480531170

636
L3
歴
REKI
history, path
14 strokes
REKISHIKAhistorian
KEIREKIcareer to date
RIREKISHOCV, resumé
OBI ; seal ; traditional OBI has 143
‘footprint’ (Mizukami and Ogawa take as ‘walk’),
and 秝 (CO, orig two grain stalks) giving ‘place
(seedlings) at set intervals’. Seal form also has
, but with 厤 (a CO, abbrev. of 47
‘stone’, with 秝 as phonetic with sense ‘grind,
polish’, giving ‘grind with whetstone’, or ‘polish
and put in order’) as phonetic, again meaning
‘lined up at intervals’. Overall meaning is ‘walk/
move at set intervals’, esp. of heavenly bodies
(for movement of sun, a separate graph
[2112 ‘calendar’] was devised at seal stage). By
the Western Zhou period (11 th century – 771
BC) the graph was used to mean ‘series’;
extending to ‘history; path’. Suggest as cliff,
in usual meaning of ‘stop’, and as ‘forest’
79. MS1995:v1:706-7,186-7; KJ1970:921;
OT1968:540; YK1976:503.
Mnemonic: THROUGHOUT HISTORY, FORESTS
HAVE STOPPED AT CLIFFS
637
連
REN, tsureru
accompany, row
L3
10 strokes
RENRAKUSENferry
RENJŪparty, group
tsureaipartner, companion
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Views vary. One
is 33 ‘vehicle’, and 85 ‘go’ as semantic and
phonetic, giving ‘vehicle moves (slowly)’ (Katō,
Yamada); this may refer to multiple vehicles
638
L3
老
RŌ, oiru, fukeru
aged, old
6 strokes
RŌJIN old person
RŌRENveteran
RŌREIold age
OBI ; seal . The OBI forms show an aged
and fragile person with bent back and often
with long hair, leaning on a stick, to give ‘old
person (with stick for support)’. In some bronze
occurrences and in the seal form, the element
for ‘stick’ is distorted in shape. OBI forms for
are virtually indistinguishable from those
for the separate graph (the latter graph also
originally meant ‘old person’, but subsequently
borrowed for ‘consider’; see 130). On a sociocultural
note, Confucianism is said to have
instilled a respect for the elderly in both China
and Japan – in theory. In practice, it is difficult
to reconcile universal respect for the elderly
together. However, Ogawa takes with as
abbrev of (CO) as semantic and phonetic,
meaning ‘men pull a vehicle’. Tōdō includes
in his word-family ‘be linked up’, and sees it as
denoting vehicles moving together. ‘Be linked
together (in a row)’ is an extended meaning.
KJ1970:924-6; YK1976:504; OT1968:1002;
TA1965:552-4.
Mnemonic: ACCOMPANIED BY ROW OF
MOVING VEHICLES
with the long established practice in premodern
Japan of obasute ( ‘abandoning granny’
and, less commonly, oyasute ( ‘abandoning
one’s parents’), typically taking them up a
remote hill and leaving them there. Even in the
heyday of Confucianism in the 7 th century, the
Japanese poet Yamanoue Okura bewailed the
disrespect and callous treatment meted out to
the elderly: “With staffs at their waists, they totter
along the road. Laughed at here, and hated
there. This is the way of the world.” There are still
a number of place-names called Obasute (such
as in Nagano Prefecture). MS1995:v2:1048-9;
KJ1970:891; OT1968:805; YK1976:505. As with
130, we suggest taking (which is actually
nicknamed the ‘old man’ determinative) as
‘entering the ground’ (see ‘ground’ 64), and
the lower element as an old man slumped on
the ground (see 258).
Mnemonic: OLD MAN SLUMPS TO THE
GROUND IN WHICH HE’LL BE BURIED
The 200 Fourth Grade Characters 207