480531170

2109
隷
REI
the seal script, came to be known as
slave, prisoner
REISHO (Ch. lishu), usually in English called
L1
16 strokes
‘clerical script’ or ‘scribe script’. Clerical
script represents an important stage in the
DOREIslave
historical development of the Chinese script.
DOREISEIslavery
Clerical script occurrences of this graph have
REIZOKUsubordination
both and ; historically speaking, the latter
Seal () ; traditional . Consists of
is a variant form, but now the standard in
Japanese usage. Note: several scholars give a
pre-seal form, but its status is questionable,
and so we take the seal form as the correct
early form (as does Katō). MS1995:v2:1404-5;
KJ1970:916; QX2000:103-112. Suggest taking
as 肀 hand seizing, 氺 as (sweat) droplets,
and left-hand as ‘samurai’ 521 and
‘show’ 723.
‘catch up with’ 1668 (see Note below), with
(original meaning [provisional]: ‘quince’)
as phonetic with associated sense ‘join,
bind, make into a pair’, giving ‘capture and
make into slave/servant’ and hence ‘slave,
prisoner’. Also used in Qin and Han dynasties
as a term for low-ranking officials in charge
of prisoners. The script used (though not
actually devised) by them for administrative
purposes, significantly abbreviated from
Mnemonic: SAMURAI SHOWS HOW HE
SEIZED SLAVE DESPITE SWEATY HAND
2110
齢
REI
age
L2
17 strokes
NENREIage, years
MYŌREIyouth
KŌREIgreat age
Seal ; a late graph (later version of
Shuowen); traditional . Consists of
‘teeth’ (traditional form of 306), combined
with 633 (‘order, rule’) as phonetic
with associated sense taken in one view as
‘count’, giving ‘count teeth and determine
age’ (Katō); meaning later narrowed to ‘age’.
Shirakawa notes that the age of cattle is
2111
L1
麗
REI, uruwashii
beautiful
19 strokes
REIJINa belle, beauty
BIREIbeauty
SHŪREIgraceful, beautiful
easily ascertained by checking their teeth.
Another scholar (Ogawa) analyses the graph
differently, taking as ‘age, years’ (presumably
as extended sense), with as phonetic
with associated sense ‘pass, elapse’, giving
overall meaning ‘age’. Note that the modern
form has the simplified version of the graph
for ‘teeth’, i.e. , with inner shape the same
as ‘rice’ 220. KJ1970:915; OT1968:1173;
SS1984:900. We suggest taking the modern
left-hand form(s) as ‘rice’ 220 in the
‘mouth’ 22, and 143 ‘stop’, and for the
right-hand retaining as ‘order’ 633.
Mnemonic: ORDERED TO STOP PUTTING RICE
IN MOUTH TILL A CERTAIN AGE
Bronze ; seal . Consists of ‘deer’ (NJK,
see also 1268 for similar graph) combined
with 丽 (‘two identical things’). 丽 is taken
in one interpretation as phonetic with associated
sense ‘come/join together’, giving
‘deer (of type which) converge when they
see food’ (Mizukami, Katō). Alternatively,
The Remaining 1130 Characters 635