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415
L4
味
MI, aji, ajiwau
taste, relish
8 strokes
IMImeaning
KYŌMIinterest
ajimitasting
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 22
‘mouth’, and 617 (originally a tree with luxuriant
foliage, but borrowed to mean ‘not yet’)
as phonetic with associated sense ‘delicious’
(Ogawa says ‘good’), to give ‘taste, flavor’. Also
used by extension to denote an attribute or
quality. KJ1970:869; YK1976:464; OT1968:179;
AS2007:512.
Mnemonic: TASTE NOT YET IN THE MOUTH
416
命
MEI, MYŌ, inochi
life, order
L3
8 strokes
MEIREIorder
SEIMEIlife
inochitorifatal
Bronze ; seal . Has (see 41) ‘person
kneeling’, and as phonetic with associated
sense ‘shout loudly’ together with 22
‘mouth, speak’ for emphasis, to give the overall
meaning ‘order, command’ (to kneeling person)
(Yamada). Ogawa, though, takes this graph as
‘mouth’ with 633 ‘order’ as semantic and
phonetic, meaning ‘use others’. Those who give
417
面
MEN, omo(te), tsura
face, aspect, mask
L3
9 strokes
GAIMENexterior
omoshiroiinteresting
hanazuramuzzle
OBI ; bronze ; seal . Interpretation varies.
Taken to represent either the face with a line or
lines in front of it (Qiu, Ma, Ogawa – Qiu sees
orders control others, and so meanings such
as ‘fate’ and ‘life’ represent extended usage. In
Shang times the simpler graph was used to
write two words of similar pronunciation and
probably related (both have the meaning ‘order,
command’, but the word later written also
had the lesser sense ‘give a name’); the later appearance
of in bronze texts signals that each
of the two words could be represented unambiguously
from that point on. MS1995:v1:224;
YK1976:467-8; KJ1970:177-8; OT1968:178;
AS2007:387, 361.
Mnemonic: LIFE CAN HINGE ON A SPOKEN
ORDER
the long outside line in the bronze form as
showing the front surface of the face), or a mask
(Katō, Yamada). The long line is more suggestive
of something around a face, i.e. mask, yet the
Shuowen takes it as meaning ‘face’. ‘Face’ led to
extended senses such as ‘aspect’. QX2000:184;
MR2007:401; OT1968:1093; KJ1970:870-71;
YK1976:470. Suggest using 76 ‘eye’.
Mnemonic: FACE-MASK WITH BIG EYE IN THE
MIDDLE AND A FLAT TOP
418
問
MON, tou
OBI ; seal . Has 22 ‘mouth’ (here as
ask
‘speak/call’), and 231 ‘gate/door’ serving
L4
11 strokes
here as phonetic with associated sense ‘question
aggressively’; later acquired generalized
SHITSUMONquestion
meaning ‘ask’. MS1995:v1:234-5; KJ1970:834-5;
GAKUMONscholarship
YK1976:473.
toiya/tonya*dealer
Mnemonic: ASK WHO’S CALLING AT THE
DOOR
The 200 Third Grade Characters 147