480531170

547
L3
清
SEI, SHŌ, kiyoi/meru
pure, clean
11 strokes
SEIKETSUcleanliness
SEIJŌ/SHŌJŌpurity
shimizu*spring water
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has ‘water’ 42,
and 45 (‘green/blue’) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘clear, not cloudy (of liquids)’, to
give ‘clear water’ and by extension the generalized
sense ‘clear, pure’. KJ1970:593; YK1976:302;
OT1968:588.
Mnemonic: BLUE WATER IS PURE AND CLEAN
548
L3
静
SEISHIstillness
shizukesaquietude
JŌMYAKUvein
SEI, JŌ, shizuka/maru
quiet, calm
14 strokes
Bronze ; seal . Interpretations differ. One
analysis takes 45 ‘green/blue’ as semantic,
and 558 (‘conflict’, qv) as phonetic with
associated sense ‘beautiful’, to give ‘beautiful
green/blue color’, and ‘quiet, calm’ is treated as a
loan usage (Katō, Yamada). Alternatively, it is
that is treated as semantic, and as phonetic
with associated sense ‘stop’, to give ‘stop conflict’,
and hence ‘quiet,calm’ (Ogawa). Mizukami
lists both views. MS1995:v2:1428-9; KJ1970:653;
YK1976:306.
Mnemonic: CONFLICT QUIETENED BY SIGHT
OF CALMING GREEN – ALL CALM
549
L3
席
SEKI
seat, place
10 strokes
SHUSSEKIattendance
KESSEKIabsence
KŪSEKIempty seat
OBI ; seal . The OBI form is a pictograph
of a mat made of rushes or similar. There
were then later forms with either the rush
mat or 1232 ‘cloth, fabric’, enclosed within
(cliff) as phonetic with associated sense
‘spread out below’, to give ‘mat to spread out’.
At the seal stage, the phonetic was changed
to an abbreviated form of (‘various’ 1480)
as phonetic, again with associated sense
‘spread out below’, with ‘cloth, fabric’.
The latter element is considered to have
been used because the rush mat was bound
with fabric. MS1995:v1:440-41; KJ1970:612;
YK1976:308-9. Suggest taking the graph as
‘building’ (see 127), twenty-one (2 x [35]
‘ten’ with ‘one’ [1] = 21), and ‘cloth’.
Mnemonic: BUILDING WITH TWENTY-ONE
CLOTH SEATS
550
L3
積
SEKI, tsumu/moru
product, pile
16 strokes
MENSEKIdimensions
SEKISETSUsnow depth
tsumoriintention
Bronze ; seal . Has 87 ‘grain’, and
751 (‘blame’) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘gather, accumulate’, to give ‘accumulate
grain’, and then generalized in meaning to
‘accumulate, pile up’ and other related senses
such as ‘contents’, ‘product (in mathematics)’.
MS1995:v2:970-71; OT1968:737; KJ1970:614;
YK1976:309.
Mnemonic: TAKE BLAME FOR PILE-UP OF
GRAIN
184 The 200 Fourth Grade Characters