480531170

1760
L1
哲
10
TETSU
wisdom, clarity, perceive,
respect
strokes
TETSUJINsage
TETSUGAKUphilosophy
SENTETSUsage of old
Seal . Has 22 ‘mouth, speak’, and 551
(‘bend, break’) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘cut with ax’ and by extension ‘clearly
decide’, giving ‘make (appropriate) judgement’,
as when decisively cutting trees with ax
(Mizukami, Ogawa). By contrast, Gu feels
may be ancestral form (bronze) of , with
164 ‘heart, mind’ as determinative and not .
Mizukami takes as combined with
as phonetic (same associated sense as above),
giving ‘decide clearly in one’s mind’; ‘respect’,
‘find out, clear, perceive, comprehend, wise’
are treated as loan senses. Mizukami is not
as confident, though, that is the ancestral
form of , suggesting rather that might
just have served sometimes as a loan writing
in place of . Shuowen has in the main
heading, with noted as an alternative form.
DJ2009:v1:109; MS1995:v1:232-3,510-12;
OT1968:183; GY2008:1027.
Mnemonic: SPEECH BROKEN BUT CLEARLY
STILL WISE AND RESPECTWORTHY
1761
徹
TETSU
go through
L1
15 strokes
TETSUYAall night
TETTEITEKIthorough
KANTETSU fulfillment
OBI ( ); ; seal . is a rare graph, not
listed in Zhengzitong or Kangxi zidian, usually
taken as ‘remove pot (from above fire)’ (see
Note below). It is taken (Mizukami, Katō, Gu) as
the ancestral form of . Initially, 131 ‘road/
go’ was often lacking. Later was changed
(Mizukami and Katō say misinterpreted) to .
Then at seal stage, was added as determinative
and assumed a phonetic role with
associated sense taken as i] ‘go through’, giving
‘road goes/passes through’ (Mizukami, Katō),
or ii] ‘project, penetrate through’, thus ‘go
through and move forward’ (Ogawa). Adding
determinative can be explained as helping
disambiguate the underlying word ‘go through’
from what in early Chinese was a homophone,
a separate word meaning ‘remove’. As for use of
in the sense ‘remove’ (no longer a meaning),
this may be a case of the graph sometimes
being used interchangeably, with similarlyshaped
1762 ‘remove, withdraw’. Note: most
scholars view as comprising 1431 ‘threelegged
cooking pot’ with 2003 ‘hand’; and
based on certain fuller forms of in OBI and
bronze, Mizukami takes the three legs to be
filled with water, to help with the cooking from
the fire beneath. Shirakawa has a divergent
view of as meaning ‘set out (filled) cooking
pots as offering to the deities’. MS1995:v1:492-
3,v2:1482-3; KJ1970:721-2; GY2008:460;
BK1957:88; OT1968:356; AS2007:182-3;
SS1984:627. Take elements as 131 ‘go, road’,
247 ‘educate’, 112 ‘coerce/force’.
Mnemonic: FORCED TO GO THROUGH
EDUCATION
1762
撤
TETSU
remove, withdraw
L1
15 strokes
TEKKAIwithdrawal
TEKKYOremoval
TESSHŪ removal
A late, post-Shuowen graph. Katō lists the OBI
form of (for explanation, see 1761 ‘go
through’) as the ancestral form of this graph,
which probably was used to represent what
were in early Chinese two homophonous
words, one meaning ‘go through’, the other
meaning ‘remove’. By the time of Shuowen, the
former word was made potentially unam-
524 The Remaining 1130 Characters