6 th
century AD). It consists of 85 ‘walk, go, move’,
with the CO 斿 . The latter represents a ‘fluttering
flag/streamer’: see also 353, and note
that here flag/streamer has 27 ‘child’ (as
opposed to ‘arrow’ 145) possibly added to
425
予
YO, kanete
already, prior, me
L3
4 strokes
YOYAKUbooking
YOSŌexpectation
YOTEIschedule
OBI ; seal ; traditional . In modern times
in Japan, has been – and continues to be –
popularly regarded as an abbreviated version of
the traditional form , but the latter is in fact
a separate character from both historically
and in modern Chinese. itself depicts a weaving
shuttle to move thread back and forth horizontally,
and by extension to represent actions
done with the shuttle, e.g. ‘push’. The meanings
‘I/me’, ‘beforehand’, and ‘already’ are generally
form above for is the same as that for ,
and Ma notes the latter is borrowed sometimes
for (both were very close in pronunciation
in early Chinese), but regards the other OBI
form above for as obscure. Qiu observes
that for a time in antiquity ‘hand’ was used
for in the sense ‘have’, and also was
sometimes used for ‘hand’, thereby confusing
later commentators on the Chinese
classics. Such interchangeability of graphs well
illustrates the complexity of historical Chinese
character use. MS1995:v1:636-7; KJ1970:22-3;
YK1976:478; TA1965:139-43; MR2007:358,267;
QX2000:346,349,401; AS2007:580-81.
Mnemonic: EXISTENCE IS DEPENDENT ON
HAVING MEAT IN HAND
indicate smallness – in this case small ripples
in the flag. 斿 has a role as phonetic, having
an associated meaning of ‘waves, advance’
(Katō, Yamada) – such motion often giving an
unhurried impression – or ‘shake, sway’ (Ogawa,
Tōdō). The resultant overall meaning for is
‘walk unhurriedly, wander around’. ‘Relax’ and
‘play’ are extended meanings. YK1976:479;
KJ1970:464; OT1968:1009; TA1965:195-6. We
suggest taking 223 as ‘side’, 41 ‘person’,
and 27 ‘child’.
Mnemonic: CHILD PLAYS ALONGSIDE MOV-
ING PERSON
regarded as loan usages. Mizukami, Yamada,
and Ogawa follow Shuowen and take as consisting
of 540 ‘elephant’, with as phonetic
with associated sense ‘big and calm’, to give
original meaning ‘big elephant’, and Karlgren is
in broad agreement. This analysis is questioned
by Schuessler and Shirakawa, who maintain
there are no examples of early usage in this
sense; Shirakawa does note the early use of
in the sense ‘beforehand’. MS1995:v2:1226-7,
v1:26-7; YK1976:480; OT1968:29; BK1957:41;
AS2007:592; SS1984:841-2. We suggest taking
the upper part as a ‘bent figure’ and thus
‘bent over’, and the lower part as a variant of
367 in its original meaning of ‘nail’.
Mnemonic: THE NAIL IS ALREADY BENT
The 200 Third Grade Characters 149