480531170

434
L3
両
RYŌ
both, pair, money
6 strokes
RYŌHŌboth sides
RYŌteboth hands
RYŌgaemoney exchange
Bronze ; seal ; traditional form: . A variant
of , depicting a gourd split in half (not
quite completely), with the short curved lines
435
L3
緑
14
RYOKU, ROKU,
midori
green
strokes
JŌRYOKUJUevergreen
ROKUSHŌverdigris
midoriirogreen
OBI ; seal ; traditional . Seal form
onwards has 29 ‘thread’, and (CO; OBI
and bronze forms of the latter are typically
taken as originally a pictograph showing wine
being strained and dripping down), the latter
436
L3
礼
REI
propriety, bow
5 strokes
SHITSUREIimpoliteness
REIFUKUformal attire
KEIREIbow
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
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 640 qv
[the meaning ‘record, make a copy’ is a later
loan usage].) The overall meaning of 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 as a hand squeezing
liquid/water (see 42 ‘water’).
Mnemonic: HAND SQUEEZES GREEN DROPS
IN THREAD-LIKE FASHION
OBI ; seal ; traditional . OBI forms consist
of only. Some bronze occurrences have
723 (‘offering table; deity’) as determinative.
OBI stage, consisting only of (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 here to stand
for the later CO graph ‘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 with its wine association
came to be used for rituals in general.
Some scholars (including Katō and Shirakawa)
view as a separate graph from , not just
a variant of the latter, but the interpretation
of the right-hand element in is disputed.
According to Shirakawa, the form is found in
texts such as epitaphs dating from Han times;
the Jiyun dictionary (11 th century AD) treats
as the old form of . 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
152 The 200 Third Grade Characters