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THE 200 FOURTH GRADE CHARACTERS
441
L3
愛
AI
love
13 strokes
AIJŌ love
BOSEIAI maternal love
AIKOKUSHA patriot
Seal ; traditional ; late graph (Shuowen).
Views vary. There are several complicating factors
with the etymology of this graph, explained
below. Analyzed by Yamada as in line with the
seal form (‘walk slowly, drag feet’ [determinative
35; see Appendix]), with (an obsolete graph
meaning ‘favor, feel compassion’) as phonetic
with associated sense ‘by stealth’, to give overall
meaning ‘walk stealthily’; Katō sees this tentatively
as the possible meaning also. Both scholars
regard ‘love’ as a loan usage. Mizukami notes an
alternative analysis: 164 ‘heart, mind’ with
442
案
AN
plan, concern,
L3
table
10 strokes
TEIANplan
ANGAI unexpectedly
ANNAIguidance
443
L4
以
I, motte
start point, use,
means, because
5 strokes
IKAbelow
INAIwithin
IGAIoutside, except
OBI forms , ; seal forms , . Interpretations
diverge radically. The first OBI form here is taken
in one view as consisting of 41 ‘person’, combining
with a second element as semantic and
phonetic meaning‘plow’, to give overall meaning
‘person with plow, farmer’ (Yamada; Katō is in
broad agreement). Mizukami takes the second
OBI form as instead corresponding to later
NJK the ancestral form of (NJK ‘I/me’) meaning
‘descending foot’ (determinative 34) and (originally,
pictograph of person who has eaten till full)
‘be full; stick in the throat’; overall meaning is ‘difficult
to move forward with heart full of anguish’,
and ‘love’ as loan usage. Note this analysis has
‘descending foot’, but treats as meaning
‘walk slowly’. Morohashi quotes the voluminous
17 th century dictionary Zhengzitong in treating
as the original way of writing He makes no
mention of loan usage for ‘love’, though it would
appear to be valid to take ‘love’ as an extension of
‘favor, feel compassion’, the original meaning of
. YK1976:49; KJ1970:1-2; MT1989:v4:980, 1123;
MS1995:v1:513-4. Note: for more on and see
Appendix. We suggest taking as crossed legs,
1739 as ‘hand’, as cover, and 164 ‘heart’.
Mnemonic: SIT CROSS-LEGGED, HAND
COVERING HEART, IN LOVE
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 73 ‘tree,
wood’, and 242 (‘relax’) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘place, put’, to represent a small table
on which tableware and food were put. Meanings
such as ‘investigate’, ‘consider’, ‘plan’ are loan usages
(Yamada). Art dating back to the Shang Dynasty
shows that low tables were in use in China
at that period already. YK1976:51; OT1968:501.
Mnemonic: PLAN TO RELAX AT WOODEN TABLE
‘enclose and make one’s own’ (later 887). Gu,
in contrast, working on the basis of the second
OBI form above, interprets it as a fetus about to
be born, and takes the more complex graph with
– which he recognizes as having been added
only at the bronze form – as being for emphasis.
The above interpretations can only be regarded
as very tentative, as views on the etymology of
vary so much. The first OBI is listed by Matsumaru
as corresponding – in the view of various scholars
– to one of a range of later graphs, among
them , ‘enclose’ (determinative no. 20) and
(CO, possible original meaning [disputed]:
‘base of small hill’ or ‘spoon touching bottom of
plate’, giving ‘down low’ or ‘scrape’). According
to Schuessler, was used in OBI texts with the
meaning ‘to take’ (e.g. prisoners), and in bronze
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