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158
春
SHUN, haru
of ‘forest’. seems to serve as phonetic, but
spring(-time)
Schuessler sees a semantic role too: he notes
L4
9 strokes
the original meaning as ‘begin to grow’ (of
plants in spring). As for the modern form of
SEISHUNyouth
158, Qiu sees top part (top five strokes) of
BAISHUNprostitution
as a fused version of the ‘plant’ determinative
harugispring clothes
53 with . MS1995:v1:616-7; KJ1970:118;
MR2007:224; AS2007:197; QX2000:20. Suggest
taking modern form as 25 ‘three’, 41
‘person’ and 66 ‘sun’.
OBI forms such as have ‘(a type of) tree’ and
66 ‘sun, day’, often with a third element
1806 (modern meaning ‘camp’). Some scholars
(Mizukami, Katō) take the tree to be specifically
a mulberry, though Ma points to OBI forms
supporting his view of a more general sense
Mnemonic: THREE PEOPLE OUT IN THE
SUN – MUST BE SPRING
159
書
SHO, kaku
write, text
L5
10 strokes
SHOKIsecretary
KYŌKASHOtext book
hagakipostcard
Bronze . The graph seems to occur very
rarely in OBI, the graphs of which were typically
carved directly into the bone or shell surface
with a knife, though it should be noted that at
least a small number of OBI texts were written
first with a brush and then incised. The bronze
forms such as above depict a hand holding a
writing brush (; see 400) over 314 (‘person’)
as phonetic – the latter later reduced to
– with associated sense such as ‘imitate’ or
‘write’, giving ‘copy text, write’. MS1995:v1:632-3;
KJ1970:491; OT1968:813.
Mnemonic: BRUSH IN HAND WRITES TEXT IN
LINES
160
少
SHŌ,sukunai,sukoshi homophone written , while Ogawa takes it
few, a little
as representing ‘one’, i.e. still a small number or
L5
4 strokes
‘few’. Qiu, by contrast, feels the word for ‘small’
was represented by both the three-dash and
SHŌNENa youth
four-dash versions, and that the : distinction
SHŌSŪminority
was a later development, the four-dash
TASHŌmore or less
version having evolved into the modern
form; Katō is of the same view. MR2007:226;
OT1968:292; QX2000:175; KJ1970:606;
AS2007:535,454.
OBI forms for this graph comprise four short
vertical strokes , apparently contrasting with
three for 38 ‘small’. There are varying views
on the significance of the fourth stroke. Ma, for
instance, takes it as simply a means to visually
distinguish the underlying word from the near-
Mnemonic: THREE WITH ONE IS STILL JUST
A FEW
161
場
JŌ, ba
Possibly a relatively late graph (Shuowen) ,
place
L4
though Mizukami lists forms which he believes
12 strokes
to be OBI equivalents, depicting divided-up
and leveled land . The later forms are taken as
KAIJŌmeeting place
64 ‘earth, ground’, and (CO, original sense
NYŪJŌadmission
‘sun rises up’) as phonetic with associated sense
hirobaopen space
taken as i] ‘remove obstructions from ground’,
giving ‘ground made level by removing things’
The 160 Second Grade Characters 85