480531170

OBI , bronze ; seal . The bronze form
given here, which also serves to represent OBI
forms of essentially the same shape (except
that outer enclosure is more angular) is generally
taken to represent the cracks in a seed
shell/pod that appear as the seed emerges, giving
‘seed shell/pod’, with ‘shell’ as an extended
meaning, and ‘armor’ as a further extension of
meaning. (Mizukami notes an alternative interabout
interpretation of /, as these are examples
of graphs for which early source materials
are inadequate. Present meanings ‘bent’, ‘slope’,
‘capture’ are all likely derived from not being
straight and getting caught up. OT1968:131;
MS1995:v1:12-13; SS1984:286; QX2000:324-7.
Take as nose, and as bent.
Mnemonic: BENT NOSE AFTER FALLING
DOWN SLOPE AND BEING CAPTURED
1316
L1
孔
KŌ, ana
hole, Confucius
4 strokes
BIKŌnostril
KIKŌpore
KŌSHIConfucius
Bronze ; seal . It is clearly 27 ‘child’,
but analyses differ over the additional stroke in
the older forms. One view takes it as the curve
of a mother’s breast and hence ‘hole in nipple’
(Ogawa, Gu). Another takes it as ‘bend and go
through’, i.e. a baby about to be born (Katō;
also Mizukami), and hence ‘orifice of childbirth’.
Either way, ‘hole’ is the meaning. ‘Confucius’
is a phonetic loan. OT1968:265; GY2008:126;
KJ1970:402; MS1995:v1:348-9.
Mnemonic: CONFUCIUS SAYS ‘CHILD WHO
PLAYS WITH HOOK GETS HOLE’
1317
巧
KŌ, takumi
skill
L1
5 strokes
GIKŌskill
KŌGENflattery
SEIKŌelaborateness
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). One view takes
it as 125 ‘work’ (originally, tool), and 丂 130
(originally, pictograph of floating aquatic plant,)
1318
L1
甲
5
KŌCHŪbeetle
KŌSHU‘A Grade’
KANdakaishrill
KŌ, KAN, kōra, yoroi
1 st class, armor,
shell, high (voice)
strokes
as phonetic with associated sense ‘bend’, thus
‘bend and make’ (Ogawa, Tōdō). Another view
takes as meaning ‘ax’, and 丂 as phonetic
with associated sense ‘flat, even’, giving ‘work
wood with an ax and skilfully make it flat/even’
(Katō). OT1968:310; TA1965:224-5; KJ1970:169-
70; MS1995:v1:2.
Mnemonic: WORK WITH FLAT FLOATING
PLANTS REQUIRES SKILL
pretation of the graph as representing scales on
fish or similar, but the first OBI form above is not
supportive of this). The outer element, similar
in shape to a square in OBI is thought to be
an addition to indicate the profile of the shell
or pod, and Gu suggests this may have been
to avoid confusion. The straight stroke in the
seal form is considered to represent a sprout
of vegetation emerging. In his treatment, Katō
prefers to give ‘open up’ as the original meaning
of . ‘High (= ‘shrill’)’, and ‘1 st (in a series)’ are
loan usages. MS1995:v2:872-3; GY2008:165;
KJ1970:936-7; OT1968:668. We suggest taking
the upper part of the graph as ‘field’ , and
the continued vertical stroke underneath as
number.
Mnemonic: AN ‘A 1’ FIELD.
The Remaining 1130 Characters 391