Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/55

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The San Tzŭ Ching

37

(see title) strengthening at six to reach their climacteric at eight, and is now classed under radical 一 i one.

Ku is composed of 禾 ho grain as radical, and a phonetic. It stands for cereals in general, and comes to have such meanings as alive, happy, which are apparently based upon the possession of grain.

76.	人	所	食	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	are those which men eat.
	Jen²	so³	shih²
	Man	what	eat

Jen see line 1.

So see line 22.

Shih, the composition of which is disputed, seems to have originally meant a grain of rice. It is now a radical, and read ssŭ⁴ it means food. [The commentary points out that the six grains mentioned must be held to include all the varieties which fall under each head.]

77.	馬	牛	羊	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	The horse, the ox, the sheep,
	Ma³	niu²	yang²
	Horse	ox	sheep

Ma is one of the stock pictures in the Chinese written language. The four dots, elsewhere used for 火 huo fire (line 65), are of course the legs. They also do duty for the legs and wings of 鳥 niao a bird, and for the fins of 魚 yü a fish. It is now a radical.

Niu was also a picture character under its old form, which may be produced by removing the dash at the left-hand top corner and turning up the ends of the upper horizontal so as to resemble horns. See line 340.

Yang stands in the north for sheep; in the south it is more widely applied to the goat, also known as 山羊 shan yang mountain sheep. Confucius declared that niu and yang were both words formed after the likeness of the object intended. See line 14.