480531170

437
L3
列
RETSU
row, line
6 strokes
RESSHAtrain
RETSUJIsequence
ZENRETSUfront row
Seal . Has 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
438
L3
練
REN, neru
refine, knead, train
14 strokes
KUNRENtraining
SENRENrefinement
nerikodough
Seal ; a late graph (Shuowen); traditional .
Has 29 ‘thread’, and (originally 561
‘bundle of twigs/branches’, with 70 ‘divide;
select’) as phonetic with associated sense
encircles top of spinal cord, to represent a
complete skeleton); in later stages of the script
this changed in shape through to become
. The latter element serves as phonetic with
associated sense ‘separate, cleave’. There was a
set order to cutting up an animal into pieces,
often arranged in a row, and so the meaning
of this graph was extended to ‘row, line,
order’. MS1995:v1:126-7; YK1976:503-4, 312;
KJ1970:922.
Mnemonic: CUT UP BONES IN A ROW
‘soften by boiling’, which referred to a process
of bringing out the gloss in silk thread, and
was also applied to the product, i.e. silk fabric
woven with glossed thread. The meaning was
then modified from ‘work/process silk thread’
to ‘attain skill in a task, practice’. KJ1970:648;
MS1995:v1:658-9; YK1976:504-5; OT1968:784.
We suggest taking the right-hand element as
201 ‘east’.
Mnemonic: REFINED THREADS FROM THE EAST
439
路
RO, -ji
Bronze ; seal . Has 54 ‘foot’, and 462
road, route
(originally ‘movement’, now meaning ‘each’) as
L3
13 strokes
phonetic with associated sense ‘tread’ (Mizukami
also lists alternative sense ‘link, join’), to
DŌROroad
give ‘[place] where people tread with their feet’,
SENROrail track
i.e. ‘path, road’. MS1995:v2:1262-3; KJ1970:190-
tabijijourney
91; YK1976:505.
Mnemonic: EACH FOOT FOLLOWS SAME
ROAD, SAME ROUTE
440
L3
和
8
WA, O, yawaragu,
nagoyaka
Japan, peace, soft
strokes
HEIWApeace
Yamato*Japan
WASHOKUJapanese food
Bronze ; seal . Has 22 ‘mouth’, and
87 (‘rice/grain plant’) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘add’; giving ‘one voice is added to
another’. ‘Soften, be calmed down’ are extended
meanings (Katō, Mizukami, Yamada). The
additional meaning ‘Japan’ came about as a
substitute initiated by the Japanese themselves
to replace an earlier, less flattering graph for
Japan used in early Chinese histories such as
Wei Zhi ‘History of the Wei [Kingdom]’, namely
(SJ WA), which means ‘submissive’, and according
to some scholars, ‘dwarfs’. KJ1970:306;
MS1995:222-3; YK1976:508-9; OT1968:178.
Mnemonic: SOFT RICE FOR THE MOUTH IN
PEACEFUL JAPAN
The 200 Third Grade Characters 153